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Workplace discrimination against women of color
Workplace discrimination against women of color
Oppression and inequality
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The following are 3 significant pieces of evidence I believe contributed to systems of oppression and privilege. 1. Slavery Historically we have been a highly racialized society. Slavery played a big role in the hierarchy made up of different races. As we learned Africa Americans were always finding themselves at the bottom. I think slavery greatly influenced the social construct of race. 2. Inferior/Immigrants Working Low Pay Jobs In history, we typically see African Americans and Mexicans working low paying jobs, such as in factories or mining. When Immigrants from Europe came to America (e.g. Italians & Romanians) they too, took low paying jobs. I think that during this time of segregating immigrants and inferior races into low paying
Slavery was a main contributor in the South in the 1800s. African Americans were enslaved in large plantations growing cotton, instead of tobacco. Slavery was the same old story it was in the 1600s, barely anything had changed. Slavery was the dominating reality of southern life in the antebellum period due to economical, social, and political reasons.
During the 17th and early 18th century, slavery in the United States grew from being a small addition to the labor force to a huge institution that would persist for more than a century. Much of the development of slavery occurred in the Middle and Southern colonies, especially Virginia. Without the events that occurred and the policies established in Virginia during this time period, slavery would never have become what it did today. The decrease in indentured labor coming from England led to an increase in slave labor in the colonies, and the introductions of the concepts of hereditary slavery and chattel slavery transformed slavery into the binding institution it became in the 18th century.
The institution of slavery, from the year 1830 to 1860, created a divide between the northern and southern regions of the United States. Southerners, who relied on slaves to maintain their plantations, supported the institution, as it was a major part of their economy. Meanwhile, northerners, many of whom depended on slave produced cotton for textile mills and goods for the shipping industry, were divided on the slave issue, as some saw it as a blessing while the abolitionists saw it as a horrific institution. Overall, attitudes toward the institution of slavery, due to a variety of causes, differed in the varying regions in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
Throughout history, racism has been present. In biblical times, Cain was marked by God so that people would not kill him. The people treated him badly because of the mark though. In American colonial times, blacks were taken from their homes in Africa and sold as slaves in America. Then in 1865, the United States ratified the 13th amendment. It freed 4 million black slaves. Although the bonds of slavery were broken, blacks were still not equal. Local governments began trying to take away what few rights blacks had. They imposed poll taxes and grandfather clauses, laws that kept blacks whose grandfathers were slaves from voting. This kept African-Americans from electing their own representatives who...
The history of slavery has shaped colorism to what it is today. For example, in the article Art Exhibition Exposes Racism by Bernadette Steward there was something known as the “Paper Bag” test which was part of the start to the African American discrimination, “if your skin color was the color of the brown paper bag or lighter you were given access to certain privileges and conversely if your skin was darker than the paper bag you were denied those same privileges” (Steward 1). This test came about in the late twentieth century after slaves were “supposedly free”. This problem goes back to the early 1700’s when “a slave master from the Virgin Islands came at the invitation of some southern slave owners to teach the how to better control their slaves” (Steward 1). The slave master only cared about the stock they were gaining and told the slave owners that killing the slaves was no good for their stock and told the slave owners to turn one group against the other. In other words, make a group believe that they are superior over the other group. The slave master ended up taking African women and produced an offspring that looked incomparably different from the Africans. Because of this, there was a lighter offspring and a change of their features such as straighter hair,
Race was a very important factor in American slavery. In other nations, slaves would be of the same race as their master. An ex-slave could re-enter society with their past forgotten and be accepted once again. On the other hand, American slavery was closely connected to racial differences that led to racial segregation and discrimination. Master and slave could physically be distinguished from one another, which ultimately distinguished one as human and the other as chattel.
In the beginning of colonial America people used religion and wealth to define status. As the years progressed fewer people migrated to America. This resulted in a labor shortage of indentured servants. Farmers turned to the transatlantic slave trade, and started replacing indentured servants with African slaves. African slaves worked for nothing, could be easily identified by their skin separating them from indentured servants, and were valued for their farming skill. Plantation owners found what they an ideal and endless labor supply and developed the first slave system where all slaves shared a common appearance and ancestry. The abundance of this new labor source brought poor whites new rights, opportunities, and a sense of superiority for whiteness. Many were elevated to manager’s plantations and bounty hunters. White societies for the first time started to identify themselves with each other not based on wealth or status because they were white. As slave labor increased, slavery became inherently identified with blackness. This perpetuated white Americans belief that Africans were a different kind of person and stimulated the theory that Africans maintained a "natural" inferiority.
Since 1619, when the first slaves were brought to North America, race has played an important role in everyone’s life; especially those who are different from what people would consider “American”. According to the textbook, “race is defined as any group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographical distribution” (pg. 59). People are placed into different categories instead of all being considered human beings. Although we do not have slavery, that we know of, in the United States today, this does not mean that race is still not an issue. However, race in this country has taken a turn over time and has now, “taken on a meaning that refers to differences between people based on color” (pg.
How we are seen and how we see others often affects different aspects of our lives, and the lives of others. The entire social structure that we live in is affected by at least one construction of race. However, I would like to examine the concept of race first. There is no gene that is common to all black or white people; it is not biological. If race was “real”, then racial classifications would be constant all around the world, but someone considered black in the United States might be considered white in Brazil. In addition, racial categorizations in census forms vary widely between countries and across time in the same country. It is important to note that, in 2003, as part of the Human Genome Project, researchers concluded that “3 billion base pairs of genetic letters in humans were 99.9 percent identical in every person”. Which leads me to say that race is a social construct. It is important to explore this further to better understand the capacity race has to affect other parts of life. Race is a social construction because the existence of race requires that people collectively agree and accept that it does exist. It typically works through race indicators which are used to indicate which race you are, and consequently what sort of status you have in society. The Thomas Theorem is a theory that states “If men (and women) define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”,
Race has been one of the most outstanding situations in the United States all the way from the 1500s up until now. The concept of race has been socially constructed in a way that is broad and difficult to understand. Social construction can be defined as the set of rules are determined by society’s urges and trends. The rules created by society play a huge role in racialization, as the U.S. creates laws to separate the English or whites from the nonwhites. Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans were all racialized and victimized due to various reasons. Both the Europeans and Indigenous People were treated differently than African American slaves since they had slightly more freedom and rights, but in many ways they are also treated the same. The social construction of race between the Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans led to the establishment of how one group is different from the other.
Not all people expose their opinions through books, but Toni Morrison believes that language and storytelling are main parts of revealing the “truth”. She makes it obvious in her novel Beloved, that slavery should not be seen just as something that physically harmed but sometime thing that also altered the emotional state of slaves. In the book Morrison presents this view through a family’s past and present experiences. She makes this “truth” noticeable with the constant use of repetition, parallel structure and metaphors throughout the book.
Racial inequality amongst African American and whites once started by slavery. Slavery separated blacks and whites as in blacks on this side and whites on the other side. There was no intervening between the two. With the mentality that African Americans have, now in days they feel as though slavery still exists. Our ancestors fought for us to have better days for us to still be locked down with industries, businesses, jobs and so on. Everyone should be on equal terms of rights, dignity, and the potential to achieve great things but unfortunately we see inequality based on race, gender, and other social characteristics that are unjust.
The historical context of inequality in the United States can be can be traced back to the American South and the times of the Civil War. The slave trade, Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment largely contribute to the inequality presented of the African American population.
According to Eileen Patten a white men make an average of $21 an hours, while an African American make and average of $15 an hours. While a white women make an average of $17 hours, and African American women make an average of $13 hours. Back in time only the wealthy white men were the only ones who got to work and got to go to school. The women stayed at home and took care of the children and made sure that the housework was done. With any race and women being able to get the education that they desire, jobs slowed opened up for anybody. There are laws that prevent one from not hiring one because on their gender or race that is called employment
For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.