Regardless of race or ethnicity, it is my belief that people in general, will stand up for their rights no matter what they have to do in order to get their rights recognized, they will do it. In this case, African Americans had to fight to mold the country and freedom that they desired. When a group of people become oppressed they will learn to band together to mold their future and the future of their children. I would like to look into this from the point of view that even though we are referring to people of African American descent, other races would have done the same. I hope to touch on topics and keywords that will reflect that in a literary sense. For a little further in-depth look at the oppression and dehumanization of African Americans, I did a little reading on West’s Encyclopedia of American Law through Encyclopedia.com The oppression and dehumanization of African Americans is so evident just by looking at the nature in which they were treated. Being forced to relinquish their seats on the bus if a Caucasian person wanted it, not even if they needed it. They kept African American students from gaining a proper education and even murdered people that could or would potentially oppose them. Among the more popular examples of oppression and dehumanization towards African Americans, we can look at the arrest and fiasco created around Rosa Parks, who was arrested, rather elaborately for not wishing to give up her spot on the bus. However, her arrest would
Throughout the 1900’s we have documented African Americans being persecuted and slaughtered by hate groups, while the United states government turned a blind eye. Minstrel shows successfully convinced the American public that people of African ancestry have the natural urge to rob, rape, and murder innocent women and children without any remorse. Naively, the American people bought into the act and became frightened of the color black on a man’s skin. Movies and skits mocked African American’s culture and appearance. European Americans AND African Americans were taught that African Americans were uneducated and mannerless. That they did not have any self-value, dignity, or honor and nor should they be treated with any. African Americans became hated. Racism and brutality against them were encouraged and taught by local civilians without any punishment from the local and state government. Segregation was prevalent in restaurants and bathrooms and African Americans were discouraged to have a proper education.
African Americans were always thought to be inferior to the white supremacy in the United States. Although the Civil War had abolished slavery, blacks were still very ill-treated. Blacks were to not associate with the white society. They were banned from restaurants, bathrooms, parks, schools, hospitals, and much more. Whites constantly abused the blacks to the point that African American life expectancy was 7 years less compared to the whites (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/). Society believed that a black could cause something to lose value for example “property values would drop a great deal if an African American family moved into a neighborhood that was not considered a ghetto”. African Americans began to stand up against the racial
The African Americans citizens were not treated, as a human actually, as property. You have done, an awesome job capturing the key points in the struggles of the black people. I had never heard of a race of, people treated in horrific ways, however, laws developed to assist with the inhuman treatment. All because of how the European, wanted to keep a race of people enslaved. Today some politics still remain the same. We are told daily how this world is revolving. Why we do not have laws changed to assist with healthcare, jobs, elderly, disabled, and military vets.
African descendants have lived in the United States of America for over 400 years and since arriving the black race has struggled to obtain equality. Realistically, if you are born black in the United States of America, you are in a sense cursed with the burdens of systematic oppression and racism. Slavery and Jim Crow Laws were created by white supremacist to maintain power and authority as they sought out to rule over any and all minority groups they consider inferior to the white race. Fortunately, leaders of the black race have made tremendous strides in their efforts to level out the playing field between the two races. The rise of abolitionism is were the journey for equality began with black political theorist like, David
African Americans were viewed as considerably less than their white “superiors”. Many rights were not granted to them simply because the skin on their bones had a darker pigmentation than that of the general population of the time. Even respected Black men who were free and lived in the North were not safe. Many were mislead, kidnapped, and sold into
He was an unarmed African-American male in a high percentage crime city, Los Angeles. An unarmed African-American who did do something to break many laws and even tempt the police into their actions, but it does not excuse the behavior portrayed by them. An unarmed African-American who did have too much to drink that night and he did have a past criminal record, but on what Earth does that justify the injuries he suffered from the beating? He was a man who did not deserve to get beaten just because he was an unarmed African-American. In America, we define justice as a particular treatment, when did justice become beating unarmed citizens? If police wanted more peace in the city, they would have to stop antagonizing these men to resist with
The United States of America, also known as the land of the free and home of the brave, it is one of the greatest countries to live in and a country where many people from around the world wish they lived in. “A Country that is home to 5 percent of the world’s population,” (13th, Netflix). But I ask, is living in a world known as the land of the free really a place of freedom for us all? Unfair treatment of African Americans has been around for decades and it has gone from slavery to mass incarceration, police brutality and racism, which all still occur presently. African Americans make up 12.3 percent of the United States’ population, and through the decades, mass incarceration of African Americans has skyrocketed. The dramatic increase in the mass incarceration of African Americans has now left more blacks in prison than there were during the time of slavery. The documentary film entitled “13th” illustrates statistics about the imprisonment of African Americans, and states that “The United States, now home to 25 percent of the world’s prisoners are being locked up with their hands on bars in this country they call “The Land of the Free,” (Netflix). Millions of dollars were spent building more prisons to contain and hold all of the prisoners from over the years of incarcerating so much people. So, despite the fact that the US may be known as the “Land of the Free,” for many African Americans, it’s not so much as free as they say it is.
African Americans have gone through hardships, such as the unjustified laws made for them, and pushed through it through time. These laws wanted whites and blacks to never be together. These laws wanted African Americans to be treated as nothing when they were something. Laws for African Americans such as who they marry, what job they can get, and how they are treated at school are very unfair compared to the white laws.
African Americans faced oppression, such as the “Jim Crow” laws at local and state level barred
African Americans for years have a long history of being treated unfairly and disgracefully by the people who founded this Country. The White Americans that live in the United States have always denied freedom and equality towards African Americans because of society treating them as slaves and property in the early years of the Country’s origin. From being slaves and treated as property, to being terrorized and lynched by the KKK, African Americans emerged with an organization to end all of any forms of violence, unfairness, and discrimination towards them. The Historical actions and people in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people has achieved the objective to ensure the political, educational, social and economic
Have 50 Percent of Blacks Been Treated Unfairly by the Police; an AP Study Says: Yes
They’ve been stigmatized since the Europeans uprooted them and brought them to the United States as slaves. These slaves were considered trivial property of the highest bidder. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 enacted the Three-Fifths Compromise to pacify the southerners. They demanded that their slaves should be counted along with the rest of their free population. The three-fifths rule allowed southern states to count three-fifths of each of their slaves when determining the population regarding political representation in the House. Nearly a century after the Emancipation Proclamation, where black men, women, and children were finally considered free people, they remained treated unequal. In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision ruled that public facilities were constitutionally allowed to enforce racial segregation. The U.S. Supreme Court warranted state-sanctioned discrimination against colored people. The laws that prohibited colored people from sharing these public places such as bathrooms, public transportation, classrooms, theatres and other establishments were referred to as Jim Crow Laws. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court fortunately overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine. African Americans have had to fight for true equality and respect ever since they were brought here against their will. They are still fighting till this
Social and economic discrimination of African American people has been popular for so long, it seems to be the norm. Equality activists have worked towards racial equality for African Americans, “We need more theologians like Bonhoeffer and King—more scholars in religion with the courage to speak out against wrong” (Great Sin Cone, 140). There have been multiple fearless leaders who worked to change the status of African Americans by standing up against the injustice and leading the community to resist oppression and discrimination. One of the most well-known activists was Martin Luther King Jr. “King struggled mightily to redeem the soul of America so that people of all colors and religious orientations could create the beloved community” (Great Sin Cone, 142). He made it known that we must work together regardless of race, color of one’s skin, or status in order to have a society that is not full of hate. Love is what
From the time of their first contact with the white settlers in the American colonies, both the African Americans and the Native Americans were faced with many years of racism, abuse, and other great injustices by the likes of not only the American public but also the American government. They were systematically discriminated against and their voices, along with those who supported them, were ignored by the government; those who were a part of the opposition were treated with no respect for speaking out for these people.
Since African Americans came into America they have been looked at as unequal. From 1619- 1865 Whites controlled African Americans in slavery. Within slavery, African Americans were overworked, abused, and sold. Even when slavery ended it was not the end of discrimination. African Americans dealt with Jim Crow laws with which were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. An example of these laws would be “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards". All of this discrimination still affects society today 152 years later. African Americans are still affected today by past discrimination. An example of this would be according to the U.S. Census African Americans are three times more likely than Whites to live in an impoverished household. Many neighborhoods are predominantly one race within it, to live in the city is seen more as an African American trait while living in the suburbs is considered White. Nothing can fix the discrimination in the past but America has made efforts to help end it these efforts include affirmative action as well as the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Although nothing can fix the horrendous acts of discrimination, the United States has progressively gotten better to end it.