Since the 18th Century Transatlantic Slave Trade, Africans Americans have been confined to a box full labor, mistreatment, and abuse. Countries all over the world slowly understood that having a skin color other than white does not mean that you are less valuable as a human being. However, in the United States of America the idea of African Americans being equal to whites was unreal. Leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and key leader during the Civil Rights Movement after World War II, fought so blacks and whites could coexist and so the future could be brighter even if he was not in it. On MLK’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” MLK speaks with
It is an existing theory that our society is constructed via racial dimensions, and that racial equality is a figment of the imagination. This very principle is highlighted in Michelle Alexander’s novel, “The New Jim Crow.” The specific dimensions covered within the text include the unjust aspects of the federal drug policy, and by connection that of mass incarceration as well. Alexander claims that racism is still very prominent in present day society and is direct and frank about the heavy influence of white supremacy. One of the main arguments pushed by Alexander in this book is that mass incarceration is “ a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar
Although this was Johnson’s goal, that black people would not be defined and that he stayed true to what Justice Harlan’s color-blind concept stated in his dissent, but this marks a “turning point... [in] the civil rights movement as well as in the larger issue of the role of race and group consciousness in American life” (Ravitch, p.142). The Civil Rights Act that was trying to be color-blind but they had to address the issue of “racial imbalance”
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is a non fiction book written by Michelle Alexander, a well known civil rights lawyer, is a book that every American citizen should read. Alexander’s book cover is of three metal bars and two strong black hands holding them tightly. The book spent multiple weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list and has a foreword written by Cornel West, he is a well known and respected social activist. The book discuss how the new system of oppression for people of color in the United States is mass incarceration. Jim Crow laws were a systematic way to segregate and discriminate against black people.
The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.
His studies reveal how color-blind ideology is used by white people to justify their ability to steal characteristics from other cultures, rather than promote the inclusivity that color-blind ideology seems to imply. This justification also allows them to treat cultural objects as objective items that can be taken by anyone, rather than acknowledging the racial background that cultural objects may come from. Furthermore, it reveals the obliviousness of white people who participate in hip hop culture to wider social issues, as they choose to ignore their own involvement in reinforcing systematic racism. As a result of this ignorance, white people become involved in cultural theft without conscious
Ask yourself: would we be having such a heated discussion if this baby were blond?” (129 Ng).Dr. Wong emphasizes the colorblindness of the Shaker Heights society reflected through the McCulloughs in the sense that they only see her as a regular baby rather than a Chinese baby. Racial colorblindness may seem like a good thing as being unbiased, although this disregards the systemic racism and discrimination many face. Additionally, it also erases people’s identities and experiences.
For this semester, we read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. The book talks about how minorities face, especially black men, being treated like second-class citizens by the criminal justice system and this leading to our modern mass incarceration problem. Alexander goes as far as to say “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it” (2). This is shown by the War on Drugs.
Have you ever been affected by race in your life? Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior is an outcome of racism. Racism is a big conflict in today’s society and effect many lives. In the two stories “Champion of the Word” by Maya Angelou and “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples , race was the big social view being discussed. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life.
America, founded by immigrants FOR immigrants; refusing to let people in due to the color of their skin. This “color” people are judged upon is nothing but a mere adaptation. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History the explanation of this adaptation is “The skin 's brown pigment, is a natural sunscreen that protects tropical peoples from the many harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) rays.” Due to evolution, it has made some people able to stay in the sun longer than others, people judge them. Martin L. King tried to stop this from happening; and he brought America a long way, but now it is time for Americans to fight for freedom for
Race is one the most sensitive and controversial topics of our time. As kids, we were taught that racism has gotten better as times has passed. However, the author, Michelle Alexander, of The New Jim Crow proposes the argument that racism has not gotten better, but the form of racism that we known in textbooks is not the racism we experience today. Michelle Alexander has countless amounts of plausible arguments, but she has failed to be a credible author, since she doesn’t give enough citations or evidence for her argument to convince people who may not have prior agreement with her agreement.. Alexander’s biggest mistake when it came to being a credible author was starting off the book with a countless number of claims without any evidence in her Introduction.
Are we surprised by racism when it is brought to light? Those that are colorblind are fully aware that discrimination and segregation does exist. Their world and wealth is built based on discrimination and privilege alone. One group has to be oppressed for the other to succeed.
• Note; The writer of this book makes it crystal clear, there was evil before Caucasians, however, not as destruct-fully personified as the evil, rampage & blind stupidity, arrogance of nature & the environment & ignorance as Caucasians, as they are reprehensive of pure unadulterated (EVIL), just like (Locusts) to this planet or any other planet in future tense. Yes, the real truth; black people created all other races especially, Albino/Caucasians, in-fact it is that original racist elements that personified the origins of racism, as the origins of Albinos were severely rejected, outcast & shunned from the norm mentality, by blacks.
Today, snap judgements that are based on a person’s skin color are made, in the form of racism. In the past 70 years, major improvements have been made upon curving racism, but it is still a problem in the world. Some people have labeled the current president of the United States, President Trump, as a successful businessman, and they use this judgement to justify their faith in him. Yet others label him as a racist bigot, and use this label to justify their protests against his jurisdiction over the United States. It has been over a century since Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables, yet the problems that Hugo addresses still exist, albeit in a different form.
Many people always speak of how today’s world is complex and convoluted, as if it was simple before that particular point. To build a future for one self, they must first know the past to progress. Frederick Douglass wrote a short essay on the Color Line, he does not directly state a definition of the color line, but rather explains the current racial affections, with in depth of the two conflicting races. He speaks on how the white philosophers spoke open and confidently about how the Negro was inferior. The Anglo Saxon had always been prejudice against the opposite race, it was their natural supposedly, but this is not based in science.
