...The books explains race as a group of people who share a set of characteristics- typically, but not always, physical ones- and are said to share a common bloodline. "When the term race comes up in America today, we usually think in two colors: black and white. But, at the turn of the twentieth century, Americans categorized themselves into anywhere from 36 to 75 different races that they organized into hierarchies". In the early modern world, European colonizers, confronted with people living in newly discovered lands, interpreted human physical differences first with biblical and later with scientific explanations. They used a story in the book of Genesis 9, the curse of ham, to determine primitive and degraded races of Africa. In the tale,...
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...Despite many beliefs, race only became a dominant factor in slavery until the mid-17th century. Early 17th-century indentured servitude and slavery shared many qualities such as neither were strictly race-based, and the people were treated like commodities; they differed in that indentured servitude was not permanent and resulted in awards, unlike slavery. Indentured servants were people without means that made agreements to work for usually 5-7 years in exchange for their “freedom dues.” These were people without means who had no other options but to agree to this harsh labor and race was often not a factor until Bacon’s Rebellion caused the Virginia legislature to grant greater powers to white indentured slaves in spite, thereby creating...
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...(pp. 285-301), Bill Joy expresses a powerful pessimism about the dangers of technologies that may be developed later in our century. Joy also a muted optimism about humans' ability to use ethical principles to avoid those dangers. What are Joy's best reasons for being pessimistic? What are his strongest reasons for expressing optimism? As you consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of those reasons, explain whether and why you find yourself more pessimistic or more optimistic about the issues that Joy raises. (PL 401) INTRODUCTION The development of technologies in the modern world has been seen to many as blessing. The use of technology has greatly affect the living style of human race as most of them are develop to improve life of human being and also prolong their lifetime, for instance the use of technology such as robot in carrying out surgical operation in the hospitals to treat diseases like cancer, genetic engineering in farming to increase production is a great promised that the technology has brought. On the other hand, Bill Joy who is a well known computer elite expresses his fear that the technology advancement in the modern world could bring more harm than good to human race and the planet at large. Joy feels that the technologies that may develop later in the 21st century could jeopardize human being and questions ethical role that the communities have on them. Joy urges others technology elites...
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...after reading some of the most well-known, and some less well known, books written by black writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it becomes evident that the style and voice of books written by black female writers carry a different weight of importance and power within the scope of literature....
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...Race and Why It Is UNimportant Race plays a very important role in our lives. It seems like everyday there is another story on the news that reiterates the idea that someone's race is what makes them who they are. It is their identity. Their soul. And any attack or privilege that happens to them, stems from their race.But what about someone's work ethic, attitude, or intelligence. Could these not also explain the reason why a person is successful or a failure? Or is race the only factor that plays a part in the success of someone? With so many opposing arguments it is hard to understand what is fact and what is fiction, when it comes to discussions on race. With that being said, I believe that race does not matter because leading african-americans...
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...At the turn of the last century, WEB Dubois wrote, “The 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...
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...However, as the statue becomes more colored, so does the school; “the Roosevelt school / is pronounced Hernández” (9-10) and children paint the Roosevelt statue with “parrot-brilliant colors” (26) to further represent the mix of cultures when a school desegregates. The use of “shoved” in line 20 identifies Roosevelt, a white man, with a bully, and the image is further perpetuated by his motive of “eugenic spite” (20). The colored children, then, are the obvious victims of Roosevelt’s hate because they ruin American eugenics, which additionally associates him with the picture of Nazis and their idea of a superior race. The nostalgia of American imperialism described in the first stanza turns into an act of oppression towards the imperialized countries during...
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...Kristy Nguyen JOUR453 Spring 2014 The Meaning of Race in a 21st-Century America As far as America has come in the battle for equality and improving civil rights, the topic of race still looms over our nation and sparks many different debates. The division of the 21st-century isn’t as obvious as it used to be in the past, there are no “Whites Only” sign to direct us and the simplistic black-white concept of race no longer exists. The issue lies much deeper than we could ever imagine and its fast-paced change is making it difficult to comprehend. The increase in the multiracial population further adds to the complexity of this topic and our ideas on race. That is why Center for American Progress located in Washington, D.C. decided to tackle this matter head-on by opening an in-depth panel discussion entitled “The Meaning of Race in a 21st-Century America” to dig into America’s history to find the origins of race, address race and ethnicity today as the nation’s demographics are shifting, and emphasize the importance of the U.S. Census to accurately represent the people of this. Featured panelists included Rinku Sen, President and Executive Director of Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation; Julie Dowling, Associate Professor, Department of Latina/Latino Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Roderick Harrison, Senior Research Fellow, Civic Engagement and Governance Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; and Hilary O. Shelton,...
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...Hector Reyes Minorities in the US Professor Chin 02 February 2016 Summary/Personal Reflection In the article “Origin of the Idea of Race” by Audrey Smedley he talks about the word race. Smedley says in the opening paragraph ““Race” was a recent invention and that it was essentially a folk idea, not a product of scientific research and discovery.” Race was used as a term to allow slavery to exist. The article also discusses how slavery existed before African were ever brought to America as slaves. Before Africans, there were Irish people and poor white people being used as slaves. Irish were used as slaves by the English due to hostile relations in the 13th century. The English even passed laws to enslave poor white people, and using excuses as though they were doing these people a favor. Most slaves of the English were Irish, Poor white people and Indians. The article also says that at the turn of the 17th century demand for labor grew. The Irish and Indians would be build rebellions to oppose strict laws and making them difficult, not good slaves. Due to the high labor demands, slaves had to come from somewhere else. This is where race becomes made up and Africans become the target. According to the article the image of Africans were positives. Africans had a set government were farmers. English though thought they were better laborers and once brought to the New World had nowhere to go. They also were immune to the disease the English carried. The Indians...
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...about how Americans in the last part of the 19th century have actually formulated the values of being barbaric against immigrants and foreigners that are both found inside and outside the country. It is from this book that wide and open reflections can be done as to how America have been influenced enough to its formation of the immigration laws in the ways that they applied racial discriminations and superiority against other races. These attitudes of the 19th century America is considered to be the primary factors that led to the formation of the American laws regarding immigration and its country’s history. In fact, this can be the considered turning point of the American society as to how they have actually regarded themselves more powerful than the rest of the other races. This should hold true in the ways that America allowed immigrants to work in the country and thus leading to the economic boom of the country. This, in turn, allowed the creation of the Centennial Exhibition and political stability through immigrant children. Outside interaction of the Americans would apply the same concepts of the American superiority. In the discussion that follows, we consider the particular relations of the Americans to foreigners and how this has actually affected the formations of laws that would, in some ways, consider the Americans barbaric. Primarily, we may have to consider the situation of the Americans in the 19th century. This is be a well-known time of the American society...
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...major problem of our society. Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior of inferior to another because of skin color, language, customs and place of birth. Racial discrimination has always been a major talk in the U.S. society, and it is an ongoing concern in today’s society. Race is still a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. The problem of racial discrimination has been in existence for centuries and will exist if we together do not work with mutual understanding and co-operation; unless there is the feeling of global fraternity. I believe we are the ones to create this problem and it would be a mystery unless we work out together. I, myself am a victim of racism and I have friends who are victims of racism not only in their workplace but in their daily life. We are called upon as “Hey you” instead of our names, only because I am not white. I loose many opportunities in my life though I had the equal potentials as other whites. I am always judge by my color not by my talents. It is we ourselves who made this discrimination. So, we should work together to stop this discrimination. It’s been years that people got freedom from slavery, but racial discrimination is still practiced in the society. Our nation is the most developed nation in the world, but racial discrimination still rules our society. We think that there are only two races of people in our society ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’. And whites always get more...
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...W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington could be considered the “twin towers” when it comes to black history in America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although from different generations, their attention focused on the African-American struggle for political, social and economic equality. However, they sharply disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress; to better understand their opposing philosophies, it is helpful to also consider their radically different backgrounds, which influenced their world-views. W.E.B. Du Bois was born in Massachusetts, three years after the end of the Civil War. His great-grandfather had fought in the American Revolution and his family had been part of the community for generations. Du Bois learned of his African roots from his grandmother, and was given a sense of destiny from his mother, who raised him after his father left home. Du Bois was a brilliant young man, working as a correspondent for New York newspapers while still in high school, and, with the help of influential members of his community, went to Fisk University in Nashville. His years at Fisk changed his life – there Du Bois met sons and daughters of former slaves, who embodied the cultural and spiritual tradition that Du Bois had glimpsed as a child. He also encountered the White South, and saw how they were destroying the achievements of Reconstruction. He saw the suffering of rural blacks when he taught school during the summers...
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...Hampton University Hampton, Virginia Impact of Electing a Black President Presented to Dr. William Young Survey of African American History - 107 By Alexandra Washington July. 8, 2012 The black community in America has been marginalized, exploited, and subjugated; African Americans have endured centuries of trials and challenges and their collective history is riddled with success and failure, starts and stops, hope and despair, and the election of a [B]lack president has only revealed the reprehensible views of others. “The darkest aspects of American history have often been hidden from plain view…ignorance of our shared history sustains our parallel universes” (Marable, 2006). Now that the issue of race has surfaced, many people now see race as a separate entity that plays a large part in electing a president but others say that it's not about skin tone. I mean, “how could the American people elect a guy with less experience than their local dry cleaner?” (Cullen, 2012). Despite all of the hatred amongst angry conservatives, there are an abundance of achievements that President Obama have obtained since his election in 2008.There are 3 major accomplishments that I intend to focus on. How he has; 1. Made use of social media unlike any president before him, and initiated a plan for other candidates. 2. Energized the youth vote 3. Sadly, revealed that we are not as much of a post-racial society as we have thought. The use of social media can give...
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...Byzantine Empire. These Roman factions transitioned with the sport, which played an important role in the history of Byzantium. These factions had an even stronger social and political influence, and in the end, played a role in the demise of its own sport, along with the eventual demise of an empire. The origin of Chariot Racing is an unknown commodity. The first known reference to the sport was by Homer at a funeral for Patroclus where he claimed they raced only one lap around a tree. According to a legend, chariot racing founded the Olympic Games. Pelops supposedly founded the games in his own honor after he defeated King Oenomaus in a race for his daughter Hippodamia. That being said, chariot racing dates back to at least the sixth century BC. There are also depictions of chariot racing on the Lucanians of Sicily in the fifth century BC. Races were supposedly associated with funeral games, whether that...
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...idea that blacks were inferior to whites. Blacks and whites weren’t allowed to interact with each other. Jim Crow was the informal term for types of precise separation utilized by whites against African Americans from the second half of the nineteenth century through the main portion of the twentieth. The expression implies the legal parts of the shading line, additionally incorporates the social and typical traditions of progressive race relations. Jim Crow laws separated blacks and whites. These rules stated what a black person...
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