What Oprah Winfrey Learned From Childhood Abuse And Black Boy

In the new proactive book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander dives into the not so complicated racial issues that plague this country that we tend to ignore. In all of history, African Americans have had to constantly fight for their freedoms and the right to be considered a human being in this society. It’s very troubling looking back and seeing where we have failed people in this country. At the turn of the century, when people began to think that we had left our old ways behind, this book reminds us that we are wrong. Racism is still alive today in every way, just in different forms.

Adams, W. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. Hackman, M. Peters, & X. Zuniga book “Readings in diversity and social justice” chapters 6-10 (2010) they discussed in order to rid oppression it starts with recognizing our social identity and how it contributed to our socialization. In order to understand socialization you need to understand the socialization cycle. Supporting subordinate groups are privileged and target groups are disfranchised but the worse is these roles are determined without our permission. The authors argue that once individuals understand oppression and want to make a change they become frustrated with the process of liberation. Supporting that the process of liberation is a cycle that begins with empowerment of self, ends with maintain, and at the core is a serious of attributes (self-love, hope, self-esteem, balance, joy, support, security, spiritual base, and authentic love of others. In differ the authors’ further support the idea white people are compensating for the system of advantage but as high as the cost of black people. The authors back up this claim through the notion of whites benefit from racism but they don’t all benefit

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

Even though Richard knows he is black, he feels that he should still have the opportunities and fair treatment given to others, which is why he fights so hard for himself. Despite the fact that his friends and everyone around him tell him to act more “black”, Richard perseveres to create his own identity not shaped by racial pressures. Finally, Richard is able to get out of the South and head north, where he can be more himself and escape some of the racism. “An hour later I was sitting in a Jim Crow carriage, speeding northward, making the first lap of my journey to a land where I could live with a little less fear” (Wright 244). In order to create a life where he could be himself and not live in fear of being discriminated against for doing so, Richard is forced to leave his family and his hometown in the South. The fact that Richard was willing to leave everything he knew behind shows how strongly he believed in himself and the hope that he can be more himself in the North. Rather than constantly being torn between the stereotype of a black man and who Richard actually wanted to be, escaping to the North allowed him to be himself and create his own identity. Overall, Richard faces the struggle of his identity as a black man by fighting against the stereotypes in order to give himself a better

2) Some ways we can end the mistreatment of others is to understand that everyone is equal and no one has the right to purposely abuse someone else for their own satisfaction. The factors that allowed this system to continue was the government and other officials by promoting that it was okay to keep blacks separate from whites. By being vigilant against institutional racism, we can teach others that everyone deserves equal rights and the same opportunities.

Yet the road to such freedom is far from sight. The lynching, hate crimes and beatings are still going strong. In addition, racial injustice in the court system, social stereotypes, and racial profiling by police officers are a daily occurrence. Anyone who speaks of present-day “equal opportunity,” the “end” of racism and a sense of “unity” amongst culturally and racially diverse groups are living in a bubble, formed by denial and fabricated by the media. White America, in the hopes of shedding or covering up its racist skin, wants to preach this equality when in fact Blacks in the “United States of America” are still suffering from a society constructed by racist, untrustworthy individuals. Not only are Blacks in the capitalist, assimilations misnomer “United States” continually suffering from physical violence, but we also suffer from institutionalized racism, including judicial bias, policing brutality, media brainwashing and anti-Black stereotypes”( A New African Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness (2003).

In today’s society systematic oppression has really been a factor regarding on the issues of minority groups. In our opinion, we feel like if Bill Cosby wasn’t a colored man suppose he was a white man this case would have been a lot more lenient because people of color have them labeled as bad people. People who kill, rape, sell drugs etc. and white people that sometimes are the worst, always they treat white people with like more finesse of have more them respect. At this time the colored people not only suffer from racism, but also immigrants from different countries are suffering a lot of racism. Another example of systematic oppression is about Bill Cosby accused of raping women was harshly accused and especially for being black.

A big part of it started with their children. They attempted to raise their children to think there was no oppression by “shielding their children against racial discrimination and the contempt of whites for colored people” (734). The parents even went to extremes by neglecting to tell their children of the places they were unable to attend because of the color of their skin. Even though the parent’s went through great lengths to hide the truth from their children, the children in fact could not run from something that was so apparent, even to them. A statement from a middle class seventeen year old African American boy from Frazier’s work “Black Bourgeoisie” summed up the psychological and social damage that oppression brought to the middle class African Americans.

From the 1830’s all the way to current times, African Americans have suffered at the hands of imbecilic Americans with the banning of blacks in education and states, Alabama beginning statewide convict leasing which constructed the state’s first state-run prison system in 1839, the passing of “black codes” in 1865, the Plessy v. Ferguson case which legally sanctioned racial segregation by establishing the “separate but equal” doctrine as national law, the many lynching throughout the years, to the “Little Rock Nine”, and the many cases of racism that plagues our nation. We have for surely been two steps behind while our nation as gone ahead of us. Leading me to believe that W.E.B. DuBois had truth in his saying, “a system cannot fail those

Throughout the history of the United States, black people have been treated with less equality than the white people. These days, although it has improved, there is still a long way to go. Lately, a group has formed called “Black Lives Matter”. This was in response to several incidents where police shot and killed several black people. The African Americans took to the streets because they felt they wanted their voice to be heard. Two historical events in history where race was a factor was Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson. Even though slavery was abolished in 1865, the black people are still inferior to the white people.

There should be no abolishment of man’s inhumanity to man based on colors, status, or gender. African American struggled for ending the slavery. To them, it seemed like it will go forever, but it has not. From the author’s works, we can grasp that the people could not go wherever they wished, they could not attend in school they wanted, and they could not live wherever they have chosen to live. The government segregated education, medical care, schools, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people. Whites maintained domination over them to limit their freedom and pride. Obviously, the lack of democracy and the lack of organizations such as human rights and gender commissions to protect

We’ve all encountered oppression in our lifetime at least once. From rights to fights, oppression does not come unknown especially in today's time. Is oppression worth fighting for ? Violence against oppression is not only humane but also understandable.

Racial discrimination will never end unless both parties agree that it exists and work it out, to get rid of it in workplaces, communities, schools, and/or any other public or private areas. In addition, the reason for including this piece of work in this portfolio is to make awareness of life issues that I strongly believe in. Part of the problem of racial discrimination is that people won’t admit it exists of fear of losing that superiority given to them just for being white- race that for years has been at the “top level” in everything. At some point this power is the only thing that makes them not feel like a fraud or ashamed of who they really are. For example, in Tears We Cannot Stop it gives this example of how even low income Americans feel powerful because they view other races even more worthless than themselves. Finally, just as a clarification, I am not only accusing Caucasians for this racist issue, I do acknowledge the fact that colored people do at times cause problems that makes the rest of them stereotyped the same

King’s dream of racial freedom hasn't been fulfilled. There’s been progress made, but there’s still a long way to go. Race is such an easy target. People have grown up around these ideas that any person of a different ethnicity is trouble. So many people look at blacks in fear because of the stereotype built up around them.. For instance, in an article written by Diana Hoang that goes over all the stereotypes surrounding different races, people claim Blacks to be “lazy people who don’t want to work and engage in illegal activities.” This isn’t true for all. A lot of Black Americans have a lot to offer, but never get the chance to express themselves. (Hoang, D. 2012)

The system of oppression is still there whether I like it or not, and the benefits I receive from it are real. I think that the reason why this excerpt felt so important to me was because when I first read it, I disagreed and subconsciously tried to ignore its message. I think the reason why I did this was because I believed that because I wasn’t racist or sexist, I didn’t have to change because I wasn’t personally hurting anyone. I didn’t want to feel guilty, therefore I was inclined to deny the reading. However, it stayed stuck in the back of my mind for a couple of days, and when I came back to it to do a quick review before class, I realized that what the reading was conveying was that there is a lot I can do to change in order to be a better ally, and that I should start by reaching out more to the underprivileged. While I have already done this through IDP, I think that a big step for me would be to talk to a target outside of