Inevitably this discrimination also involved much more than just indifference of colour, blacks experienced poor working conditions violent retaliation and even lynching if the status quo of white supremacy was to be challenged. In search of better conditions, four leading African-Americans offered some solution’s to deal with the situation. Booker T. Washington, du bois, Marcus Garvey and Phillip Randall all contributed to giving the black community a voice in America. There different roles will be compared contrasted and assessed in their part to play in overcoming these challenges. Firstly Booker T. Washington, he was a Black educator who focused on practical education which would lead to black social advancement.
Dubois's philosophy not only shows nihilism in the black race during this era but it also shows the same lack of progression in the black community in 2011. It reminds us of the lack of harmonious solidarity as well as the lack of intellect, high morals and spiritual insight affecting the Black masses today. His piece brings up an array of valid points on why the black community is its own worst enemy when it comes to building a new infrastructure of educational, historical and financial knowledge of self like the Jewish, Asian and Indian cultures. Dubois says “It is the problem of developing the best of this race that they may guide the mass away from the contamination and death of the worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task.”(Dubois 1) I personally think that the contamination of most blacks today is from out dated teachings, some churches, politicians and most importantly, the entertainment business.
Stereotypes: Chronology of the African American Throughout history in America, it is no question that African-Americans have been subject to hardship and turbulence. The path of the black man and woman in America has been very tumultuous, but also very telling of the current state of the race. The African-American started out in the United States on the count of slavery, which progressed into segregation. Although segregation came to end, that does not completely stop what we know today as common present day racism—still a very prominent issue amongst the black community. This racism comes in many forms, blatant and not so obvious.
With a prevalent segregation between the black and white communities, particularly in the south, the availability of opportunity for African-American citizens to grow as individuals was diminutive. However, I strongly believe that the only ones to blame for this tragic oppression of freedom and individuality is the African-American society itself. The lack of racial unity among this community during this time period, as well as the naiveté, makes me believe that the African-American community should be held accountable for preventing themselves from succeeding
More than anything, for many of us, it is exhausting. Exhausting because nothing could bring back our lost child, exhausting because the verdict, which should have felt shocking, arrived with the inevitability that black Americans know too well when criminal law announces that they are worth less than other Americans. Every step Mr. Martin took toward the end of his too-short life was defined by his race. I do not have to believe that Mr. Zimmerman is a hate-filled racist to recognize that he would probably not even have noticed Mr. Martin if he had been a casually dressed white teenager. References Yankah, E. W. (2013, July 16).
African Americans where fed up with the mistreatment they received in the south. The insulting wages they worked their whole lives for and the fear of dying or being tortured at any given moment for any given reason was devastating. In the Novel The Warmth of other suns by Isabel Wilkerson ties in with the novel Slavery by another name. The Warmth of other suns is like to continuation to the timeline begun in Slavery by another name. Even though The Warmth of other suns is based on the personal stories and lives of 3 people, it explains how African Americans had to do every thing possible to escape the south in search of newer and better lives.
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk According to Charles Bressler, African-American literature consists of something called the “double voiceness-that African-American literature draws on two voices and cultures, the white and the black. It is the joining of these two discourses that produces the uniqueness of African-American literature” (Bressler 218). In Olaudah Equiano’s Equiano’s Travels and Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage, both authors address the horrific nature of the middle passage, which was the triangular route of the trade of Africans into the Americas.
‘Now,’ said he, if you teach that nigger (speaking of Douglas) how to read there will be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable and of no value to his master. As to himself it could do him no good but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontent and unhappy.” This quote shows history at how slaves were thought of and treated.
Hannah Pedigo Claiborne Interaction Self/Society September 22, 2012 Paper 2 What naming in our culture do you particularly dislike? So many things have changed in the course of my short life within our culture. I have a problem with many things, but the main naming in our culture that I dislike would be calling African Americans “black.” In my opinion, calling someone “black” is degrading. Black is a color. Half the time, these “black” people aren’t even black.
It’s a common fact that life as an African American is hard. Throughout our history the black race has endured countless prejudice and heartaches. Some of us exceeding expectations of the white community then others falling victim to their simple minded theories and accusations. I will be using the literary work Battle Royal, to help give supportive evidence backing my thesis statement and claims. I feel as a race we are falling behind, not only to Caucasians, (that our forefathers worked so hard to close the gap to) but to all of the other ethnicity groups of the world.