Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Inequality in us
Racial profiling today in America
Racial profiling today in America
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Inequality in us
Recent events have given rise to dialogues of the systematic inequalities Black and Muslim communities face in the United States. From events like the 2013 shooting of Trayvon Martin to the more recent ban of individuals from seven Muslim majority countries, it is evident that there exists a hierarchy within the boundaries of the United States that advertently hurts those of “color.” At the crossroads of religious discrimination and racism, Black Muslims are victimized in part due to the parallel racial norms they are subject to. However, by using the aesthetics of dandyism, some Black Muslims in America aim to challenge US racial hierarchies. Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer examines how the symbolic sartorial practices of dandyism in Black American …show more content…
Mutahari composed the Mutual Services of Islam and Iran, in which he argues that religion is about individual mentality rather than traditions in order to downplay the racist Arab argument that Iranians have reasons for mobilization due to their pre-Islamic Zoroastrian heritage; rather, he points out that Iranians have a deep attachment to Islam (Abedi and Fischer 1990: 187-189). He also debunks any perceived notion that there is a special relationship between Arabs and the religion of Islam with the use of a Quranic verse that states that people are formed from the same pair (Quran 49:13), in conjunction with a quote from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam, that states that Iranians accepted Islam wholeheartedly in comparison to the Arabs who bickered initially during the time of the revelations (Abedi and Fischer 1990: 192). Granted there is no significant transformation of style or practice that Iranians use to symbolize their place in Islam, they faced a similar alienation from their Arab counterparts and such debate was necessary to redeem Iranian from the accusations of reverting back to …show more content…
Khabeer makes the argument that Black Muslims are victims to a multifaceted set of discriminations as they live in the intersection of racial and religious profiling. In a time where movements like “Black Lives Matter” and “Muslim Lives Matter” are prevalent, it is not hard to realize that Black Muslims are at large risks. Will they be stopped and frisked by the police on the corner of the street? Is their names reason for detainment at the airport? Dr. Khabeer uses a clip from the music video of Jidenna’s “Classic Man” that shows a stereotypical Black and Latino man pushed against a wall by police officers until Jidenna, as a Black dandy, intervenes. This clip shows that he was not subject with the same outlook; rather he was treated with respect mostly due to his style of dress. Similarly, due to geopolitical influence and post 9/11 sentiment, it is “no longer hot to look like a terrorist” (Khabeer, 2017) as burquas, hijabs etc. became the easy to spot target for hatred, causing many to remove the religiously affiliated attire when out in public (Jolls et al., 2002). Although there is no proof that a change in style will protect one from judgment, the use of the dandy attire is way in which these Black Muslims armor themselves against criminalization by avoiding the thug and terrorist
In addition to this Rankine addresses the issues of regular ‘Stop and Frisk’ of the black people by the police. She mentions that because of their color, they always remain as the prime suspect in the eyes of law agencies. She writes that, “…guy who is always the guy fitting the description” (Rankine
In the encounter, he was faced with racial profiling at its finest. There he was, sitting calmly, just drinking his tea when he was approached and asked to show his passport. When they saw he was British, they wanted to know why he was in Japan, and also what his phone number and address was so that "If there is some unfortunate incident, some terrorist attack, then we will know you did it", one of the police officers explains (Lyre 440). Lyre was by no means a terrorist, yet because of the color of his skin he was ridiculed, wrongfully accused, and put down. While the opening paragraph of The Stigma of Being Muslim in America talks about the Chapel Hill shooting where three young Muslim students were shot and killed and also how the Quba Islamic Institute chose to forgive a man who burned down their gathering place. So here is a culture that comes to America to study and learn here in America and they are getting shot for just living their lives. Their gathering places are being burned down, and the people doing it are being forgiven for it
This paper will discuss the different stages of thought processes the former Nation of Islam minister, Malcolm X went through during his lifetime in terms of how he viewed white people, but more specifically “the white man” in America. The reason the focus is on White Americans is because these were the people outside of the Nation of Islam that shaped his life good or bad and put him on the path where he eventually transformed from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X who was one of the most polarizing and controversial figures during his lifetime and even nearly 50 years after his death the name Malcolm X causes certain people to shudder. Malcolm X became a well-known figure during the 50’s and 60’s during the civil rights movement which involved figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. This was a pivotal era in American history because for the first time that there was major push towards full rights for African Americans. When Malcolm X came on the scene he put fear into White people because they weren’t used to hearing the truth about race relations in America and many of them felt that things were just fine because they themselves were living life high on the hog while at the same time exploiting Blacks. Because this type of talk from a black person was new to them they misinterpreted his views as “hate speech” and accused him of trying to incite violence when he was simply trying wake his people up to properly deal with what was happening to them.
Ever since Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, white people have constantly oppressed and discriminated against minority races. In my original essay, I addressed how leaders of the Black Arts Movement believed that the establishment of a separate Black culture provided the best opportunity for change to occur. During the time period of the Black Arts Movement, many thought that two separate spirits divided American society—a Black spirit and a White spirit. In the minds of African-Americans, the White spirit unfairly dominated and controlled America, leaving the Black spirit with little impact or voice in society. According to Larry Neal, “Western aesthetic has run its course: it is impossible to construct anything meaningful within
In African American Studies/Literature I walked in thinking that I could be told nothing about African American culture or history because I’m African American. In some ways I knew that racism existed but I learned how it has been subtle in control the way we think. We have learned that colonization has not ended and that in many ways we are still being oppressed. In this paper I’m going to show how African American has used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fighting oppression. However, as we have review in many classes oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper will be an expansion of what we have learned in the
The culture was highly influenced but it also influenced the american culture as a whole. The United states and the African American community has had a plentiful of conflicts in the past as well as the present. Historical accounts of slavery and segregation have caused a riff between a race and a country. From the justice system to the education system, african americans have always been given the short end of the stick. In terms of justice, the united states is seen as a prison country. According to naacp.org “Today, the US is 5% of the World population and has 25% of world prisoners.” the united states is no stranger to prisons. Yet, the overwhelming amount of african american youths and people in general is eye opening. “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population”(naacp) and “Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice). Socially, times have improved for the african american community. Yet, statistics draw attention to a bigger picture. The black power movement and the symbol of the black fist serve a purpose. The purpose is to never forget where a people has come from and how far is left to go. The first is an engine that never stops, it fuels the fire of many americans who have felt the weight of oppression and who still feel it in the 21st
“God is black. All black men belong to Islam; they have been chosen. And Islam shall rule the world” (Baldwin 319). This is the principal message of the Nation of Islam movement. Although the movement has existed since the early 20th century, it gained a lot of momentum in America in the 1960’s, according to African-American essayist and novelist James Baldwin. In his essay, Down At The Cross, Baldwin conveys that the movement reached more blacks during the sixties because time was ripe for it. During the 1960’s, black and white Americans began actively questioning and challenging the status quo. Baldwin believes the Christian world had become “morally bankrupt and politically unstable” (316), and that this opened the door to radical ideas which would have been considered madness in an earlier timeframe (316). Although he does not agree with Muslim doctrine, Baldwin recognizes the power of the Nation of Islam movement, particularly during a period of tremendous civil unrest.
Staples describes his experiences in Chicago of being racially profiled, for example: people locking car doors as he walked by, people crossing to the other side of the street after seeing him, or police officers assuming him to be a threat. Then, Staples moved to Brooklyn and experienced similar responses, seen as “a fearsome entity with whom pedestrians avoid making eye contact” (136).
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
Whips and chains have played an important role in Black American’s oppressive history. In the days of slavery, chains were used to dehumanize us, restrain us and keep us from escaping our oppression, while whips were used to reinforce the oppression and our inferiority as a race. Today, literal whips and chains no longer represent the oppression of Black Americans; they have been replaced with the drive to obtain modern day “whips and chains”, or simply put, material possessions- a new, slightly self-imposed slavery. This is evident in the unifying factor of hip-hop music, which glorifies a lavish lifestyle sometimes at the cost of morals, values, and self worth.
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.
A wise man once said your future isn’t somewhere you’re going it’s a place that you’re creating. Well I think it’s safe to say that my people (African Americans) have created a stable present from harsh realities of slavery, oppression, and racial tension that we have seen in the past also in the present. In this paper I will touch on what the Black Experience is to me and how it correlates with Devil in a Blue Dress, in addition to where we have come from and where I see us going into the future.
The people of the black culture need a motivating force behind their community. They need a black aesthetic to motivate them and incline them to support the revolution. The black aesthetic itself will not be enough to motivate the people; they will need black art to help them understand what they are supporting. The art in the black culture needs an aesthetic to get the message across to its viewers and allow them to understand the meaning behind pieces of artwork. One of Ron Karenga’s points is how people need to respond positively to the artwork because it then shows that the artist got the main idea to the audience and helps to motivate them to support the revolution. In “Black Cultural Nationalism”, the author, Ron Karenga, argues that
On the 26th of December in 2015, two white men in their twenties severely beat a 68 year old man in Fresno California. This man was Amrik Singh, he had darker skin and was wearing a blue turban. The two men assumed that this person was Muslim, the problem is the man is Sikh. Widespread Islamophobia has made the United States feel like an unsafe place for many Muslims in recent months. Now, it's creating an additional crisis, people attacking Sikhs because they think they're Muslims. The stereotypical image perpetuated by the mass media is of a person with brown skin, wearing clothing perceived as foreign, a suicide bomber in a burka, a long beard, and perhaps the most visual cue, the turban. These are the physical markers
299). The study consisted of having in-depth personal interviews to share their experiences of being a Muslim American woman (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 300). Veiling to these women was a way of freedom while also having a Muslim identity (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 301). It was also a source of behavior control, to not be sexually objectified, a way of commanding respect from others and even a source of checking their own behavior (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 301). One of the women interviewed said, veiling to her was a way to feel connected to other Muslim woman who veil (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 302). Veiling can be a way to feel connected to your religion and God as well as being connected to those who practice the same faith, it can be considered an act of membership. Many of the women interviewed noted they have been removed from planes, been treated unfairly, and have had strangers shout at them all for just being Muslim and being more visibly recognized from veiling (Anderson Droogsma, 2007, p. 303). This is an example of how media can affect the general population. When the media only shows radicals and compares all Muslims to being terrorist or dangerous they are actually putting Muslim people at risk of being assaulted in public. Muslim woman in particular are more at risk for being assaulted as they are more identifiable. So while veiling can be a source of empowerment and freedom for women it is a double-edged sword because it also puts them at further risk of being