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European colonization to american societies
European colonization to american societies
Native American interaction with Europeans
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“Black Awakening in Capitalist America”, Robert Allen’s critical analysis of the structure of the U.S.’s capitalist system, and his views of the manner in which it exploits and feeds on the cultures, societies, and economies of less influential peoples to satiate its ever growing series of needs and base desires. From a rhetorical analysis perspective, Allen describes and supports the evidence he sees for the theory of neocolonialism, and what he sees as the black people’s place within an imperial society where the power of white influence reigns supreme. Placing the gains and losses of the black people under his magnifying glass, Allen describes how he sees the ongoing condition of black people as an inevitable occurrence in the spinning cogs of the capitalist machine. Before entering into the main body of his writing, Allen describes to readers the nature of the “semicolony”, domestic colonialism, and neocolonialism ideas to which he refers to throughout the bulk of his book. Priming the reader for his coming argument, Allen introduces these concepts and how they fit into the white imperialist regime, and how the very nature of this system is designed to exploit the native population (in this case, transplanted native population). He also describes the “illusion” of black political influence, and the ineffectiveness (or for the purposes of the white power structure, extreme effectiveness) of a black “elite”, composed of middle and upper class black Americans. Allen goes on to explain and support his views on black neocolonialism. He does so by illustrating his views of black power, from the original conception of the term, and the history of effort towards giving the black community political influence. Continuing from this ... ... middle of paper ... ... of it. The only manner in which significant populations of people could truly escape this economic entrapment would be through hard fought social reform, but the path would not be easy to walk for any party involved. I believe that the model of a black domestic colony allows one to gain a clearer view of problems that are faced in attempting to escape the impoverished state that the greater black population finds itself in. But, in my opinion, I do not find it to be the best manner with which to look at the reality of the situation. For while the poverty of the black population is unique, this one community cannot be specifically isolated from the whole of American poverty. Generational poverty in the U.S. is a complex issue and I do not believe it can be properly portrayed through such a simplified model. With that in mind, to me the model is just that, a model.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
After the black Americans were freed from their slave masters they did not have ‘a cent in their pockets’ and ‘without a hut to shelter them’ . This obvious lack a home, and the monetary funds needed to support them [the freed slaves] and their families, together with the lack of widespread Government support meant that many slaves continued to live in poverty, and in many ways, they could have been better off (economically), had they been left in bondage . For this reason, many Southern slaves ‘had little choice but to remain as paid labourers or to become sharecroppers working on the land as before’ . Sharecropping, which generally involved the ex-slaves renting land, tools, and a house from a white landlord, working the land that is given to them, and then providing the landlord with one-half to two-thirds of the produce . ‘This system kept the black cotton producers in an inferior position’ , which means that while they were ‘officially free’; they were still stuck in the previous cycle of working for their previous masters, without hope of escape for a better life. While this is what most ex-slaves did, some, like Jourdan Anderson, who left the farm on which he, was prior to being freed, with his family, ‘would rather stay here and starve - and die’ than to have his girls ‘brought to shame by...
Black Power, the seemingly omnipresent term that is ever-so-often referenced when one deals with the topic of Black equality in the U.S. While progress, or at least the illusion of progress, has occurred over the past century, many of the issues that continue to plague the Black (as well as other minority) communities have yet to be truly addressed. The dark cloud of rampant individual racism may have passed from a general perspective, but many sociologists, including Stokely Carmichael; the author of “Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America”, have and continue to argue that the oppressive hand of “institutional racism” still holds down the Black community from making any true progress.
C. Peter Riply at el.: African American Voices on Race, Slavery, and Emnancipation. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, 1993, pp15-37.
Since the first Africans arrived in what is now present day America in the 1500s, there has been reaffirming data supporting the importance of community to people of African descent. Despite large efforts to destroy this aspect of the African experience, many African Americans have maintained their kinships especially when the foundation is birthed from ethnic parallels. As a result of this affirmation, Dr. Mary Pattillo’s assertion on the present day black middle class and their commitment to restoring their community of North Kenwood- Oakland in her book, Black on the Block is no surprise. However, what is shocking is that the same declaration cannot be said for the African American middle class during what Dr. Pattillo deemed the ‘Black
Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under Our Feet explores the difficulties faced by blacks in America before, during, and after the civil war. He begins in the early eighteen-sixties with slaves on the cusp of freedom, and concludes in the early nineteen-hundreds with the occurrence of the Great Migration. Hahn, in focusing in on the rural south, strives to share the thought that African Americans revealed the complexity in the relationship between labor and politics in America. He believes that in their struggles to define and understand themselves, they also influenced greatly the development of a new nation.
This difficulty to see the issue that “attacks ones sense of reality” – the fear that the world may not be the same as it appears – is why progress is so slow. As African American people attempt to climb out of the pit whites forced them to dig hundreds of years ago, whites fail to see that they could use a ladder to get out. Baldwin and Coates’ views on white Americans ignorance to the problems clearly align, showing how they chose to ignore the problems because addressing them changes things, and they are afraid of
In his essay, “On Being Black and Middle Class” (1988), writer and middle-class black American, Shelby Steele adopts a concerned tone in order to argue that because of the social conflicts that arise pertaining to black heritage and middle class wealth, individuals that fit under both of these statuses are ostracized. Steele proposes that the solution to this ostracization is for people to individualize themselves, and to ‘“move beyond the victim-focused black identity” (611). Steele supports his assertion by using evidence from his own life and incorporating social patterns to his text. To reach his intended audience of middle-class, black people, Steele’s utilizes casual yet, imperative diction.
In “The New Negro,” Alain Locke expands on the hope that derived from the Harlem Renaissance, as well as the mass migration of southern blacks to the north and its major cities. In his article he explains how the “New Negro” expresses a new generation of black individuals that are uniting and are furthering the development and advancement of a black person's role in society, stepping away from the stereotypes founded by the oppressors. While the “old negro” may see this movement as a phase, he argues that the old negro remains compliant to the oppressor and disapproves the fact that they continue to appeal to the stereotypes laid onto them through white psychology, which continue the power whites have over blacks. In addition, he digs deep on the necessary change regarding the
Black thinkers have emerged throughout the troubled history of our nation despite the God-like presence in the opposition of their success. Alexander Crummell is one of these thinkers who drove through the oppressive forces of whiteness. In his writings, “Destiny and Race”, Crummell writes a section solely about “The Negro As a Source of Conservative Power”. Crummell summarizes the glaring problems of American society during this time and explains the reasons negroes are the chosen people to save America from it’s impending undoing.
In the years since the official end of slavery, the plight of Africans in America and Africans in the world is to subsist in a world that is dominated by a western culture whose aim is to subjugate all other cultures that resist conformity. Dr. Boykin Sanders, in his book, Blowing the Trumpet in Open Court” discusses the monumental negative effect of integration and those who support it on the African world. According to Sanders, integration robbed Africans in America of their independence and fortitude. He does not leave Africans in America unscathed in his assault on this phenomenon. He actually blames them for their plight. His discusses the plight of Africans in America and Africans on the continent by diagnosing the problem: The gaunt appearance of Africans in America today is rooted in a disease call integration. The gaunt appearance of Africans on the continent is rooted in a disease
At a young age, Malcolm saw the ways in which blacks were seen as inferior, when his father supported an organization that promoted the return of blacks to Africa. Malcolm watched at a young...
Booker T. Washington uses a variety of metaphors to convince the white people that the newly freed slaves are the catalysts for their economy and have not changed from before. Washington stresses the importance of the black people to the white peoples as he commands them to “Cast it down among the eight million of Negroes whose habits you know” (450). The whites are looking for new labor to fill the positions opened by the freeing of the slaves, and Washington replies to look no further than the freed slaves. Through “casting it down” where they are, the white people can still gain prosperity through hiring the people they had once enslaved, without going distances to find what they need. With this he proves that the black people are vital to the economy and prosperity for America, enslaved or freed. Furthermore, Washington first sets the scene for the white people about the black people’s situation, making it a dark and dreary scene...
Dr. Liebow, born in Washington, dropped out of high school to join the Marine Corps in 1942 and saw action in the South Pacific during World War II, He earned an English literature degree on the GI Bill. He received a bachelor's degree in English literature from George Washington University in 1949 and pursued graduate studies in ancient history at the University of Maryland before turning to anthropology. Liebow sets out to show the hypocrisies that lead black men to this circumstance. The study is carried out in Washington D.C. The key argument posed by Liebow is that black males are incapable of attaining jobs because they lack education. He also argues that this is a cycle that inevitably results in a trans-generational marginalization of the black race. On top of this, he argues that the white middle class are unrelenting with their methods of depriving black advancement in American society. Liebow picked a location that would be easy to get to from his office and his home in Brookland: 11th and M streets NW in Shaw, a corner that had a carryout, liquor store, dry cleaner and shoe-repair shop. He went to 11th and M nearly every day for 18 months. He accompanied the men to bars and parties. He went to court appearances and visited them in
Black Consciousness movement is “revolution in consciousness that encompasses all black institutions, including the Black Church.”(2939) This movement was a much needed awakening in the conscious minds of Black people. For years they were subjected to dehumanization tactics, which resulted in loathing of self. Collectively, Black people are thought to have an immense dislike for everything which resembled that of the African. We were a “people who hated our African characteristics.” (2931) We hated our skin, we hated our hair, we hated our features, we found ourselves feeling imprisoned in our skin. Prisoners to an unjust society merely because of the hue of their skin. They were forever in bondage; no longer were they in physical chains, but now they were in mental chains. A shift in perspective in the 1960’s and 1970’s invoked a change in the mentality of the Black community. Their consciousness was roused with a “revolution” undertone. The people wanted change. They wanted an identity that no longer made them feel hostages in a foreign land, but one which embraced their h...