Over our country’s young existence, the democracy that America is so proud of has often had flaws, hypocrisy being one of them, that can be illustrated in many ways. The hypocrisy that can be inexplicable at times, is illustrated in some of the realities depicted in the following articles and film clips described.
W.E.B. DuBois describes the phenomenon where after the Civil War, there was still a great divide. It was even physical where different demographics of the white population and the black population in the south would live based on “social grades common to all communities” (DuBois Ch. 9). Though one difference is that the “best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity” (DuBois Ch. 9). In the South after the Civil War, the African-Americans were often taken advantage of. The Crop-Lien system, which was a credit system for farmers to obtain supplies and food from local store keepers, took advantage of the black farmers. DuBois describes how if they weren’t able to pay their debt, then the storekeeper would just take what they feel is owed to them without any warrant or law to back them up. This would leave many black farmers in debt and stuck at the bottom of the economic ladder. When it came to politics, many black people felt that why should they bother. If “reputable men leave politics alone”, then “politics becomes disreputable” (DuBois Ch. 9). They felt that the laws were created by people who had no interest in the black community. Often, both races simply saw the worst in each other. Blacks lived in separate sections, went to separate churches, were separated in public gatherings, on public transportation, and weren’t allowed to go to libraries and were prevented from a good education. Many whites thought the “educated Negroes were dangerous and insolent” and many “Negroes thought