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Victim And Victimization Chapter 3
The concept of victim
Negative racial stereotypes and their effect on attitudes toward african americans
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Recommended: Victim And Victimization Chapter 3
The topic of the book is how black America is on the wrong path and how it needs to be fixed. One of the problems that are stated in the book is the cultural of blackness treats victimhood not as a problem to be solved but an identity to be nurtured. Separatism is also a problem that encourages black Americans to see black people as superior, which the rules other Americans are expected to follow are suspended out of a belief that victimhood lets them be exempt from them. The author sought to accomplish getting black America back on track. He suggests that it will require some profound adjustments in black identity. The author states his thesis by saying how the adjustments needed by black America are the only thing that will cut through the tension infusing so much if interracial relations in America today and how that will bring African Americans at last to true equality in the only country that will ever be their home. In the first four chapters, he explains the currents in modern African-America thought. In chapter one he tells us stories of victimology. The second chap...
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.
Toni Morrison and bell hooks believe that mainstream society condemns black life as meaningless and unimportant. In Toni Morrison's "On The Back of Blacks", she describes the oppression the black community experiences from today's white society. She labels it ...
He discussions about blacks and how it was “the greatest betrayal of the America idea.” The reason why it was the greatest betrayal of the American was because the blacks were treated as slaves and that isn’t what America is thought to be. America is suppose to the the “land of the brave and the home of the free,” but blacks were taken for granted as a low division, under-class peasant. Upon his written article, he tries to persuade the African Americans not to join a multicultural movement that may leave off with what was originally plan. The set goal for what America stands for is to stay unified as one. If the African Americans don’t stay unified then the goal that was set is for no reason. Salins concludes that he hopes that the United States will continue to embrace the welcoming of immigrants from around the world, and that peace with one another, will prosper. Salins then wishes that both native-born and naturalized Americans can join force in facilitating new incoming immigrants to assimilate, and as well that multiculturalism will be
In American history, the people of color narrative have historically been invisible; the dominant discourse of American society has been predominantly white with Eurocentric emphasis. Thus, we see the silencing of the narrative of minority groups in American history. In his literature The Price of Reconciliation, Ronald Walters argues for a Black political agenda that includes reparations; he believes that the legacy of slavery has produced a domino effect that produces the oppression of Blacks till this day. Conservatives on the other hand disagree with Walter’s argument; they believe that reparation is unnecessary because America is now fair to Blacks. Furthermore, conservatives believe that Blacks should move on since slavery happened a long time ago. In order to understand Walter’s argument we must understand his claim that Blacks still suffer from the legacy of slavery. In addition, we must analyze his argument for Black reparation. To comprehend the impact of reparation we must assess the effects of it in the Black community; thus we must analyze how reparation can both aid and hurt the Black community. By taking these steps, we look at the arguments about reparation with a critical eye.
This essay was written in order to find some relation between two great men W.E.B. Du Bois and Jose Marti, and how they strongly believed in not losing one’s self while fighting to adapt and overcome difficult yet exciting new times in the world for both of their respective cultures. Their emotions become evident in their writings, Souls of Black Folk and “Our America” respectively. Both men have the opinion that their cultures may overcome such hardships that they are facing during their respective time period but not by following the path its current leaders are leading them down. Changes must be made and these two men came forward with plans, ready to implement, if given a chance.
Bill Cosby, an influential black voice of America, claims that he does not “know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Ralph Ellison illustrates in the first chapter of his the Invisible Man, “Battle Royal,” that even after eighty-five years of freedom from slavery, black people’s willingness to comply with silence and to keep pleasing everyone’s needs except their own allows white people to continue to use and define black people for their own propriums which kept black people from advancing and living out the American Dream. “Battle Royal” conveys that the self-denying flaws are the causes of the struggle of a young black boy who strives to overcome the white’s dehumanizing treatment, which prevents him from determining his identity and attaining social equality in his quest to realize the American Dream.
In the quietness of unfair racial discrimination lurked an unquestionable desire to taste the realities of justice, fairness, and freedom. African-Americans were alienated and divided in a way that forced them to lose the essence of they were as a collective body. An identity was ascribed that presented African-Americans an imbecilic and inferior race. They were given an undesirable identity; one encased in oppression. Webster dictionary defines identity as the “condition or character as to who a person is.” Without having a sense of identity, the true nature of the person is lost. The African-American was lost in America. They were forced to assimilate with the masses, assuming their identity and culture while shedding their own. This is a dangerous state of existence; an existence marked with mockery and shame. Nothing can be worse than loathing of self. Questioning why your skin is so dark, why your hair is a different texture, why your nose is so broad and your lips so full. When looking in the mirror the reflection glaring back was one filled with anger and despair. This was the collective mindset of many blacks as the result of continued confrontation with “irrational prejudice and systemic economic exploitation.” In response to this continued subjugation, black advocates declared a quest for “their own liberation by rhetorically constructing an ideology with a new collective identity for themselves.” An identity addressing black “ideological alienation” while focusing on black solidarity and nationalism. The historical analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. presents multiple perspectives concerning his philosophical outlook on black identity. These perspectives ignite a creative dialogue between the past ...
Black self-contempt seeping into African American culture is irrefutable, as is the fact that it is misconstrued, unchallenged, and undervalued. The unparalleled intense emotion of internalized self-hatred currently plaguing the minds of numerous Blacks is not an ordinary phenomenon developed from centuries of evolution. It is not a nameless occurrence empty of a coherent justification. It is simply the consequence of an intentionally condemned system of suppression and control. An enormous scheming method used for preserving the present grand image of society. Oh, what treacherous lengths has America traveled to conceal this horrific secrete. As the wealthy, influential, white elites continue to define the standard of true living through mass media, African Americans are forced to lives cloaked with self-hate.
“… I was sold from State to State as an article of merchandise. I had outrages heaped on me which might well crimson the cheek of honest womanhood with shame, but I never fell into the clutches of an owner for whom I did not feel the utmost loathing and intensest horror. I have heard men talk glibly of the degradation of the Negro, but there is a vast difference between abasement of condition and degradation of character. I was abased, but the men who trampled on me were the degraded ones.”(Harper 115) “The best blood in my veins is African blood, and I am not ashamed of it” (208).
Author, Ta-Nehesi Coates is the foremost black intellectual in the country and his frank discussion of race have stirred dramatic discourse which is the first step in destigmatizing the topic. Coates essay, “The Case for Reparations” explores how slavery, Jim Crow laws, and housing policy produced widespread inequality within the Black community (2014). Coates opinions resonated with more than just the Black community and caused an uproar. Additional Coates essays, such as “The Black Family in the age of Mass Incarceration” depict the black community as a victim of racist policies stemming from the infamous Moynihan Report (2015). Harmful ideas from the Moynihan Report, such as the notion the black family is to blame for the black community’s ills, are still prevalent today. These ideas may be self-perpetuating and must be addressed. With that in mind, stereotype threat is the theory individuals often self-fulfill stereotypes if they are reminded they have been categorized as that stereotype. Steel and Aronson found that African American students do worse on standardized tests when primed with the information they were being compared to white counterparts (1995). To prevent self-perpetuating stereotypes and stereotype threat discourse concerning race must occur. Coates essays are beneficial in advancing the idea that the misfortunes of the black community are due in large
He declares that such condition ought to be changed and calls for the African American communities “to stop singing and start swinging” (p. 3). In doing so, he embraces a confrontational approach with his endorsement of Black Nationalism (which is the idea that the black community should be the one in charge of their politics and economy) in the face of injustice and racial inequality. He claims that it is imperative that the African American communities be (more) active in the fight for freedom, because the only way to end the oppression by the white nationalism is to fight against the white nationalist government. He proposes a re-education on the political system and the economy in the black communities for the purpose of becoming informed about the options available to them and the possible consequences resulting from those options. Being educated would allow African Americans to be aware that they have the opportunity to make a difference with their voting—“It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be
For instance, the author asserts that it not only a source of conventional wisdom for the black American but also the source of their cultural logic as it encompasses both their historical self-consciousness. The author also states that the Black Nationalism is characterized by political realities coupled with numerous possibilities such as demystifying white racial domination and an activation of a platform to international political awareness. The author states that the impacts of the nationalism are often evidenced when repeated calls are made on the side of some black Americans to put an end to black-on-black violence, which is a manifestation of its historical awareness and its efforts to eliminate suicidal behaviors witnessed within the
Diversity, we define this term today as one of our nation’s most dynamic characteristics in American history. The United States thrives through the means of diversity. However, diversity has not always been a positive component in America; in fact, it took many years for our nation to become accustomed to this broad variety of mixed cultures and social groups. One of the leading groups that were most commonly affected by this, were African American citizens, who were victimized because of their color and race. It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s during the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place yet, it is the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools. Integration in white schools played a major role in the battle for Civil Rights in the South, upon the coming of independence for all African American people in the United States after a series of tribulations and loss of hope.
To do so, Alexander suggests that there is a need to manage the “fact of blackness” which the image and its location in Life Magazines suggests as abject, dismal, hopeless, and irredeemable. What is called for is the ability to position and understand a genuine black identity in a racist American society, and situating the recorded violence in Accused/Blowtorch/Padlock, Alexander uses traumatized collective historical memory to access cultural trauma. In this instance, the cultural trauma is enslavement as a collective memory, a remberance that has become the diasporic foundation of black people, and creates in some form, the underlying intelligence which governs base instinctual operating mechanisms. The fact that African Americans today never suffered enslavement does not lessen the trauma, making it a primal part of the black experience, and part of a collective identity. Alexander considers both the actual and potential violence seen in the 1937 Life Magazine photo as inscriptions of a traumatized collective historical memory on the black male
While Arthur Jarvis came from a family ignorant of the constant injustices in South Africa, he proves to lead a much different life. He is a “courageous young man, and a great fighter for justice” (Paton 39). He is a social justice activist who speaks for the oppressed and writes about the country’s injustices. In fact, in one of his writings, he writes, “We saw we withhold education because the black child has not the intelligence to profit by it…is it strange then that our civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma?”(187-188). Arthur knows that the lack of education and low social status thrust upon the black population is what polarizes the whites and blacks of South Africa’s population. Through this polarization, South Africa’s population becomes afraid of one another, and Arthur knows that he must do something about it. Funnily enough, he falls victim to the very injustices he shines a spotlight to and advocates for. Another victim of the South African society is Absalom Kumalo. When asked why he kills Arthur Jarvis, he doesn’t answer that it is because of his race, or because of what he has done, he constantly repeats “I was frightened, so I fired the revolver”(194). This brings light to the separation of the two societies, and how the polarization of two races