The essay “Black Men in Public Spaces,” written by Brent Staples illustrates the view from the black man perspective, but may also add to the stereotype. When the first Africans were brought to the New World to become slaves, the were viewed as inferior to whites. This image was brought on, in part, because of an interpretation of the passage in the Bible that states in Genesis 9:25 “And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” Common belief at the time was that Canaan was African and the verse applied to all Africans. The truth of the matter is, Canaan really hailed from Palestine. With this knowledge in hand, was no reason to look down on blacks to start with.
He supports this argument by looking closely at the meaning of the symbolism behind the color black. (Winthrop 14) The skin color of many enslaved cultures were often linked to the hard labor that was done outside, exposed usually to the burning sun. He ultimately argues that a dark skin became a rationale for enslaving people of darker skin tones. The argument that Williams makes is that Economics was the main driving force behind the creation of Slavery, not so much Racism. To support his thesis, he pointed out that any lower social class was sent to do manual labor.
In the South however, the blacks were disfranchised, since the state governments introduced literacy tests, tests on the knowledge of constitution and Poll taxes, which African Americans had trouble with, because of poor education and financial problems. Both created through discrimination and racism. Racial hatred groups such as the Ku Klux Klan still existed. They advertised violent treatment of African Americans, and often engaged in violent activities themselves. Blacks were often beaten or killed by members of such hate groups.
This shows that perhaps some blacks still hold a grudge against whites for all they have put them through in the last century. The fact of the matter is; however, that in saying only white people are racist, they are being racist themselves, therefore disproving their statement. To say that racism is a “white person’s disease” is also factually incorrect. All of us, as humans, discriminate; it is a natural instinct which we all share. Psychologist Larry A.
But, all of this was in the past and should stay there. The big problem is people still mentioning it and makes it an excuse for racism. From what I have experienced with my American black friends that when a whit man refer to them by the word “Nigger” they would fight him or at least call him “ cracker” to insult him. However, when I call them “niggers” they accept it as a complement and they call me “Nigger” too. Moreover, my black friends told me that if a whit people called you “Nigger” that’s mean they are racists, but if a black people call you that it is a complement between brothers.
Slavery, which was a major uproar from colonial America to the civil war, is the racial epidemic of the enslavement of people for money and cheap labor with extensive abuses. The question that could be asked is were the slaves dignified, did they still keep their dignity? The word dignity is the conducting of self-respect as a person sees himself or herself rather than, how others perceive that person. Slavery has been around for years and slaves have been treated unfairly for countless of reasons and situations. Did they still keep their self-respect?
It’s important to understand that slavery wasn’t because of racism but because the pursuit of profit. Slavery was by all definitions unpaid labor which helped build our new world (D’Souza, pg. 467). It’s not so much that race defined slavery relations, but that slavery defined race relations, “Racism developed and spread in America as an ideology to rationalize the enslavement and exploitation of black by a white master class” (D’Souza, pg. 467).
To conclude, black people all over the world, wherever they live were for a long time victim of racism for their skin color. People treated them badly only because they had a darker skin color, forgetting that that we are all humans and the color of our skins an where we come from doesn’t indicate our personalities and beliefs. Black in America suffered a lot for reason of racism and went through the hard ships and difficulties
To slavery of Africans who even when freed still were subject to prejudice and racism because of the laws of America. Different theologians, pastors, ministers may exhort that America is a
Slavery gave owners and white men a false sense of superiority, a sense of power, which blinded any vision of justice and equality. Another aspect of slavery was the dehumanization of slaves. Whites in the South dehumanized slaves and put them on the same level as