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Race relations are defined as ways in which people of different races living together in the same community behave toward one another. The United States has struggled with race relations since the beginning. There has been white and Chinese, white and Vietnamese, and white and black conflicts throughout our history. During the time of Reconstruction, race relations between the whites and blacks was strained at best. Three popular men of this time wrote about these relations and offered keen insight in their publications. Dubois, Wright, and Myrdal shared their views on race relations during the 1930s-1940s in America. Race relations between African Americans and whites following Reconstruction resulted in dramatic changes and has had a lasting impact on society today.
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American author and historian who eventually became a founding member of the NAACP. He published the
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influential book Black Reconstruction in America in 1935. The chapter titled “The Propaganda of History” questioned the way that Reconstruction was being studied and taught during this time period. He concluded that all African Americans were depicted in a negative way that was very misleading and completely false. He shared that American children were taught fallacies such as all Negroes were ignorant; all Negroes were lazy, dishonest and extravagant; and that Negroes were responsible for bad government. Du Bois believed that history has been falsified because the nation was ashamed of their actions. The second selection was written by Richard Wright who was an American author who wrote The Ethics of Living Jim Crow in 1937. In this autobiographical sketch, an African American man shares his experiences with legal codes in the context of employment. He explains the way white and black people interacted within the realms of these boundaries according to the Jim Crow laws. These specific laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation immediately following the time of Reconstruction. Wright talks about how he learned the proper way to act around white people in order to be safe and avoid confrontation. He recalled how this education was brutally cruel and shared many occasions where blacks were punished for just being black. For example, he shared a time when he was physically beaten by two men when falsely accused of calling another white coworker by his first name instead of the formal Mr. Pease. He told his family about the incident and their response was “I must never again attempt to exceed my boundaries” (Wright, 1937). The final selection was from a book titled An American Dilemma written by Gunnar Myrdal in 1944.
This piece differed in that it was written by a Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician. Myrdal was very respected and won a Nobel Prize in economic studies. Since Myrdal was a non-American, many viewed his thoughts as un-biased. This selection was used in the landmark decision of Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. He relates that as an outsider, it appears that white Americans would like to eliminate or greatly decrease the number of Negroes from America. He also stated that “these opinions are seldom expressed publicly” (Myrdal, 1944). However, many Southerners did not totally agree with this movement. The Southerners exploited the Negroes and were quite dependent on them to increase their fortune. He referred to the American Creed, which is the belief in equality, justice, and freedom. He explained how the current actions of Americans contradicted with these beliefs. He concluded that racism was deeply rooted in all parts of American
life. There are many similarities and differences in these three selections. The selections are similar in that they were written by respected men during the 1930s-40s, the content dealt with race relations in the United States, and all believed that race relations were not good. In contrast, Dubois was a white American author, Wright was a black American author, while Myrdal was from Sweden. Dubois seemed very passionate about the misconceptions of history and how lies were being shared in history textbooks with all children. Wright gave his personal experiences as a black man living during this time and almost seemed defeated at times. Myrdal wrote in an unbiased way while presenting facts about race relations and the contradictions within the American Creed. After reading these selections, it is apparent why we struggle with race relations between whites and blacks today. It is the belief of this writer that history in texts may not always be the truth, Blacks did not deserve the treatment they received, and most Americans still have an inner struggle with the American Creed. Our actions do not always agree with our beliefs of equality and this causes controversy even today. While racism may be diminishing, it is still found today and that is sad.
Flashing forward a few years later past the days of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, several, but not all in the younger generation see the members of the black and white race as equal and find it hard to fathom that only a few years ago the atmosphere surrounding racial relations was anything but pleasant. Whites and blacks have co-existed for many hundreds of years, but as Tyson points ...
Rudwick, Elliott. "W. E. B. Du Bois (American Sociologist and Social Reformer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
As a nation coming out of a devastating war, America faced many changes in the 1920s. It was a decade of growth and improvements. It was also a decade of great economic and political confidence. However, with all the changes comes opposition. Social and cultural fears still caused dichotomous rifts in American society.
Du Bois was a scholar activist who proposed lots of solutions for the issue of racism and discrimination. Du Bois was sort of an opposition to Washington’s ideology, as he strongly believes that it can only help to disseminate white’s oppression towards blacks. We can see his dissatisfaction based on his writing with a title On Booker T. Washington and Others. He wrote that Washington’s philosophy was really not a good idea because the white extremists from the south will perceived this idea as blacks’ complete surrender for the request of civil rights and political equality. Du Bois had a different view on this issue if compared to Washington because of their different early lifestyles. Unlike Washington, Du Bois was born free in the North and he did not receive any harsh experienced as a slave himself and was also grew up in a predominantly white area. In his writings, it is obvious that he thought that the most important thing that the black should gain was to have the equality with whites. Regarding the issue of the voting rights, Du Bois strongly believed that it is important for black people to agitate to get the right to vote. He also believed that the disfranchisement of poor men could mean the catastrophe of South’s democracy (Painter 157). In his writing with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings, he wrote that it was significant for blacks to exercise the right to vote because there were whites that wanted to put them back in their inferior position—and it was
“Simple Justice” was written by Richard Kluger and reviews the history of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation, and African America’s century-long struggle for equality under law. It began with the inequities of slavery to freedom bells to the forcing of integration in schools and the roots of laws with affect on African Americans. This story reveals the hate caused the disparagement of African Americans in America over three hundred years. I learned how African Americans were ultimately acknowledged by their simple justice. The American version of the holocaust was presented in the story. In 1954 the different between how segregation and slavery were not in fashion when compared with dishonesty of how educating African American are separate from Caucasian was justified by the various branches of government.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
The Untied States of America was built on the exploitation of others and the expansion of foreign lands. Anglo-Saxon superiority and their successive impact on governing policies and strong domination throughout every social institution in the nation allowed discrimination to prevail. Scientific Racism reached new heights of justification towards slavery, the massive eradication of the Native people, colonialism and daily occurrences of unequal behaviors and treatments towards colored people. The strong presence of polygenesis helped spur along and justify racism; the idea that all non whites were groups of individuals who ultimately came from another type of species supporting the idea that Blacks, Natives and other colored people were not ‘real’ human beings. Traditions, legislation, domination and acceptance of such social norms allow racism to be principal whether it was apparent through slavery or hidden in new laws and policies to come. Every aspect of a colored person’s life was affected upon, Education, economic status, environmental location and political rights. Those who had the power within the court system followed the Anglo-Saxon ways, making any change difficult and time consuming to come across.
Due to their immensely different pasts, the two races have a hard time relating to one another, which keeps us apart as people. I have had to deal with a lot of racism in my lifetime, more so from my family than anywhere else. I have been disliked and not "accepted" by my grandparents and great aunts and uncles, some of whom I have never met, due to the color of my skin. My first-hand experience with racism and dealing with it effectively has made me a better, more complete person. The point of my writing this essay is to hopefully open one’s eyes to realize EVERYONE is equal.
African Americans are still facing segregation today that was thought to have ended many years ago. Brown v. Board of Education declared the decision of having separate schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. As Brown v. Board of Education launches its case, we see how it sets the infrastructure to end racial segregation in all public spaces. Today, Brown v. Board of Education has made changes to our educational system and democracy, but hasn’t succeeded to end racial segregation due to the cases still being seen today. Brown v. Board of Education to this day remains one of the most important cases that African Americans have brought to the surface for the good of the United States. Brown v. Board of Education didn’t just focus on children and education, it also focused on how important equality is even when society claimed that African Americans were treated equal, when they weren’t. This was the case that opened the eyes of many American’s to notice that the separate but equal strategy was in fact unlawful.
For African-American comedian, Jackie “Moms” Mabley, race played a huge role in her life as a child and continued to affect her life and career as an adult. As was custom, from the beginning of her life Moms Mabley was treated differently because of her racial identity. By fourteen Jackie Mabley had been raped for the second time in her life by the white sheriff in the town she lived in. Because of her race, not only were both of her rapes overlooked, she was also not able to bring her case to the police because of the occupation and race of her rapist. After giving birth to the child that came from that rape, Mabley ran away from home to join a minstrel show. In the 1920s, nicknamed the “Roaring Twenties,” Jackie Mabley traveled to New York City.
The United States was a divided nation at the time of World War II. Divided by race and racism. This Division had been much greater in the past with the institution of slavery. As the years went by the those beliefs did deteriorate slowly, but they were still present during the years of World War II. This division was lived out in two forms, legislation and social behavior. The legislation came in the form of the “Jim Crow” laws. The belief that some people were naturally superior and others inferior, scientific racism, was the accepted belief of the time These cultural traits were waning. After World War II ended they would decline even more rapidly.
According to Omi and Winant, the term race can be defined as “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies.” From their framework of racial formation and concept of racial projects, Omi and Winant asserts that race is a matter of social structure and cultural representation that has been intertwined to shape the nature of racism. Racism has been seen since the events of early English colonization of the indigenous people and the racialization of African Americans through slavery, all in which the United States is molded upon as a nation. Thus, this social structure of domination has caused European colonials and American revolutionists to create racialized representations, policies, and structures in order to oppress indigenous and black populations in their respective eras.
Over seventy years ago a man by the name of Gunnar Myrdal published “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944), which focus on thinking that relates to race and politics in America. Mr. Myrdal was commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation to investigate “the Negro problem,” right here in the United States of American. This Swedish gentleman was chosen for a few reasons, some being that his country was assumed to have little to no history of
Race has been one of the most outstanding situations in the United States all the way from the 1500s up until now. The concept of race has been socially constructed in a way that is broad and difficult to understand. Social construction can be defined as the set of rules are determined by society’s urges and trends. The rules created by society play a huge role in racialization, as the U.S. creates laws to separate the English or whites from the nonwhites. Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans were all racialized and victimized due to various reasons. Both the Europeans and Indigenous People were treated differently than African American slaves since they had slightly more freedom and rights, but in many ways they are also treated the same. The social construction of race between the Europeans, Indigenous People, and Africans led to the establishment of how one group is different from the other.
In the 1940's the ratio of jobs that there were for both African Americans and the whites was steadily uneven after the war. The difference between the ration from the 1890's and the 1940's is almost non-different and unchanged. Throughout those years African Americans have failed to even up the odds in working labor or in mechanical business not because they weren't skilled enough, but because they were black. The ration got so bad at one point that the whites outnumbered the African Americans by 27% between those two years. African Americans have been fighting