African American Racism

2124 Words5 Pages

For decades, African Americans have been on a racial discrimination and extremely deadly roller coaster ride for justice and equality. In this new day and age, racial tendencies and prejudice has improved since the 1700-1800s,however, they are slowly going back to certain old ways with voting laws and restaurants having the option to serve blacks or not. It all began with the start of slavery around 1619. The start of the New World, the settlers needed resources England and other countries had, which started the Triangle Trade. The New England settlers manufactured and shipped rum to West Africa; West Africa traded slaves to the West Indies for molasses and money . From the very beginning, they treated African Americans like an object or animals instead of another human being with feelings and emotions. Women that were pregnant gave birth to children already classified as slaves. After the American Revolution, people in the north started to realize the oppression and treatment of blacks to how the British was treating them. In 1787, the Northwest Territory made slavery illegal and the US Constitution states that congress could no longer ban the trade of slaves until 1808 (Brunner). However, since the invention of the cotton gin, the increase for labor on the field increased the demand for slave workers. Soon the South went thru an economic crisis with the soil, tobacco, and cash crops with dropped the prices of slaves and increased slave labor even more. To ensure that the slaves do not start a rebellion, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793 that made it a federal crime to assist a slave in escaping (Black History Milestones). This is the first of many Acts that is applied to only African-Americans and the start of many ... ... middle of paper ... ...the biggest win in the United States as a whole, but also for the African American community Have we as a people come together to overcome obstacles of race and discrimination over the years? The answer to that is yes, yes we have. Years ago, people never understood that being different from one another is okay. Yes, there still is racism in this country but that may never go away because how people were raised to the mindset of segregation and hate. The question I asked in the beginning, are African-Americans constitutional rights today still intact and effective than how their rights were 500 years ago. With the cases and their outcomes makes the conclusion that yes African American right are still to this day intact and better enforced equally than how it was 500 years ago. We as a people have improved and are still improving on social issues, equality, and race.

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the

    Read More

  • The Scottsboro Turning Point

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.

    Read More

  • Education During Jim Crow System

    1858 Words  | 4 Pages

    African Americans suffered from racism during Jim Crow system for many years. “Racism is the belief that the physical characteristics of a person or group determines their capabilities and that one group is naturally superior to other groups”(United Nations Human Rights). On other words, racism means anyone has different physical characteristics such as color skin or gender is lower than the majority or another group. Slavery in the United States began after English colonists settled and continue for many years (Kenion, 1912). During slavery years, The Americans transferred African men and women to the US to work in farms, housekeeping and serve white people. After many years, the African Americans demanded for their freedom and equality with white people. As a result, the white Americans created Jim Crow system. The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws and used from 1876 to 1965 in the United States. The laws used to organize life between African Americans and white people. The system was dealing with African Americans as second level citizenries and withe people as first citizenries. African American could not get the simple rights such as qualified education and health care. For example, North Carolina schools were racially segregated because Jim Crow system say’s that, African American and white students should study in separate and equal schools. In fact, schools in North Carolina were separate, but not equal. By 1875, “public education in North Carolina was a legally ordained system” (Kenion, 1912). Every thing was separate such as facilities, teachers, resources, and students. In North Carolina, African American and white students had been attended segregated public schools. However, the schools were unequal. The whi...

    Read More

  • How Did Emmett Till Dehumanized

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blacks were treated unjustly due to the Jim Crow laws and the racial stigmas embedded into American society. Under these laws, whites and colored people were “separate but equal,” however this could not be further from the truth. Due to the extreme racism in the United States during this time period, especially in the South, many blacks were dehumanized by whites to ensure that they remained inferior to them. As a result of their suffering from the prejudice society of America, there was a national outcry to better the lives of colored people.

    Read More

  • Black Status: Post Civil War America

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the emancipation of slaves in 1862, the status of African-Americans in post civil war America up until the beginning of the twentieth century did not go through a great deal of change. Much legislation was passed to help blacks in this period. The Civil Rights act of 1875 prohibited segregation in public facilities and various government amendments gave African-Americans even more guaranteed rights. Even with this government legislation, the newly dubbed 'freedmen' were still discriminated against by most people and, ironically, they were soon to be restricted and segregated once again under government rulings in important court cases of the era.

    Read More

  • Segregation in the United States: The Black Codes

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    America has been the site of discrimination in race for years. The Black Codes were laws each state came up with on their own that limit certain rights, prevent them from voting, and keep the black slaves under white control. Even after the Black Codes ended, a new way to keep African-Americans unequal came up. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws passed in order to keep African-Americans unequal from white Americans. Every state had their own form of the Jim Crow laws. African-Americans used to be treated very poorly by the rest of the United States. They were still treated as though they were slaves until the end of the Jim Crow laws. Even after that, southern states still attempted to keep African-Americans from being equal to the rest of Americans. Taxes were put up in order to vote, which kept African-Americans from doing so because most were very poor. They still did not have equal opportunity in the work force either. African-Americans were not the only ones being treated like this either. Native Americans and Hispanics were treated the same way that African-Americans were. The United States used to treat immigrants inadequately.

    Read More

  • The Long Struggle for Civil Rights

    2179 Words  | 5 Pages

    African Americans have a history of struggles because of racism and prejudices. Ever since the end of the Civil War, they struggled to benefit from their full rights that the Constitution promised. The fourteenth Amendment, which defined national citizenship, was passed in 1866. Even though African Americans were promised citizenship, they were still treated as if they were unequal. The South had an extremely difficult time accepting African Americans as equals, and did anything they could to prevent the desegregation of all races. During the Reconstruction Era, there were plans to end segregation; however, past prejudices and personal beliefs elongated the process.

    Read More

  • Racism Within The Black Community

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever been discriminated against simply because your skin is darker than the next person? Have you ever been told by someone that “your pretty for a dark skin girl or boy?” Have you ever been racist toward your own race? Since long before we or our parents were born, the black community has faced this problem with racism within the same race. In the black community, it is said that if a person have a lighter skin complexion, than they are superior to those with a darker skin complexion. Racism within the black community is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

    Read More

  • Racism in America

    3022 Words  | 7 Pages

    Racism has taken on many forms in America over the past several hundred years. The most substantial or well known is the plight of the African American slaves and the injustices they suffered. Today, a new form of racism is developing; one that has always been around but has now entered the forefront of most Americans minds. This new racism is against members of the Middle Eastern culture and religion. The actions of September 11th did not create a new problem, they just shed light on a problem that we have had for some time. Racism is everywhere in one form or another. To understand it, I think it is necessary to look at the history, causes, and ways to resolve it.

    Read More

  • Racism Against African American Racism

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism against African American began in the American society during the seventeenth century, when the practice of slavery started to flourish in the South. Racism is “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.” (Dictionary.com) Over the centuries, efforts have been made to equalize the lives of African Americans to their White counterparts. Though acclaimed that the days of racism against African Americans are over, it is infused in all parts of American life and therefore still affecting the victimized. The stratification of racial classes of olden days has left a mark in today’s society. African American racism though said not to be present today has influenced discrepancies in economic classes, self-esteem, and perception of one another, and stereotypes that affected the victimized.

    Read More

  • Racism in America

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racism has always been the same. It never changed. The term racism firstly exposes racial differences, then hate, discrimination and prejudice, lack of knowledge, hurt, tears and negative stereotype. This is an essay about racism in the US. Therefore I will explain what one of the biggest challenges in the world – racism – is and figure out when it occurred in the United States by traveling back in time of the American history.

    Read More

  • Has America Really Changed Since the Civil Rights Movement?

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    For as long as I could remember, African Americans have succumbed to some of the cruelest treatment seen in America’s history. This mistreatment has taken on many forms particularly in respect to social and racial discrimination. Examples of prior struggles for equality of African Americans in America may include: the pursuit of their freedom and equal treatment that was attributed by slavery, attaining voting rights, and being able to secure a job that would not discriminate based solely on their skin color. A number of Key figures were instrumental in making American what it is today and here are just to name a few: Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.

    Read More

  • Systemic Oppression Of African Americans

    316 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the early beginnings of colonized America, African Americans were seen as less than human. They were seen as savages. There was a fallacy associated with them that allowed others to view them as lazy, sex-crazed, and unintelligent. All of these notions were false. The British made a habit of taking land from indigenous people and subsequently controlling those who have been there. African slaves first came to America in 1501 with the New World Spanish settlers. In 1619, twenty slaves were brought to Jamestown. These were indentured servants, so they were only bound for a certain period of time. Not until 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified, was slavery abolished. After this, the systemic oppression of African Americans slowly and

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Law: Discrimination Against The Black Community

    495 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1954 many believed that with the eradication of Jim Crow Law, that racial discrimination would come to a halt, unfortunately those sixty three years without Jim Crow did not set black americans on the fast track towards equality. Black-Americans continued to be subject to violence. To say minorities still face discrimination is an understatement. People of color are subject to racial profiling, brutality, misrepresentation, bias perpetuated through mass media, as well as being denied certain rights and opportunities. The racial prejudice towards Black-Americans in the black community has started to condition black youth to harbor feelings of discrimination towards one another.. Though African Americans have gained many rights through protests, revolution, and support from other marginalized communities, racial discrimination and prejudice remain problematic aspects of American society.

    Read More

  • Essay On Civil Rights Movement

    2889 Words  | 6 Pages

    However, these African American citizens had remarkable courage to never stop, until these un-just laws were changed and they received what they had been fighting for all along, their inalienable rights as human beings and to be equal to all other human beings. Up until this very day there are still racial issues where some people feel supreme over other people due to race. That, however, is an issue that may never end. African Americans fought until the Jim Crow laws were taken out of effect, and they received equality for all people regardless of race. Along the way, there were many controversial court cases and important leaders who helped to take a stand against racial segregation.

    Read More

More about African American Racism

Open Document