The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended racial segregation in the USA. Since then, America has begun to learn that, no matter the skin tone, we accept all races and become one united nation. Elijah Anderson analyzes certain areas in the big city of Philadelphia and observes how different races and people act and acknowledge one another in the same environment. He describes certain places called “cosmopolitan canopies” where the display of public acceptance by all of all is intense and is a setting where a mix of people can feel comfortable (3). Anderson does a worthy job of backing up his argument with the different evidence he brings to light throughout his article. Although his argument covers how while we might have these cosmopolitan canopies we still have races that are considered “out of place” and how the black people and men in specifically, are seen in the society. For my class observation, I visited Dilworth Park Ice Rink and my reflection at the rink agreed with Anderson’s argument considering that the rink provided a cosmopolitan environment although his argument is now outdated.
As I sat on the Philadelphia SEPTA train on my way to Dilworth Park I picked up on certain things that made me grasp what Anderson said in his article. On the train, everyone kept to themselves, making
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He definitely backs up his argument on how people act a certain way towards public engagement and places where we can all feel as one, but I also think some of Anderson’s opinions and his choice of rhetoric devices makes it sound as if race and skin color is the main concern which makes his argument outdated and more biased. Today, people are more than just a skin color, we all can be around one another in a public place and feel gratified. Interacting or not I believe people can see a way past race and if uneasy in their setting it’s based more on personal defense rather than skin
In McLaurin’s hometown of Wade, North Carolina, segregation was obvious and everywhere in daily routines of life. Segregation was often meant to mean that blacks had separate facilities from whites, yet equal. However, this was often not the case. In fact, it was quite opposite. Many times, a public restroom for white was well kept, nice, and clean, whereas if it was for a black, it was dirty and rundown. A good example of the difference in facilities for whites and blacks were the elementary schools McLaurin described. The black elementary school was a one-story frame building, had no lunch program, no indoor plumbing, poor sports equipment, and hardly a playground. The white elementary school however, was a two-story brick building, “a large auditorium and stage, indoor plumbing and modern restrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, and a large dining room in which hot lunches were served daily (23).” It is clear when the two schools are compared against one another, that there is a vast difference in facilities which are for blacks, and those that a...
Jim Sleeper’s “The End of the Rainbow,” discusses the challenges faced in a multi-ethnic political system where Rainbow I and II politics no longer appeal to nonwhites (). Black politicians entering the political realm during and after the Civil Rights era have faced increasingly difficult defeats throughout the country most often due to the lack of support by fellow Blacks, nonwhites, and whites who feel left out by the political strategy’s previously employed (). This has led to an increase in White defeats throughout urban, non-white, playing fields (). Raphael J. Sonenshein’s “The Battle over Liquor Stores in South Central Los Angeles: The Management of an Interminority Conflict,” discusses the “conflict[s] and coalitions among nonwhite communities.” Sleeper suggests the growing number of “politically centrist mayoral candidates tou...
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles.
Have you ever gone to Chinatown supposing to find a culture full of African Americans? Probably not, because that is not where they’re expected to be. We live in a world where colonies of different colored people are expected, or otherwise discriminated into populating distinct spaces; African Americans are supposed to be in the ghetto, Chinese belong in Chinatown, and Caucasians reserve more elite communities. For centuries, each race has been striving to belong in a society where people are accepted as equals and certain jobs are not handed out to favored ethnicities. This form of discrimination has somewhat dwindled down, however, it still has an undeniable impact on the lives of every single generation since mankind was created. In Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For (WWALF), we view and contrast the lives of four different but very similar characters in which they negotiate different aspects of their lives in order to find their own unique and comfortable place in the powerful and diverse city of Toronto. The following essay examines the depiction of global spaces and the effects on diasporic identity through characters Tuyen and Carla from WWALF. I will analyze and contrast the adaptation of the characters to the city, the influence from the characters’ homes, and the connection to the emotional spaces; illustrating the effects on identification.
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
. Growing up in a divers area is quite benifiticial when you get to college. You will be able to interact with all kinds of people and you will not have to overcome the race barrier that some other people have to deal with. In the article “What's Past is Prologue: How Precollege Exposure to Racial Diversity Shapes the Impact of College Interracial Interactions” by Bowman, Nicholas focuses on their precollege experience and explores whether and how the impac...
When I read about Anderson’s idea of “Cosmopolitan Canopies”, the one statement he made that stuck out to me was, “The many lunch counters also help encourage strangers to interact, as they rub elbows while eating. At certain counters in particular, there seems to be a norm of talking with strangers. One woman told me you cannot get people to shut up.” Have you ever been to a softball game? At the beginning of the season, most teams are made up of girls who have never met each other prior, coached by parents who often don’t have much coaching experience. Within a few weeks, you can’t get us to stop talking, just as Anderson noted. We are cheering, hollering, singing and dancing for the entire duration of the game. White, black, short, tall,
In the short essay, “Black Men in Public Space” written by Brent Staples, discusses his own experiences on how he is stereotyped because he is an African American and looks intimidated in “public places” (Staples 225). Staples, an intelligent man that is a graduate student at University of Chicago. Due to his skin complexity, he is not treated fairly and always being discriminated against. On one of his usual nightly walks he encountered a white woman. She took a couple glances at him and soon began to walk faster and avoided him that night. He decided to change his appearance so others would not be frightened by his skin color. He changed the way he looked and walked. Staples dressed sophisticated to look more professional so no one would expect him to be a mugger. Whistling classical music was referred to the “cowbell that hikers wear when they know they are in bear country”(Staples 226). The cowbell is used to protect hikers from bears. But in Staples case, it was to not be stereotyped and show that he is harmless. The general purpose of Staples essay was to inform the readers that stereotypes could affect African Americans and any other races.
For instance, Brooks himself confesses that he has himself in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could be his true self. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to build diverse communities. The essay, Brook says, is about the public discourse on race and is meant to make us ponder about the stereotypes and assumptions we have when we think about diversity or people from other ethnicities. It is also meant to make us look where we fit in the diversity debate? Are we truly for the integration of
Root, M., P., (1996) The multiracial experience: Racial borders as the new frontier. Copyright 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.
Diversity, we define this term today as one of our nation’s most dynamic characteristics in American history. The United States thrives through the means of diversity. However, diversity has not always been a positive component in America; in fact, it took many years for our nation to become accustomed to this broad variety of mixed cultures and social groups. One of the leading groups that were most commonly affected by this, were African American citizens, who were victimized because of their color and race. It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s during the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place yet, it is the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools. Integration in white schools played a major role in the battle for Civil Rights in the South, upon the coming of independence for all African American people in the United States after a series of tribulations and loss of hope.
Despite the thought that all men were created equally, African Americans weren’t treated as though they were, and were excluded from certain public facilities. Some accommodations that were divided by race included schools, theatres, taverns, bathrooms, religious centers, etc. (Appiah and Gates). As described in To Kill A Mockingbird, “The colored balcony ran along three walls of the courtroom like a second story veranda” (Lee 204). This passage exemplifies how colored individuals were treated differently than the white people. They weren’t just excluded from public facilities, but they were also excluded from society.
Even after the end of segregation in America, people are still not fully integrated. People naturally associate themselves with people who are closely related to them is some way; others will integrate themselves in society and join other groups even if they do not share a common __. Lawrence Otis Graham, a person who integrated himself and the author of “The ‘Black Table’ is Still There”, questions why the all-black lunch table at his old junior high school still exist 14 years later.
As a young child growing up in a small country like The Kingdom of Thailand, I didn't have much experience with people of different races. I would often imagine what it would be like to be around people of other races within the own neighborhood. How could I interact with one to another? The movie, Grand Torino, is an inspiring movie that presents viewers with a real-life story of a grumpy old widower man, named Walt Kowalski, who faces all the challenges of growing old in America. This movie depicts the racial interactions as well as the personal struggles and emotions that come with aging within a very diverse community.