With the exception of Native Americans, there is no race of people that originated in America. Yet today, we all come together under the colors of red, white and blue, sing the National Anthem and call ourselves "Americans". Despite our differences in religion, norms, values, national origins, our pasts, and our creeds, we all combine under one common denominator. Alain Locke addresses this issue of cultural pluralism in his article, "Who and What is `Negro'?" In this article, Locke states that, "There is, in brief, no `The Negro'. " By this, he means that blacks are not a uniform and unchanging body of people. He emphasizes that we, as Americans, need to mentally mature to a point where we do not view ourselves as all separate races, but as distinct parts of a composite whole.
Locke begins his article by questioning the reader if the use of terms such as "Negro art" and "Negro literature"are legitimate or products of our racial prejudice. He then poses the first of two main questions, "Who is Negro?" Using a quote from Richard Wright, Locke begins a series of arguments to illustrate that there is no definitive body of "The Negro". First Locke denies that what some call the black experience in America even exists. He argues that if the real Negro experience in America is defined as living a life of hardship and struggle or living a life of poverty, then this could apply to anyone, regardless of their race. He refers to this experience as being, "...common denominator proletarian rather than racially distinctive" - meaning a working class experience rather than a "black" experience. Locke then goes on to talk about the complexity of the ...
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...ich advocated cultural harmony, Malcolm was, indeed, very radical in his views.
In this article, Locke is trying to stress that we as Americans need to mature mentally to the point where can see the "Negro" as being culturally distinct and having its idiosyncrasies, but also a part of the American whole. He is not saying that we should realize our differences, but we should not let them separate us. Locke's argument is very insightful as he correctly identifies common stereotypes that exist in the American society. However, as previously stated, Locke's argument is problematic in the fact that it is incomplete. His argument does not explain the usefulness of the argument he goes to such great lengths to prove. Locke's arguments may be conservative in nature; however, he still presents many valid points that still apply to contemporary American society.
During the Harlem Renaissance period, Alain Locke considers African Americans as transforming into someone “new.” He describes how African Americans migrated from the south to the north and were given new opportunities. The old Negro was being taken away from constantly being scrutinized by the public and whites. The Negros transformed into stronger intellectuals which was significant because before they weren’t allowed to do so. For example, “Similarly the mind of the Negro slipped from under the tyranny of social intimidation and to be shaking off the imitation and implied inferiority.” The “new” Negro strived for equal rights. Alain Locke describes other factors that pushed African Americans to move north to discover a “rebirth.” The “new” Negro went north to obtain the opportunity to move up from the bottom, to get away from the Ku Klux Klan, and to get away from the pressure of having to many poor crops. For instance, he says “The wash and rush of this human tide on the beach line of the northern city centers is to be explained primarily in terms of a new vision of opportunity, of social and economic freedom, of a spirit to seize, even in the face of an extortionate and heavy toll, a chance for the improvement of conditions.” By moving North the African Americans had a chance to live a better life and were set free of depending on the whites to take care of them in exchange for their labor. He also believes that the Negro began to experience something “new” by the way they began to understand and accept the Negro race. For example, Locke says, “With this renewed self- respect and self-dependence, the life of the negro community is bound to enter a new dynamic phase, the buoyancy from within compensating for whatever pressure there may be conditions from without.” The “new” then recognized the ability to become independent, which was a significant role of the “new” Negro because by gaining independence they then discover a life for themselves.
This week I read the short article on Alan Locke’s, “Enter the New Negro”. This article is discussing the Negro problem in depth. “By shedding the chrysalis of the Negro problem, we are achieving something like spiritual emancipation”. Locke believes that if we get rid of whatever is holding us back we would gain something renewing and beautiful.
Hahn’s most important point is his idea that a large number of black activists put forth multi-racial and democratic vision of the nation in which birth and loyalty determined rights and citizenship rather than race. Because African Americans put forth this remarkably modern view of America, it brings up the question of who built and defined this great
In Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State Virginia, Query 14 & 18 Jefferson uses the literary technique of compare and contrast as well as rhetorical questions to describe how white people are far more superior to slaves. However, by minimizing the validity of the African peoples beauty and way of life he only shows himself to be ignorant and insecure.As a result, Thomas Jefferson's Query 14 & 18 showcases the psychological disabilities that comes with “whiteness”.
They argue that the accruing of property by figures such as Johnson meant that they literally did not think of themselves as living within a racist society, and that, despite the decline of this freedom, it is a mistake to consider their opinions as an “aberration” in a narrative of inevitable racial exploitation (Breen & Innes, 112). Rather, they claim that to understand such people as such an aberration inevitably leads to a situation in which the real equality of their freedom is
In the first section of Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie, “The World of Reality”, Frazier introduces his discussion of the interplay of class and race. He outlines the historical roots of the social place of most African-Americans in the U.S.A. and that of the black middle class. Frazier asserts the inconsequential place of middle class African-Americans and their resulting inferiority complex. He depicts the black middle class as living in a “no man’s land” in the dominant white culture of America.
The author suggests that racial distinctions are obscured due to the fact that one population is forced to live amongst another population and do not comprehend the repercussions of this act; for example, slaves that were taken from West Africa and put in the Southern United States. Hacking goes on to say that it is possible that “the desire of one racial group to dominate, exploit or enslave another demands legitimacy in societies” (104). Due to the history of the United States, it is clear that the white race has considered themselves superior over other races. In fact, according to Ian Hacking, most anthropologists believed there were only five races. The races were named geographically but recognized by color. Caucasian, Ethiopian, Mongolian, American and Malayan were the five
“Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. This is what it means to be black” (Alexander 197). Today our nation represents an interracial racial caste system - a caste system that includes white people within its control as a means to remain a colorblind system. Mass incarceration is no different than slavery or Jim Crow, it is simply a new racial caste system in the age of colorblindness (Alexander
"Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, I wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty, and the capacity to remember were native with man. I asked myself if these human qualities were not fostered, won, struggled and suffered for, preserved in ritual from one generation to another." This passage written in Black Boy, the autobiography of Richard Wright shows the disadvantages of Black people in the 1930's. A man of many words, Richard Wrights is the father of the modern American black novel. Wright has constituted in his novels the social and economic inequities that were imposed in the 30's in hope of making a difference in the Black Community. His writing eventually led many black Americans to embrace the Communist Party.
Contrary to a common modern misconception, Lincoln did not believe that Negroes were equal to white men in regards to intellect or morals. In his fourth debate in Charleston, Illinois, he is direct...
First, he breaks down the idea of race as a biologically constructed fact. He argues that race as a biological construction was used to set up a system of oppression that benefitted whites. He counters this construction by claiming that race can be constructed many different ways. Tommy Lott’s article "Du Bois and Locke on the Scientific Study of the Negro” further deconstructs the idea of race as a solely biological construction and establishes that race can be biologically, socially, and culturally constructed. Lott explains how each construction further perpetuates a racial caste, but he explains that the social and cultural construction of race, although false in its ideology about races, is how society is able to allocate a status of superiority or inferiority. Societal statuses are accompanied with privilege and economic advantages. Furthermore, Du Bois explains that white society clings to the established constructions of race because of its ability to create a caste system that affords whites with exclusive economic privileges.
Nevertheless, when certain scholars think about and discuss race in society, they often take different approaches than those by Mills mentioned prior. However, regardless of the different approaches that may be taken, often times a common idea can be found amongst them, which further ties in The Racial Contract. For example, the text “Racial Formation in the United States” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, as well as “The Lincoln-Douglass Debates” can both be found to have a correlation regarding race within Mill’s work. As can be observed through the historical events that have occurred over time, race can be seen as a simple idea, but rather it is not and can instead be seen as a complex topic of discussion with more intricacies than what may be originally exposed. In his text, Mills attempts to explain some of these intricacies by starting with the way that race has culminated itself through the happenings and changes that have developed historically in society.
However, I have to say that I sided more with Du Bois Ideology and I will explain why. It has been decades since these philosophers started to fight social injustice and racial discrimination and until these days little to no change have been made. We see things like police brutality, where the life of a “black’ person is less valuable that a “white” one. We see massive incarceration of African American man for committing minor crimes and a “white” man that massacres a multitude is not a criminal but a “poor” mental ill person. I believe that no matter how hard we fight racism and social injustice it is always going to be present in our society no matter what. If we have segregated schools with equal resources distributed at least we’re going to make sure that African Americans are receiving the proper education they deserve. Moreover, Locke’s idea of “The New Negro” where he thinks that by African Americans redefining themselves and becoming new people is going to fix the racial problem is not realistic. No matter how educated African American get, they are still not recognized as the intellectual race that they are. Art and poetry is not going to make African Americans be accepted in this racist society. No matter how hard and educated African Americans get, they’re still making less money that “white” people. Locke mas a more universal philosophy where he
“Black, white and brown are merely skin colors. But we attach to them meanings and assumptions, even laws that create enduring social inequality.”(Adelman and Smith 2003). When I first heard this quote in this film, I was not surprised about it. Each human is unique compared to the other; however, we are group together based on uncontrollable physical characteristics. Eyes, hair texture, and skin tone became a way to separate who belongs where. Each group was labeled as having the same traits. African Americans were physically superior, Asians were the more intellectual race, and Indians were the advanced farmers. Certain races became superior to the next and society shaped their hierarchy on what genes you inherited.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Which shows how even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed the African Americans from slavery, they still are not free because of segregation. He then transitions to the injustice and suffering that the African Americans face. He makes this argument when he proclaims, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”.