The second way is “Nigga” and that is used by African Americans when talking to their friend. The number one argument of this word is, why is it okay for African Americans to use this word if they are so entirely offended by it? That is the one question that seems to never be answered because what seems to be lack of responsibility in the African American race for refusing to stop using it themselves. In reality there is no positive way in which someone can use this word because in the dictionary it is defined as an insult. However, African Americans have taken a spin on the word and used it in pop culture.
At the core of this injustice is white supremacy—the racist ideology that, in the words of sociologist Charles S. Johnson (1941), contrasts “the evil and ugliness of blackness… with the goodness and purity of whiteness” (257). It is this ideology which is used to legitimize and further the oppression of African Americans. Essentially, white supremacy is the motivator of color biased attitudes and behaviors which result in color stratifications in the United States. Colorism is the term widely used for these racist phenomena of biased attitudes and behaviors. It is unquestionably accepted that the African Diaspora of the United States has clearly been disadvantage by slavery and long standing oppression from white supremacy.
(OED) Nigger’s original meaning did not denote anything relating to humans. It was just another word for a color. Only later in the word’s history would dark skinned people be associated with the word nigger. Nigger’s definition began to change starting with the European settlers who used the term to derogate, dehumanize, and demoralize the Africans. Nigger continued to be used after the Emancipation and during the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th
Achievement Gap between African-Americans and Asian American I would not label the Professor who referred to the achievement gap between African-Americans and Asian American as racists as I don’t have enough information to make an informed assessment of his character, but I would say that the Professor’s research is faulty because it is based on False Analogy. In argument from analogy, perceived similarities between two things/people/phenomena are used as a basis to make some general conclusions. Comparing Asian-American with African-Americans is a false analogy because while both groups have faced the discrimination, the context and experience of such discrimination are different between the two groups. African-Americans were brought here as slaves while most Asian-Americans came to American as free persons in search of better opportunities. Endemic discrimination began for African-Americans when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco.
According to Davis, slaves and peasants were perceived and subjected to common stereotypes regarding the color of their skin, the customs many of the enslaved peoples had before they were conquered, and how the elite upper classes and literate people looked down on them as a dehumanized object. To support this theory, he looked into the role that color symbolism and how physical appearance had a large impact on this misconception. (Davis 50, 57) Another sample he looked and discussed was Islamic and Christian geographic expansions and conflicts that led to the creation of the term Racism that is linked to historic events involving slavery. (Davis 54, 60) Winthrop argues that Slavery and Racism was created at the same time. He supports this argument by looking closely at the meaning of the symbolism behind the color black.
c.) The varying interpretations indicate the use of “presentism” throughout the periods in which the affair has been analyzed. During the civil rights movement, use of the term “blacks” to describe the slave population was seen as one of the main points of insensitivity, because African Americans of the time had such little cultural footing in America. After the 60s, students began to reflect on Jefferson’s unwillingness to see integration as an option, because African Americans were still struggling to integrate after the civil rights movements. Modern day, the concern lies in Jefferson’s blatant stereotyping of slaves as lesser and even as “musical”. These all reflect the current ideals of the time in
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.
By doing so, they would've found a sense of victory and inspiration through failure and struggle. Terminology such as "black cats" and "white lies", in my opinion has little bearing on the self-esteem of the black community. With regards to the word "Nigger", as demeaning and insensitive as it may in fact be, blacks have claimed it as their own by removing it from the lips of their oppressors. Its not that they have conformed as Shannon suggest to its use, but by their ::....,;} application, and theirs only, it has helped to miM some the pain inflicted by their tormenters over the years. Shannon mentions Bill Clinton being dubbed as the first "Black President" only
Perception v. Reality “The mask which the actor wears is apt to become his face” - Plato When viewing the documentary, Ethnic Notions, one might wonder in what ways the stereotypical images viewed have affected the images of Blacks. Although one could argue that the images seen were only devised to appeal to people of that time, these images seen in the documentary have had a lasting impact on the psyches of Blacks even to this day. As the documentary indicates, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Blacks were perceived by America as contested stereotypical characters such as Uncle Tom, Mammy, Sambo and Zip Coon. Mammy, portrayed as being happy and content with her present condition, was used as a strategic aspiration to other female slaves. She was shown as the caregiver for the master’s kids, loving to the master’s kids, a tyrant to her own children, unattractive and pitch-black.
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).