"-- we are all complicit and we all carry a certain responsibility for America's original sin: racism." -- David Bedrick, The Huffington Post, 10 April 2015
"Half-breed”, “Mulatto”, “Octoroon.” All of these terms at one point served to describe individuals of mixed race, particularly African and Caucasian. The controversy of interracialism has transcended generations, as well as cultures. It is a subject that, historically, has held the potential to incite savage racial discrimination, loathing, and violence. Indeed, even in today’s significantly more enlightened and politically correct views on race, interracial relationships and individuals still possess the potential to make many uncomfortable.
Two historical periods in which racial topics, including interracialism, were the source of much social unrest are the eras of the pre-Civil War and the Harlem Renaissance. During these times voices were raised in protest from all sides of racial debates. These voices were in the forms of organized protests, speeches, writings in books and periodicals, as well as violent acts of rioting, burning, and lynching. In addition to these, a very important medium through which beliefs on racial topics were expressed was art.
It has been said by many scholars that the arts of a society can serve as a social barometer. Popular, influential, and controversial theatrical pieces offer a window through which one can observe aspects of a culture, including values, virtues, and ideas on a particular subject. Hence, in looking at and comparing the eras of the pre-Civil War and the Harlem Renaissance, in regard to the ideas held on mixed race relationships and individuals, one needs to consider theatrical pieces of the ...
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Kennedy, Randall. "Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption." Library Journal. 128:2 (2003): 105.
McMillen, Neil R. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow. Urbana, Illinois, and Chicago: U of Illinois P.
Moran, Rachel F. "Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance." History Today. 52:11 (2002): 75.
Plum, Jay. "Accounting for the Audience in Historical Reconstruction: Martin Jones’s Production of Langston Hughes’s Mulatto." Theatre Survey. v 36 (1995) 5-19.
Smalley, Webster. Five Plays by Langston Hughes. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.
Thomson, Peter. Plays by Dion Boucicault. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Ward, John. "Theatrical." New York Times. 6 December 1859, 22.
There has been much debate over the Negro during the Harlem Renaissance. Two philosophers have created their own interpretations of the Negro during this Period. In Alain Locke’s essay, The New Negro, he distinguishes the difference of the “old” and “new” Negro, while in Langston Hughes essay, When the Negro Was in Vogue, looks at the circumstances of the “new” Negro from a more critical perspective.
Harlem soon became known as the “capital of black America” as the amount of blacks in this community was very substantial. Many of the inhabitants of this area were artists, entrepreneurs and black advocates with the urge to showcase their abilities and talents. The ...
Black and white abolitionists shared common assumptions about the evil of slavery, the "virtue of moral reform", and the certainty of human progress"(1). Schor, Garnet,1877, & Lanngston, 1989). This shared understanding provided "the basic for the interracial solidarity" and cooperation so vital in the crusade against slavery"(2). (Schor and Garnet, 1877). But blacks also brought a distinct perspective to the antislavery movement. Their abolitionism was shaped profoundly by their personal experience and racial oppression. Unlike most white abolitionists, they conceived of antidlavery as an all-encompassion struggle for racial equality, and they took a more pragramatic, less doctrinaire approach to antislavery tactics. The contrast between the two abolitionists -- black and white -- become increasingly apparent in the 1840s and 1850s as black expressed a growing militancy, asserted greater independence, and called for racially exclusive organization and initiatives.
Race and ethnicity is a main factor in the way we identify others and ourselves. The real question here is does race/ethnicity still matter in the U.S.? For some groups race is not a factor that affects them greatly and for others it is a constant occurrence in their mind. But how do people of mix race reacts to this concept, do they feel greatly affected by their race? This is the question we will answer throughout the paper. I will first examine the battle of interracial relationship throughout history and explain how the history greatly explains the importance of being multiracial today. This includes the backlash and cruelty towards interracial couple and their multiracial children. Being part of a multiracial group still contains its impact in today’s society; therefore race still remaining to matter to this group in the U.S. People who place themselves in this category are constantly conflicted with more than one cultural backgrounds and often have difficulty to be accepted.
Upon initial research of the rich heritage of California the two minority groups that stood out as especially influential in historic California and today’s society are the Native Americans and Hispanic Americans. To better understand and identify with these minority groups we must identify the common themes within their day to day life. By researching each culture’s common family traditions, religious beliefs, arts & entertainment, and language one can gain a greater appreciation of many different kinds of people, and in turn have more effective relationships in a multicultural society.
Oboler, Suzanne (1995). "So far from God, so close to the United States": The Roots of Hispanic Homogenization. In M. Romero, P. Hondagneu-Sotelo, & V. Ortiz (Eds.) Challenging Fronteras: Structuring the Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S. New York: Routledge, 1997.
... stands out yet blends perfectly in the melting pot of cultures in the United States.
Kanellos, Nicolás, Felix M- Padilla, and Claudio Esteva Fabregat, eds. Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States: Sociology. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1994. Print.
The issue of affirmative action has been a controversial one since its inception. The law was developed during the 1960’s as a result of the civil rights movement and the need to address injustices committed against minorities throughout the United States history. There were multiple attempts to correct the inequities between the majority and the various minorities including the 13, 14 and 15th Amendments. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowed for the creation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to create rules to end discrimination. Affirmative action came into being with the executive order 11246 issued by President Johnson. The Civil Rights Act and President Johnson’s executive order have been updated throughout the years to address gender, disabilities, age and other characteristics that could be considered discriminatory.
The trend and patterns of interracial marriages have increased substantially in America over the past few years. Between the early 1970 and late 1980’s after abolishing laws prohibiting interracial unions, the proportion of interracial marriages was under five percent of all married couples in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). Although recent surveys indicate that the percentage of interracial marriages is a little over five percent in America, the rate and frequency of occurrence are alarming (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The American society has become more diverse and much of this diversity has been attributed to the growing number of new immigrants (Qian & Lichter, 2011). Immigration has lead to assimilation of many cultures into the mainstream American culture and as a result narrowing the gap between majority and minority groups. The United States of America Census Bureau show that there has been a dramatic increase in population due to immigration (Qian & Lichter, 2011). For instance, between 1980 and 2007, the Hispanic population in America has doubled while the Asian population has increased by four percent, and the Black population is more or less the same over the same time period (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The increase in size of the population has resulted in the increase rate of interracial marriages. Interracial unions in the 1980’s represented about three percent of all marriages in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). In the year 2000, interracial marriages have only increased approximately by two percent, with marriages between Hispanic and white representing the greatest balance of all interracial marriages (Lewis & Robertson, 2010).
Though Affirmative Action is a current controversial issue, it is far from new; its decree has been long in the making. Perhaps it originates from amendments 13-15, the series of amendments that outlawed slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law, and forbid racial discrimination when voting, respectively (Sykes 1). The Supreme Court’s decision in 1896, in the case of Plessy V. Ferguson, mandated separate but equal treatment for African Americans (Sykes 1). However, in 1954, the Supreme Court’s decision from Brown v. Board of Education replaced that of the Plessy v. Ferguson trial. President Lyndon Johnson was the first to use the term “Affirmative Action” in the Executive Order 11246 of 1965 (Sykes 1). This order required federal contractors to use affirmative action to make sure people were treated equally, “without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin” (Cahn 1). Two years later, Johnson amended it to include women (Cahn 1). By 1971, President Nixon issued a Revised Order No. 4 that required contractors to adopt an “acceptable affirmative action program” (Cahn 1). Over the past three decades, many debates continue as to whether or not affirmative action still belongs in America.
Sollors, Werner. I Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law. New York: University Press, 2000.
Harlem provided a source of entertainment for many people. With its Jazz Clubs and poetry readings it was the “hip” place to be. This was a shock to many African-American’s, who had never before had the opportunity to perform in such affluent surroundings. Oftentimes funding for these clubs or programs was provided by White Americans. This in itself was not a problem. However, the Harlem Renaissance became so dependant on the funding that when it stopped coming, there was no means by which to keep any of the clubs or literary cafes open. Some clubs in Harlem even discriminated against Black audience members. The popular Cotton Club, which featured solely Black performers, even went so far as to ban African-Americans’ from its audience entirely. Even in the Mecca of supposed racial equality, these sorts of discrimination were still prevalent. Advertisements for products produced by African-Americans were also skewed. Para...
“The end of the First World War in 1930 was followed by the inception of the cultural movement that ended in the middle of the Great Depression. It has been argued that the war formed an expansion of the economic opportunities in the Northern cities that had been characterized by industrialization, as well as a decrease of European immigration into the U.S.” (Harlem Renaissance, 2010). The Great Migration that was realized in the beginning of the 19th century played a major role in the creation of the cultural movement. The blacks in the Southern region saw this as an opportunity to escape from the Jim Crow laws, which were laws to constrict the behavior of blacks. “The lack of expression of their issues, and the lack of political voice prevalent with the hatred of the blacks made the blacks express themselves through artistic ways” (Wall, 1995).
The purpose of this essay is that, after reading it, we can appreciate how wonderful and authentic were the pre-Hispanic cultures, focusing mainly on culture.