Maya Angelou grew up in a time when there was many racial conflicts and segregation particularly against African Americans. In the nineteenth chapter of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings titled “Champions of the World” , Angelou indirectly addresses the conflicting relations between whites and African Americans. Angelou most notably describes these relations in paragraphs 16, 17 and 28. In paragraphs 16 and 17, Angelou describes the people’s reactions to the way the fight between Joe Louis and Carnera was going. Joe Louis, who was representing-as she describes-all the Negroes around the world, was losing.
That outlet was the free Blacks of the time whom the Irish found themselves competing for menial, low wage job against. In a good many cases signs would be posted or job ads would state “No Irish Need Apply” (Gone to America, 2000, pg.4, para.3). The Irish were in opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation, the freeing of the slaves would simply add to their problem they had competing with Blacks for jobs. The worst violence surrounding this time in Irish American and Black American history took place in July 1863 in New York city when riots broke out between the two groups. These riots were sever enough that Federal troops were called in to put a stop to the fighting but not before 18 free Blacks Americans died and $5 million worth of property was damaged.
How the story flows in this film is like there is an uneducated black kid who needs a help, then the white person came up to be the savior, and the problem solved by the white person becoming the legal guardian of the black kid and they live happily ever after. Alternatively, it strengthens the stereotype about black people in the eyes of the white people. The whites construct the blacks into people who can be underestimated, looked down on or laughed at and yet, they actually have a fear about the black people. This film implicitly tells the spectators that the position of white people in society seems to be more superior to the black ones; meanwhile the existence of black people makes the whites feel apprehensive. Even so, the whites also need the blacks to be around and it makes the blacks look more superior unintentionally.
Dubois’s solution is that African Americans must constantly fight and argue for what they desire in order to ever gain their rights (Doc E). Education was an issue amongst blacks and whites. Although school enrollment rates increased from roughlt 0% to 50%, between 1860 and 1925, there were higher illiteracy rates amongst blacks for their education was still below whites. Washington though if black focused on advancing economically they would eventually receive the rights they deserved. He supported trade schools such as Tuskegee that would teach trades.
He fought back and gave speeches against such oppression against him and his people. To quote one of his speeches only “One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race” and he fought and taught them as his goal to stop the oppression they faced. Next, even the character of Tateh who was depicted as the typical immigrant was discriminated against. He, like many others, traveled to this country to solve his “economic problems and support” his family. He and his minority were forced into poverty and “less than sufficient” living conditions.
Though the fifteenth amendment gave black males the right to vote a poll tax was introduced to eliminate the black vote. It was effective because the large majority of blacks were poor and needed the money for priorities other than voting. Policies like these drove blacks deeper into poverty and only made the color line more definite. Racism also played a large role in immigration. Immigrants from all over the world were flooding the shores of the U.S. looking for the promise of the American Dream.
Blacks at the time liked the idea because it gave them an opportunity to serve their country and have perfect unity with the whites as well as patriotic unity for themselves (doc1). With the blacks, imperialists also had government officials on their side as well. William McKinley saw imperialism as a positive thing. He said that with gaining the Philippines he had no clue what to do with them. Then he came to conclusion that they must take them over and govern over them because they where unfit for self government, trading them would be bad for business, and giving them back would cause the same problem again.
For northern blacks were exposed to the formal segregation of the south when training in rural military camps. All the more when they found that the Army itself was segregated, where they were revoked of the right to fight, often given medial positions as cooks and cleaners. Black soldiers who were allowed to fight were given less training and worse equipment. The treatment of black soldiers lay in the striking contradiction of the freedoms which they were fighting for abroad, yet were unable to enjoy themselves. This continued segregation throughout the war served only to transform black soldier’s attitudes; they would use the ‘Double V’ sign to show they were fighting for two victories: victory overseas and victory over racism at home.
KKK was hugely supported by whites and became the voice for poor uneducated whites who felt threatened in competing for housing and jobs. Blacks had limited educational and job opportunities as many whites did not want to integrate. Limited education and job opportunities were out there for blacks as many worked domestically or in the fields such as farming. These poor standards motivated blacks to boycott Montgomery buses and change the future for blacks. Last cause of Montgomery Bus Boycott was the Supreme Court
(US immigration) It pulls people in. If something happens to that country, like Ireland during the potato famine, it will drive people away. There are basically push and pull factors that drive people to immigrate to a nation. ‘Bad economy, like the Great Depression will drive people away.’ (Us immigration) Wars have caused immigration in the past and now. In World War 2, many Jews moved to different nations they felt would be safe for them.