Robert Moses, a leader during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, has continued his work in civil rights and outlines his current pursuit to social equality in his novel “Radical Equations.” Moses compares the current economic situation of Black people and other minorities to their political position in the times of sharecropping. In both of these scenarios White people are imposing a system of power over minorities in which minorities can overcome if they act. When Black communities mobilized in the sixties, they were directly responsible for gaining their right to vote without restrictions. Now, Moses believes that the action required for economic equality is mathematic, more specifically algebra, education in Black communities, so that Black people can become contributors to the emerging tech wave. This process will empower Black people and force them to the realization that they can escape the socioeconomic constraints that have been prisoners to in the past. As a way to provide proof of his claim, Moses uses parallelism and similarities of problems the Black community faced in the sixties and the economic ones that they currently face. …show more content…
Technology displaced sharecroppers during the 1940s, as it is presently doing the same for unskilled laborers.
Unskilled laborers are the first to lose their jobs when new technology is introduced to an industry. With the introduction of the of the cotton picker in 1944, costs to pick cotton decreased by more than eighty percent (Moses 6). Landowners still had their farms and even higher profit margins, but Black cotton pickers lost their jobs. Similarly, assembly line workers have begun to lose their jobs because robots can do their job faster and more efficiently (Moses 8). To prevent the unemployment of Black people in this field and other labor intensive jobs alike, technology must be adopted, and algebra must be used to do so. Instead of being replaced by technology, workers are able to incorporate it in their current
jobs. Equality in Black and Hispanic communities, although may be facilitated by leaders, is essentially due to the work of the everyday people, so a grassroots approach is the best way to promote change. Moses mentions that while leaders such as Ella Baker and Martin Luther King, Jr. did motivate the people to participate in politics, they were not the main reason of change. He writes, “No matter how great Martin Luther King, Jr., was he could not go and challenge the seating of the Mississippi Democrats at Atlantic City. He could advocate for them and support them, but he could not lead the challenge. The only people who could do that were the people from Mississippi” (Moses 20). Moses explicitly gives most of progressivism present in Mississippi during the 1960s to the people. He explains that this, the belief that all change is made possible by the people, is a key paradigm in the Algebra Project. The purpose of the Algebra Project is to empower and create self-sufficient Black communities that continue to educate its youth even after advisors from the program leave. The purpose of the Algebra Project is to unlock the potential that Moses knows Black communities have. He has personally seen it, and knows that it is a force to be reckoned with. The time for Black mediocrity is over, and the only way for this to happen is if the Black communities steps forward and educates the next generation. The next generation must become more than knowledgeable about technology, they must understand it.
“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.
Recently you have received a letter from Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In Dr. King’s letter he illustrates the motives and reasoning for the extremist action of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960’s. In the course of Dr. King’s letter to you, he uses rhetorical questioning and logistical reasoning, imagery and metaphors, and many other rhetorical devices to broaden your perspectives. I am writing this analysis in hopes you might reconsider the current stance you have taken up regarding the issues at hand.
William Julius Wilson creates a thrilling new systematic framework to three politically tense social problems: “the plight of low-skilled black males, the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, and the fragmentation of the African American family” (Wilson, 36). Though the conversation of racial inequality is classically divided. Wilson challenges the relationship between institutional and cultural factors as reasons of the racial forces, which are inseparably linked, but public policy can only change the racial status quo by reforming the institutions that support it.
Racial inequality is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone 's race. Racial inequality has been affecting our country since it was founded. This research paper, however, will be limited to the racial injustice and inequality of African-Americans. Since the start of slavery, African Americans have been racially unequal to the power majority race. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when African Americans received racial equality under the laws of the United States. Many authors write about racial injustice before and after the Civil Rights Act. In “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin tells a fictional story of an African American who struggles to achieve racial equality and prosper
...War and the Civil Rights Movements in order to illustrate how the 1960s was a time of “tumult and change.” To Anderson, it is these events, which sparked the demand for recognition of social and economic fairness. He makes prominent the idea that the 1960s served as the origin of activism and the birth of the civil rights movement, forever changing ideals that embody America. The book overall is comprehensive and a definite attention grabber. It shows how the decade had the effect of drastically transforming life in America and challenging the unequal status quo that has characterized most of the nation's history. Despite the violence and conflict that was provoked by these changes, the activism and the liberation movements that took place have left a permanent imprint upon the country.
When talking about the history of African-Americans at the turn of the twentieth century, two notable names cannot be left out; Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois. They were both African-American leaders in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, fighting for social justice, education and civil rights for slaves, and both stressed education. This was a time when blacks were segregated and discriminated against. Both these men had a vision to free blacks from this oppression. While they came from different backgrounds, Washington coming from a plantation in Virginia where he was a slave, and Du Bois coming from a free home in Massachusetts, they both experienced the heavy oppression blacks were under in this Post-Civil War society. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois were both pioneers in striving to obtain equality for blacks, yet their ways of achieving this equality were completely different. W.E.B Du Bois is the more celebrated figure today since he had the better method because it didn’t give the whites any power, and his method was intended to achieve a more noble goal than Washington’s.
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.
In the 1800's the construction of cotton mills brought about a new phenomenon in American labor. The owners needed a new source of labor to tend these water powered machines and looked to women. Since these jobs didn't need strength or special skills th...
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
John A. Kirk, History Toady volume 52 issue 2, The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans
Technology unemployment is unemployment due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor. (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2011)
Growing up in the post-Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, most US citizens have a broad and unspecific knowledge of this movement and its effects. Even fewer citizens know the causes and the driving factors of the movement. The Dredd Scott Decision, and Plessy v. Ferguson were two of the driving forces behind social change in the 1960s. There is a simple progression of American civil laws and the precedence they carry; likewise, the change in the American ideas of equality, and the interpretation of the 13th-15th amendments forged the way for these court cases to hold credence.
During the latter part of the 19th century, many laborers faced numerous problems. Some of these problems included, “mechanization of industry, emergence of giant corporations, nationalization of labor, public sentiment greatly admired the ‘Captains of Industry,’ and immigration” (Farless). After years of knowledge, man was introduced to machines. When machines played a part in the latter part of the 19th century, it caused trouble with the laborers. These new machines would replace laborers, which meant more laborers were remaining unemployed and that there were lower wages (Farless). Another problem laborers faced were the introduction to immigrants. Immigrants were coming to the United States of America from foreign land to work. With these immigrants, it kept the wages low because the immigrants were new inexpensive labor (Farless).
“Much has changed for African-Americans since the 1963 March on Washington (which, recall, was a march for “Jobs and Freedom”), but one thing hasn’t: The unemployment rate among blacks is about double that among whites, as it has been for most of the past six decades.” (1) African-American people have found the entire hiring process to be more skewed towards white people than themselves. This is due to racial views by certain hirers. A lot of it also has to do with the fact that a multitude of jobs are now mechanized: they require the employee to be adept at handling and using technology to complete the job and/or task at hand which some African-American people simply do not have the formal training for such jobs. Of course, a lot of
The relationship between technology and employment is at the same time complex and volatile (Mokyr 1990, p.52). To illustrate, the term “Luddite” was coined in the early 19th Century to describe mindless machine-breaking (Jones 1996, p.21). The Luddites were skilled cloth-weavers who believed that technology would destroy their livelihood and opportunities for work (Jones 1996, p.22). They were opposed not to the knitting and lace-making machines as such, but more to the “de-skilling” involved as these machines replaced workers which, inevitably led to the destruction of craft industries during this period (Jones 1996, p.24).