Land Of The Bound Research Paper

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Final Research Paper Land of the Bound, Home of the Afraid? Once upon a time there was a place that many called the land of the free and the home of the brave; the land where all men are considered equal, and where people from everywhere and anywhere can come and succeed with given equal opportunities. What is this land that they speak of? Well, located in the Western hemisphere on the continent of North America, lies the United States of America. The United States is a country made up of immigrants from different backgrounds starting with the “Founding Fathers.” However, there is one group of immigrants who feel more entitled and superior than the other groups. Some of the most controversial issues in the U.S revolve around race, who…show more content…
Segregation laws did not only humiliate blacks, they were also used to cut them off from employment opportunities and other essential social services. In most cases, blacks received inferior facilities and treatments. “From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws… From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated. Here is a sampling of laws from various…show more content…
As expressed by Dr. Leary, most African Americans seem to have internalized a sense of shame and believe that they are not good enough. An individual with such low self-esteem and self-worth ability to function in society is therefore lessened. This internalized sense of shame led most black people to look down on their own appearance. When an individual has strong black features such as a big nose, full lips, defined facial structure, kinky hair and dark skin, they are generally not considered attractive by other blacks. Dating back to slave days, when the lighter skinned slaves (women) were used as house slaves and darker skinned slaves were sent to work outdoors. This mindset of dark skin being inferior made way for the brown paper bag test in the early 1900s. The brown paper bag test was a way of determining an individual’s acceptance based on the proximity of her or his complexion to that of a brown paper bag. An article by Madison Park, a writer from CNN states, “Bleaching or lightening one's skin for cosmetic reasons is much rarer in the United States than in Asian, African and Caribbean nations, dermatologists said. In some countries, people use over-the-counter and bootleg products -- some of which contain potentially toxic chemicals -- to lighten their skin. The controversial practice has been viewed as the psychological legacy of racism, where light skin was valued over darker skin” (Park 3). Though this is rarer in the
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