Stereotypes: Chronology of the African American

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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. A more obvious form of racism takes the form of something like name calling using the historically vulgar “n word.” Less deliberate forms of racism come disguised as things such as stereotypes. As a black male myself, I see and hear many stereotypes today about my race that people seem to think contribute to the obvious state of “lower class” that the African American seems to be in, in 21st century America. Words like “laziness,” “unintelligence,” “felons” are all words that I have heard used in stereotypical ways in regards to African-Americans. Sadly, these generalizations exist, and while a black man can do wrong just like a white man can, I firmly believe that it is a series of events, starting with slavery, which has placed the black race in its seemingly unfortunate position even years later in today’s society. Let us first take a look into slavery, which was firmly established in the British North American colonies and really took flight in the era in which the Declaration of Independence was established in 1776. In the 19th Century a system was put into place, which made slavery even more accessible to the United States—The Triangle Slave Trade. In a nutshell, it enabled a route that went directly from Africa to the East Coast

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