Write An Essay On Negro

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

The use of the term nigger can be used as a amicable greeting between two blacks, or as a “hideous pejorative” (Marriott 94) towards blacks. Marriott notes that the use of nigger is usually condoned and used by younger blacks as a “term of endearment” (98), in hopes to gradually alter the meaning of the word. Their goal is to normalize the usage of nigger between blacks to “dull its edge whenever whites use it” (Marriott 95). This has been proved somewhat efficient, as most whites dread the word and express feelings of disgust whenever it is heard from the mouth of whites. Many younger blacks believe their efforts are stimulating a progression in society, but older blacks and the majority of whites assert just the opposite- it illustrates “anything

This word became the noun, negro, describing a black person in English, and simply defining the color black in Spanish and Portuguese” (Niggers, a Brief History). No matter what meaning the word had before, it all changed in the 1800’s. The words nigger and negro suddenly transformed from a harmless connotation to a spiteful term used to tarnish the black community. It was now a new favorite among the vocabulary of racist whites, who held first place in thinking the absolute lowest of the African American race. In the United States, "nigger" was first regarded as pejorative in the early nineteenth century. In the era of enslavement, the words "nigger" or

A piece of evidence that displays this issue is from the Louisiana Law of 1865. It states, “ Every negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of the said negro.” This shows how the african americans were still considered slavery and barred from any freedom. One other documentation of racism is a political cartoon from 1868 showing three white men stepping on a black man captioned, “This is a White Man’s Government.” The cartoon describes how white men felt it was wrong to have free african americans and that they shouldn't be apart of american culture. This evidence shows how racism was a still a huge issue that the african americans still had to face even after finding

Historical archives discovered by Dorman show that colorism had tangible boundaries within the African American community during the 1920s (47). It is stated that blacks often divided themselves into four subcategories which consisted of “black”, “brown”, “light brown”, and “yellow” Negros (Dorman 47). The above ranking would be listed in a hierarchy from “black” being at the bottom of the socially accepted hierarchy to the “yellow negro” being the most revered and desired socially.

It was an era of literature, an era of slavery, and an era that made the biggest impact in the history of United States. The term “Negro” refers to someone of the black race or black ancestry and it defines as “black” in Spanish and Portuguese. African American scholar Alain Locke defines the “New Negro” as an outspoken advocacy of dignity and refusal to the law of Jim Crow racial segregation. Locke popularized this term during the Harlem Renaissance. Leaders of the past and many people today object the term because of its long history of

In John H. McWhorter’s essay “Why I am Black, Not African American”, the term “African American” is being stressed out and misused. McWhorter says, “It’s time we descendants of slaves brought to the United States let go of the term “African American” and go back to calling ourselves black – with a capital B” (527). I agree with McWhorter’s argument about calling African American’s Black. I feel people should not be addressing a person as an “Italian American”, if one has a heritage in America. So why should the term African American be treated by one descendant’s nationality? McWhorter’s essay is trying to make people realize that there is a difference between the terms African American and Black. He wants people to realize that people

When the United States started to become more invested in slavery, the idea of what was black changed. Because blacks were a source of free labor, the one drop rule came about which was that one drop of black blood made a person black. Whites changed what was considered black in order to increase the black population which in turn increased the number of slaves in the United States. Although mixed people are still considered black today, the census has changed to let people identify themselves as being of mixed race. This shows that as the United States has become more tolerant, the idea of race has changed so that people can identify themselves has multiracial. Another example of this was in Brazil when the Portuguese also had Africans as slaves. However as time went on this slave population began to far outnumber the Portuguese colonists. The colonists feared that because they were outnumber, they would be more susceptible to slave rebellions so they, so they spilt up the slave population based on color in hopes of dividing the slaves to limit their potential power. This just once again shows that race is socially

A 1700 quote by judge Samuel Sewall uses the term in a denunciation of slavery. Gradually, however, polite discourse increasingly used the term negro (which dates to at least 1555) and nigger became relegated to the vulgar tongue, increasing in offensiveness over the centuries.

During this era of the Harlem Renaissance, which is considered to have spanned from 1919 until the early or mid 1930s, the term New Negro became popularized. The term implied an outspoken advocacy of dignity and a total refusal to submit quietly to the implementation and laws of Jim Crow racial

There have been various alterations to the definition of “Black”. In the USA Frederickson (1987) Illustrated in 1705, the state of Virginia boldly declared any child, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild of a Negro, would be deemed as a Negro. Consequently, in 1866, Virginia stated

The abolition of slavery in the United States presented southern African Americans with many new opportunities, including the option of relocation in search of better living conditions. The mass movement of black people from the rural areas of the South to the cities of the North, known as the Black Migration, came in the 1890s when black men and women left the south to settle in cities such as Philadelphia and New York, fleeing from the rise of Jim Crowe Laws and searching for work. This migration of blacks from the South has been an important factor in the formation of the Harlem Renaissance. The period referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, was a flourishing period of artistic and literary creation in African-American culture and

White people have been the superior race since the very beginning of America. Throughout history white people have owned and ruled almost everything about American culture. Although white people are still the majority and have most of the wealth in America, there is one thing they do not own, the n-word. This one word has caused controversy and conflicts between races in society. The essay “Why Do They Get to Use the N-word But I Can’t” talks about the issue of who can say this word and why are only certain races and social groups allowed to say it.

Make no mistake that slave owners came up with the word Nigger and it was only supposed to mean an individual, who is lazy, unwise, and good for nothing, but somewhere along the history lines of slavery the N word began to be used more as racial insult against the non-white Americans

When making friendships it is possible to come in contact with individuals that have different viewpoints than you might have yourself. I have personally come in contact with someone who struggled with being called African-American; that person happened to be my best friend. After having a short discussion in class about the term nigrescence, I now know what she may have been struggling with. The term nigrescence is a French term that is the process of becoming black or acceptance of darkness. The nigresecence model includes 5 steps developed by William Cross. The reason my best friend came to mind when talking about this is because she knows that she is black, but she would not accept the term African-American for a long time. There are 2