...The documentary uses Baldwin’s prophetic voices as a tool of narration and places archival videos and soundbites of Baldwin into the backdrop of present-day Black Lives Matter rallies to highlight the continuity of Black protests. On the Dick Cavett Show (1968), James Baldwin stated that “the question [of the future of race-relations] is not what is going to happen to the Negro, but what is going to happen to this country and I must repeat that” (Peck1). The ideal of progress, touted by pundits and politicians alike in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, created an illusion of equality and racial reconciliation. In the televised interview, pundit Dick Cavett argued that “we have Black mayors, athletes,...
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...sophistication that rivals modern-day law and business. Not long after Columbus set sail for the New World, the French and Spanish brought slaves with them on various expeditions. Slaves accompanied Ponce de Leon to Florida in 1513, for instance. But a far greater proportion of slaves arrived in chains in crowded, sweltering cargo holds. The first dark-skinned slaves in what was to become British North America arrived in Virginia -- perhaps stopping first in Spanish lands -- in 1619 aboard a Dutch vessel. From 1500 to 1900, approximately 12 million (Ronald L. F. Davis, Ph. D, 2011) Africans were forced from their homes to go westward, with about 10 million of them completing the journey. Yet very few ended up in the British colonies and young American republic. By 1808 (Ronald L. F. Davis, Ph. D, 2011), when the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the U.S. officially ended, we continued to see African slaves landing in the New World. Colonial slavery had a slow start, particularly in the North . Scholars have speculated as to why, without coming to a definite conclusion. Some surmise that indentured servants were fundamentally...
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...though originating as convenient sorting mechanisms, instead, influence our thinking process. Crash depicts numerous characters and brings them together through carjacking, car accidents and shootings. The movie Crash represents the nature of race relations in America. Most of the characters depicted in the film are racially opinionated in some way, and become mixed up in conflicts which force them to examine their own discrimination. The films show how one stereotype, one miscommunication or lack of communication, could turn into an unstable situation. Through these characters' connections and lack of communication, the film tries to show prejudice and racism is frequent and common in present America. Problems of race and sex make a group of strangers in Los Angeles to psychologically and physically crash in the drama. Graham is a police officer whose brother is a street criminal, and it hurts him to know his mother cares more about his good-for-nothing brother than him. Rick is an L.A. district attorney whose wife, Jean, makes little secret of her horror and hate of people not like herself. Jean's worst dreams about people of color are complete when her SUV is stolen by two African American men. Cameron is a rich African American television producer with a gorgeous wife. When coming back from a party one night, they are pulled over by the police Officer Ryan subjects them to a shameful examination...
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...problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line, --the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. Every study has come to the same conclusion that biologically, there are no 'races', yet the social construction of race as a category is alive and well today. The classification system, which radicalized different groups - typifying them according to their skin color and/or other defining features has a long history. With the advent of colonialism, racism underpinned the different and negative valuations attached to skin color. The racism of today is much more subtle and is no longer the blatant discrimination based on the color or your skin. It exists within the institutions of our society. It is the combination of government, corporate and media institutional racism that is largely responsible for the inequities of today. Unfortunately, these divisions impact the way in which we live our life and how we advance socially. Race has always been a complicated subject and is inevitable. Although we have made tremendous strides to dismantle the foundations of racism, it is clear and evident that racism still persists within the institutions of our society. I believe that America is one of greatest countries on the earth and it is a land of opportunity for everyone. The American dream is alive and well and many people of all races have had tremendous success. With these positives in place, it is no...
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...engenders negative social reproduction, which in some cases prescribes that one would be fated to become a future blue collar worker, much like one’s parents and peers. However, MacLeod also highlights the paradoxical discrepancy in the less than favorable outcomes of another group whose members do adhere to the dominant achievement ideology, The Brothers. MacLeod explains that, “If the Hallway Hangers [group of white boys] show that opting out of the contest is not a viable option, the Brothers [group of black boys] show that dutifully playing by the rules hardly guarantees success...
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...Rosewood, The Story, The Study, The Case Jane Central State University ATH-111 This case study focuses on Rosewood, Florida; a once flourishing African American colony annihilated in the course of a weeklong occurrences of violence in early January of 1923. This study will show the effects of segregation in the United States, which continued after laws were passed, but unfortunately ignored by people who wanted to continue to have power, social control, and inequality over an indigenous group of human being living within their community. Rosewood is a true, however historically-stifled chain of events that took place in small blooming town in Rosewood, Florida. Rosewood industry was cedar wood and mills, and a railroad station that transported products, communal relations between the towns of Rosewood and Sumner were one of tolerance. The African American community were aware of the inequality that was afforded to them, but also made every effort to build a culture of stability, and building a new cultural identity of freedom within an almost self-sufficient predominately African American community in spite of the power structure of its white neighbors and systematic racism (Dye, 1997). With the accusation of violence against a white women the mob viewed this act a direct threat to their social structure and the legacy. Social hierarchy played a major role in the mobs attitude, the violence was almost immediate, and within six days the accusation caused ominous...
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...The lives of the minority especially the Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, etc. “Donald Trump argued Tuesday that the controversial stop-and-frisk policing tactic once employed in New York City is constitutional, adding that it would "overwhelmingly" save African-American and Hispanic lives. The practice, however, has been criticized as racial profiling that unfairly targeted those very minority groups. “Diamond, Jeremy. (2016) "Trump: Stop-and-frisk would 'overwhelmingly' save Black and Hispanic Lives." CNN. Cable News Network. Hence as a result of the statement made above by Donald Trump, I decided to write on the problem stop and frisk What are Stop and Frisk? How has it been accepted into society according to the constitution? What are the steps used to exercise the enactment? The existence of stop and frisk became problematic as a result of class, state, race, and ethnicity The structure of every legal order directly influence the distribution of power or otherwise within communities. In general, we understand that “Power” can be defined as control of material resources and accumulated wealth, control of wealth and the institution, and once social...
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...Performative Conception of Race and How it Impacts Black Women in the Workplace Name of Author Institutional Affiliation Women, often seen as the weaker sex than their male counterparts suffer much discrimination due to their gender. This is made worse when such women are not white or belong to a lower socio-economic status. Unfortunately, although civil rights and feminist movements attempt to showcase and fight against racism, sexism and classism, stereotypes and discrimination apparently prevail as permanent features in the United States (Omni & Winant, 2006). Judith Butler (1993) analyzed how race and gender can become performative for people concerned. She claims that: “race proves to be performative - that is, constituting the identity it is purported to be. In this sense, race is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said to preexist the deed .... There is no racial identity behind the expressions of race ... race is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ which are said to be its results”. (p. 181). This means, people of a certain race are automatically expected to behave or perform the...
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...Privilege is the Greatest Enemy of Equality Educators most often consider multicultural education as teaching their pupils about Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and other descendants of color. However, multicultural education is not complete if it doesn’t challenge the root of structural racism and racial oppression: the matter of white privilege. It’s vital to understand white privilege and the role it plays in affecting society. In essence, white privilege is an unwilling and non-owned racism that has been ingrained into our mindset throughout history, and it affects how we interact with each other and how those who don’t share such advantages are affected. It’s a permeating factor responsible for many inequalities faced among races, widening the social gap between white and nonwhite Americans. Accessibility to education, jobs, and housing are all directly affected by societal inconsistencies of privilege and power. Ultimately, racism isn’t caused by white privilege; white privilege is caused by racism. Yet racism isn't a problem that resides in the minds of individuals; it lies rooted deep in our social institutions. It is necessary we reconstruct the societal ideologies of race and class to expel this self-perpetuating cycle. In this essay I will address these racial struggles for power and privilege, the role it plays in education, and my personal experience towards racism and how it has affected me as a person. Privilege, as defined by Websters Dictionary...
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...way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media have fostered a distorted and pernicious public perception of African-Americans. 1 The history of African-Americans is a centuries old struggle against oppression and discrimination. The media have played a key role in perpetuating the effects of this historical oppression and in contributing to African-Americans' continuing status as second-class citizens. As a result, white America has suffered from a deep uncertainty as to who African-Americans really are. Despite this racial divide, something indisputably American about African-Americans has raised doubts about the white man's value system. Indeed, it has also aroused the troubling suspicion that whatever else the true American is, he is also somehow black. 2 Racism Before attempting to understand racism and mass media, one must understand the history of racism. Race has become an institutional part of American society. From the Founding on, race has played an integral part in shaping the American consciousness. David Goldberg's Racist Culture argues that racial discourse may be interpreted as aversive, academic, scientific, legalistic, bureaucratic, economic, cultural, linguistic, religion, mythical, or ideological. 3 He also stresses that racialized discourse and racist expressions towards African-American have been...
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...streets to beg and steal to survive. Debt bondage slavery is when employers pay their workers such low wages that it is not enough to survive. And last servile marriages is where families will marry off their women against their wills for the pleasure and satisfaction of the man. (Macionis, 2010) When someone mentions prejudice and discrimination one tends to think whites verses blacks. Prejudice and discrimination can be towards another person because of their race, sex, color, or even religious belief. Some slavery families do not know anything else but slavery and they actually found a type of comfort with it. Because of previous generations participating in these traditions has become a family law or tradition. Many traditions have become a norm for families in slavery and are still important, especially in the South. This explains why southerners have had and still have a hard time changing their prejudice and discrimination views. Southerners worshiped their past, it became their present, and it has colored their vision of the future. By showing how the south passed on prejudice towards blacks and other minorities as a tradition after the civil war, one can now learn how and why the roots of prejudice...
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...Diabetes Mellitus among African Americans Final Research Paper Peggy Hollie Epidemiology Disease Dr. Peters May 9, 2012 Diabetes Mellitus is characterized by abnormal metabolism of carbohydrate, protein, and fat, resulting in increased levels of blood sugar. The adjective mellitus (for sweet) is used with diabetes insipidus (tasteless), which is so rare that the word diabetes by itself generally refers to diabetes mellitus. The only thing that diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus have in common is polyuria, or frequent urination. There are two forms of diabetes mellitus: Type I, or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus IDDM), and Type II, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM). Diabetes is one of the ten leading causes of death from disease in the United States. It is the result of an insufficient supply of insulin or an inadequate use of insulin that is supplied from the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC (2010), diabetes affects 25.8 million people 8.3% of the U.S. population, diagnosed 18.8 million people and undiagnosed 7.0 million people. African Americans who have diabetes are 4.9 million or 18.7% aged 20 years or older. African Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. In addition, they are more likely to suffer complications from diabetes, such as end-stage renal disease and lower extremity...
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...Introduction: African American history. It has great and true stories to tell. These African Americans have different and unique stories to tell. Because of these people, they have made the United States a better place. Let’s go deeper into African American history. Pre-20th Century Contributions Way before the 20th century, African Americans made outstanding contributions to various characteristics of American society despite the challenges of slavery and discrimination. They excelled in areas such as literature, politics, arts, music, abolitionism, and entrepreneurship. But what people have had a huge impact in this era of Black excellence? Let’s list a few. Phillis Wheatley. She was the first ever published African-American female poet....
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...and four orientations with which John Chasteen characterizes the changing foci of U.S. thinking on Latin America from the early 20th century to the present. •Racial/Cultural and Environmental Determinism: An image by Americans which suggested that Latin Americans are “Hot-Blooded Latins” with too much “non-white” blood, and do not have the self discipline needed in order to make a more democratic, stable society. There were Catholics, lacking a protestant work ethic. Americans also pictured Latin Americans to be lazy individuals. •Modernization Theory: Once the previous idea was settled, it came to the reality that the Latin American countries had to go through modernization, such as the United States, and their feeble network on which their society rested upon was that being criticized. •Dependency Theory: Students were sure that these two previous explanations were merely methods to blame the victims of abuse. They believed that Latin American economies stood in a dependent position relative to the world’s industrial powers. Therefore other nations took their overpowering stand, and forestalled Latin America’s industrialization. “Economic dependency” is why the nation did not follow the path it was supposed to follow. •Social Constructionism: The way race, gender, class, and national identities are “constructed” in people’s minds. Discuss Michel Rolph Trouillot’s theory of historical narratives •History understood as the distinction and overlap of the socio-historical...
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...Running head: PORTRAYAL OF BLACK WOMEN ON TELEVISION 1 Black Women on Television : The Blaxploitation Endured in America Breanna Robinson St. John’s University BLACK WOMEN ON TELEVISION 2 The Portrayal of Black Women on Television Shows: Blaxploitation in America From the commencement of time, black women were subjugated to ridicule and stereotyping within their character. However, especially through texts and...
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