...accompanies the existence of being an African American. However, contrary to the popular tactic of most protestors, Baldwin did not label white people as the enemy for victimizing African Americans. Instead, he considered the white people to be the victims and deemed it a responsibility of the black community to accept their white countrymen for this crutch. In the heart of his letter, Baldwin wanted to convey to his nephew that he should never give into the standards of the white folk; instead, he should help the whites come into the acknowledgment of their primitive and unjust beliefs. And in the pursuit of a better America, he should lovingly accept his countrymen into the new era. The contents of his letter served to remove his nephew from the immediate danger of losing himself and to advise his nephew by outlining the reason white people oppose integration. Baldwin believed that his nephew was in crucial danger and made references to his predecessors in order to highlight how tolling the white folk’s standards could be on a black man’s spirit. The grandfather’s life represented the most degradative effect the white people could have on a black man. “… he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died, because at the bottom of his heart, he truly believed what white people said about him…” (pp 13 Baldwin). Baldwin’s point was obvious: if his nephew followed in the steps of his grandfather by accepting the standards of white people, then he would be defeated and his...
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...Its Effects on Minority Racial Groups When we talk about race it is almost exclusively in black and white with occasional mentions of Latinos. The struggles of the races in-between are often left out of the conversation and arguably none more so than that of Asian Americans. People often see Asians are the exception to racism, the successful marginalized group that highlights the American dream. This mindset has been captured in the idea of the “model minority”, referring to Asians and their perceived successes in the United States. The myth of Asians as the “model minority” is an idea constructed to protect white privilege and prosperity by creating a culture of racial minorities competing against each...
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...For the past 22 years People magazine has composed a list of the 50 most beautiful people. The list typically includes movie and television stars, musicians, British royalty, models, and television personalities. Every year the magazine crowns the year’s “most beautiful” and features them on the cover. Of the 22 most beautiful 19 have been women and out of the 19 women 16 have been White. This signals to People’s readers that beautiful means White and everything else does not equate beauty. However, this is not unique to People or even magazines like it, but instead represents a larger trend that is present in all forms of Western popular culture. In the various mediums of popular culture, ideologies about female beauty are exceedingly prevalent and constantly managed and reproduced. These ideologies carry with them the notion that in order to obtain ideal female beauty one must be very thin, young, have long hair, and wear expensive or revealing clothing (Stern, 2004). In addition to this there is also a raced definition of beauty, which predominates Western popular culture and dictates that White women with light hair and eye color can only attain true beauty. By looking closely at fashion magazines, television shows, movies and advertisements it is easy to see how Asian, Black and Latina women are underrepresented and misrepresented; and more importantly beauty is not typically associated with these and other nonwhite races. The power and importance of popular culture in today’s...
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...While national news media continue to focus on race in Ferguson, Missouri, where a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, they apparently don’t think a similar case in Utah with the races reversed is that newsworthy. According to several media outlets the shooting death of Michael brown on August 9, 2014 in Fergusson, Missouri. Mike Brown an unarmed black teenage male was shot and killed by a white Police Officer Darren Wilson causing a uproar of riots, protest and discussion of police brutality and racism in United States. This incident gained national attention on social media, it was broadcast on television and newspaper worldwide. The facts and the circumstances of Mike Brown shooting incident still under federal and local investigation yet it resulted in protests and civil disorder and it also attracted attention of civil rights leaders, Celebrities, athletes, and the president of the United States also made a comment regarding this incident. According to the Washington times in salt Lake City, Utah Mr. Dillon Taylor 20 years old white male was exiting a 7-eleven with his brother and cousin when officers arrived into investigate of a person with a gun call in the area. Mr. Taylor whom was unarmed and wearing headphones at the time ignored officer’s command and he was shot by the officer who is African American. Mr. Taylor’s friends and family held protest outside of state and federal offices demanding justice. Mr. Taylor incident occurred...
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...like the American way What does the slogan actually mean? An American would probably say that the American way of living is the best way of living and with high standards. But is it how the Americans really live? Fifty years ago, that might have been the answer from a white American, but for a colored American, an African American for instance, it is a whole other story. Back then, around the sixties, there weren’t much you could call laws that supported the blacks. In fact, they didn’t really have any rights at all. They weren’t allowed to sit on the same benches as the whites, nor the same buses as them. Women weren’t even allowed to vote! The females’ rights to vote happened in the twenties, but only for white women. Thinking that black women aren’t worthy enough to vote is absurd. That is what a country is about though, right? It is the people who are to decide how they want their country to be formed - All of them. Not just men. Not just the whites. They can’t just decide what other people want. The injustice does not stop there. Even as a child they grew up, believing that the black Americans were less worth than the whites. At school the black and white children went to different schools, as if they were different from each other. White children, and youth too, would refuse to go to the same school as “negroes”. Why and for what reason? Were the white youngsters smarter than the black? I doubt it. Did the blacks have more “problems” than the whites? Not because...
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...Rodney King, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, John Crawford, Tamir Rice, Marlene Pinnock, Dontre Hamilton, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Akai Gurley, Freddie Gray, and Tony Robinson are just some of the many unarmed African Americans killed by the police within recent years. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me, discusses these injustices. He addresses these topics to his son, Samori. He also discourses his memoir towards white Americans so he can bequeath awareness about what it is like to grow up African American. Coates discussed growing up as an African American in the Baltimore projects. He argues about the inequalities of the public-school system and about white Americans stuck in “the Dream” (Coates 11). “The Dream” is the ingroup favoritism of white...
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...before the founding of our country, the American way of life has, and continues to be, hypocritical to the first lines of the Declaration of Independence. “That all men are created equal.” The lines that every American should hold dear to the heart, and many even lose their lives to uphold. America has seen many times of economic downturn, and economic prosperity. Though for African Americans; economics has been consistently been a downturn. The opportunity to play a role in, and to enjoy economic prosperity has always been an uphill battle for these groups. Racial inequality in America has always been inconsistent with equal opportunity in the job market. Which ultimately means that groups such as African Americans have always been deprived of their equal rights to fairly compete for jobs. Because the level of playing field is heavily shifted against minority groups and woman, there will always be high unemployment for these groups. What people tend to forget to realize is that this disparity in equal opportunity hurts the overall economy. When the nations employers deprive particular groups of economic opportunity, unemployment rises, and when unemployment rises, the poverty level will also rise. This is especially true for the case of African American. As we will see, African Americans fall below Caucasians in median income, and above Caucasians in poverty. We will also see a long history of inequalities towards African Americans in the Housing market. Comparative Median...
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...Morrison points out those major themes in American literature that have Caucasians playing the heroic protagonist whereas the African American plays the antagonist. African Americans are seen as the dark, or the wrong within media. Throughout history most African Americans play minor characters that add conflict to stories such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. American history of race has impacted the world and created problematic stereotypes. “I pointed out that cultural identities are formed and informed by a nation's literature. What seemed to be on the "mind" of the literature of the United States was the self-conscious but highly problematic construction of the American as a new white...
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...Taking Jobs from Americans “So Mexican Are Taking Jobs from Americans” is a poem written by Jimmy Santiago Baca. From the way the poem is written, we can infer that the author, himself, is the speaker, and the White, American population is his audience. We can gather this information because of his wording, for example, within the first few lines when he writes, “And do you, gringo, take off your ring, drop your wallet into a blanket spread over the ground, and walk away?” The words "you", "your", and "gringo" imlpy that he is speaking to White Americans. The tone of this particular poem seems, to me, to be very bitter in nature. Words and phrases that gave me this impression of bitterness can be found in lines 24-29 when he exclaims, “I see the poor marching for a little work, I see small white farmers selling out to clean-suited famers (referring to businessman) living in New York, who’ve never been on a farm, don’t know the look of a hoof of the smell of a woman’s body bending all day long in fields”. What I took from these lines is that he is of the opinion that the Mexican immigrants work just as hard as, if not harder than, White Americans, yet they reap little benefit from their efforts. This is different from the American mentality that we should be entitiled to a reward for our hard work. Other phrases that contribute to this association with bitterness are available in lines 20-23, which read, “The rifles I hear sound in the night are white farmers shooting...
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...what it was to be a free American. Challenged by reformist ideals “purifying” the land and the Industrial Revolution cementing capitalism into the framework of the nation’s economy, Black people and Indians found themselves pushed out of the national identity. Much of this struggle can be witnessed through an analysis of American theater at the time. Stereotypical portrayals of Black Americans through Black Face Minstrelsy and of American Indians in Indian Plays highlight how White Americans invented social constructs to dehumanize or ridicule “other’ races and protect an imagined White American identity with no static definition. The basis for arguing in defense of a singular definition or identity begins with the denial of all others. In the case of White Americans, this was accomplished by dehumanizing all “other” races. With the advent of abolition and its ideals permeating society, Black slaves had the hope that freedom was attainable, and free White’s adopted fears of a common people class developing in the future with “unthinkable” consequences like widespread amalgamation. Slavery would no longer be the precondition for separatism. The void was filled in part by theories of racial science as developed by scientists like Craniologist Samuel Morton. According to his studies, races could be determined by the size and shape of their skulls and by consequence the variances are what made brains larger or smaller, well equipped or malformed, the White Race most superior to all...
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...terribly because of the color of their skin. This novel also reflects the time at which it was written because in the 1960’s racism against African Americans was still a big problem. To Kill a Mocking bird is a timeless classic because it teaches readers what it was like to live in 1930’s and issues of racism, it relates to the time period it was written in , and it also still relates to issues that are present today. During the 1930’s racism was a very big issue in the south. African Americans were treated extremely un- fair and had little civil rights. They were persecuted and discriminated against because of the color of their skin and no other reason but that. Racist Americans seemed to really think that African Americans were less important and less human then white people because there skin was brown. “Despite the decline of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, racism was as strong as ever, especially in the Southern states” (Allen). To me this shows that the racist white American was ignorant and honestly stupid to think that a person was less important and less human because their skin was a different color. African Americans in south were severely segregated from the white people , whether it be in a restaurant, a store or just walking down the sidewalk. To kill a mocking shows how un-fairly African Americans were treated when they were accusing Tom Robinson of something he did not do just because he was black. They assumed it was him and conjured up un reasonable...
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...Yang discusses his own experiences as an Asian American, tying them into the larger picture of Asians functioning in American society today. Yang’s argument is that even though Asian Americans are one of the most successful ethnicities in the country, stereotypes that Asian Americans are exposed to affect the way other Americans view them. Because of personal bias and racism, human society fails to see other people for who they are and put too much emphasis on what they are supposed to or not supposed to be in America today. Stereotypes cloud people’s vision and judgment and keep some from achieving their goals because others have a pre-created idea for who or what one person of a certain ethnic background. Through community building and diversity, stereotypes can be put to rest so that a new understanding of who individuals really are can begin and success can be achieved. There is a common stereotype that Asian Americans are naturally smarter than everyone else on this earth. While some Asian Americans may be smarter than the average human, it is more than likely not a naturally occurring phenomenon. Asian Americans do not support or believe in the idea of intrinsic, or natural, intelligence. What they do believe in is that “constant practice of test-taking will improve the scores of whoever commits to it (535).” It’s not about natural ability, rather the amount of effort one is willing to put into a goal. Asian Americans are not born more intrinsically intelligent than...
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...in most locations, what race has been in the majority: ? Throughout most of U.S. history the white race has been the majority. It was the white race who was the first settlers This race is majority because of the social standards they have not just because of the population. The white race was the first settlers in the new land. As known, the most common ancestral background of most members of this group is European. Europeans came to this land for new life opportunities. They were able to come together and form their own country and boundaries because they broke ties off with their European rulers. http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com What is the common ancestral background of most members of this group? Some of the largest racial minorities are black, Hispanic, and Asian. The black population in America began at the same time as the white population, however “the frican people were brought involuntarily and in bondage” (Schaefer, 2012) The black population hails from Africa, however, there are many different cultures throughout the continent that contributed to slave trade and the immigration of blacks to America. Hispanics have been in the United Staes longer than it has been a country, having travelled north from the Aztec and Myan civilizations. Duing the time of exploration and conoliztion”the Spaniards conqurered the land and merged with the Native Americans to form the Mexican people” (Schaefer, 2012) http://www.antiessays.com What are some...
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...defined as the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. This is the truth of racism, but we only see the black and white of this situation. We sometimes forget that other colors exist in the world. African Americans and Hispanics are not the only ones that suffer racism in the United States. As an Asian American we not only suffer from racism but neglect as a race, high standard stereotypes and discrimination. When it comes to racism, Asian Americans are always forgotten. It’s always issues between the African Americans and the Caucasian Americans. To them, it’s only black and white there is nothing in between. There are always side glances and a certain hatred towards Asian American. Growing I was raised with a mindset that my parents had to give up everything in their life in Vietnam in order to give me the life I live now; that I must work hard to keep that. I feel like there has always been a jealousy by other races towards Asians and Asian Americans. As I went through grade school, I came across many offensive phrases one would call “stereotypes.” Though stereotypes of Asian Americans are what people would call positive, It’s not all that it cracks up to be. It’s tough growing up with people having such high expectations for you. When I was younger, I loved all the attention I would get for being “Asian” but as I grew older, I realized...
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...African Americans girls view their self with beauty and the way they look to others young girls. African Americans females view beauty as the color tone of their skin, along with the way their hair appears to others around them in society. They see their self as being different with the color tone of their skin and the fact that their hair is “nappy”. The video also show the fact of what color doll they would pick out to play with and what doll was the “ugly” one. Race is made from the ancestors of one and the defining of skin color. Most African Americans can not trace their ancestors back to a certain part of African continent. The surprising thing of the video is not what one would think that a young African American would prefer their skin color to be in life. “ Any conduct based on a distinction made on grounds of natural or social categories, which have no relation either to individual capacities or merits, or to the concrete behavior of the individual person” ( Nieto, Bode, p. 63). The young African Americans girls talk about bleaching their bodies to be lighter in color because it is more beautiful to be light-skin than dark skin. The young girls were also asked to pick out the good doll from the bad doll and most picked the white doll instead of picking the doll more like their own color. Young African Americans want to look lighter in skin tone than to be dark –skinned. The attitude is that white girls have better and prettier hair than the African Americans. The...
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