Racial Equality: A Raisin in the Sun In the 1950’s racial discrimination was a huge factor in the lives of African Americans. Lorraine Hansberry’s book, “A Raisin in the Sun,” helps people imagine the struggles that a standard African American family would have to endure. In the novel, the Younger family has poor housing conditions, badly paying jobs, and have given up hope of ever escaping their circumstances. In present day Chicago, African Americans can live wherever they desire if they can afford it and have any job if they meet the requirements. Although there are still some circumstances where racial discrimination comes into play, for the most part blacks are eligible and welcomed for all the opportunities that their white counterparts are. Housing In 1950’s Chicago, African American living conditions were limited to the Black Belt on the Southside of Chicago. (Schmidt, 2012) As more blacks began to populate Chicago, the narrow Black Belt only got more crowded and crime levels increased. The novel, “A Raisin in the Sun,” gives imagery to the housing …show more content…
2000) Now, there is affirmative action and labor unions that require companies to have diversity in the workforce, but there is still racial discrimination in some corporations. The fact that the African American unemployment rate is almost double that of whites proves this.(Nittle, n.d.) Although the conditions for African Americans in the work force have improved, there are still companies that demonstrate racial
Not many PhD scholars or professors are able to get in a black crime neighborhood which is poor, stay for seven years and fail to answer this question: “how does it feel when a person is black and poor in addition?”Most of the studies done in this book were done in safe, sanitized ivory towers. This piece of writing portrays neoliberal capitalism on the lives of working class people among the blacks (Venkatesh, 2009). The community views government leaders such as social service workers, Chicago Housing Authority, government agencies and the police differently. Most of these government officials are perceived negatively.
Dominic Akandwanaho HUID: 40871950 AAAS 16: Sociology of the black community TF: Khytie Brown In his book, Black Citymakers: How the Philadelphia Negro Changed Urban America, Marcus Hunter addresses a critical aspect of scholarship about structural racial discrimination and inequality that had not been previously given much scholarly examination. He attempts to explore the responses and reaction of people in weak positions—the truly disadvantaged, to systemic racial discrimination and social inequality. Specifically, he examines a black community in the Seventh ward of Philadelphia —a community that, according to previous work done by W.E Du Bois in The Philadelphia Negro, is faced with many social ills such as poverty and crime.
After recent protests in Baltimore, Badger (2016) explores the nature of policies set in the early 1900’s that have shaped the city of Baltimore, and that continue to have an effect on their quality of life. Actions such as redlining and urban renewal have perpetuated poverty and segregation in the same neighborhoods today as 75 year ago. This article calls attention to the effect of system-wide race discrimination in Baltimore, and how policies create a cyclical link between race and disadvantage in communities. Racial disparities across many subsystems have created a system of race discrimination in which it’s emergent effects implant uber discrimination into our culture and institutions (Reskin, 2012). Reskin (2012) explains how emergent discrimination intensifies disparities within each subsystem and creates systems of race discrimination.
Thesis Statement The problem facing some of Chicago's neighborhoods is that they are plagued with gang activity and abandonment of tenants and by the their own city, Chicago. The city of Chicago is a wonderful place to live. There are countless interesting places to visit and there is always something for everyone.
For example, in the economy the report traces this racial inequality across different measures and sectors. While higher levels of education tend to help alleviate unemployment and increase income among Black and Latinx Chicagoans, both groups still lag whites with the same degree, and sometimes behind whites with fewer years spent in school. The report also shows that most Black and Latinx wealth is in the homes they own, as opposed to more “liquid” assets more, like stocks and bonds—which can be converted more quickly to cash. In housing, argues that segregation not only disproportionately affects communities of color but also “costs lives, income, and potential” all across the city. Lastly, education the report extends the definition of segregation to not only racial divisions but also the educational consequences of class inequalities.
“A Raisin in the Sun,” written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959, was the first play ever produced on Broadway by an African-American woman and was considered ground-breaking for it’s time. Titled after Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” sometimes known as “A Dream Deferred,” the play and the subsequent film adaptations are honest examinations of race, family, poverty, discrimination, oppression and even abortion in urban Chicago after WWII. The original play was met with critical praise, including a review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times where he wrote, “For A Raisin in the Sun is a play about human beings who want, on the one hand, to preserve their family pride and, on the other hand, to break out of the poverty that seems to be their fate. Not having any axe to grind, Miss Hansberry has a wide range of topics to write about-some of them hilarious, some of them painful in the extreme.” The original screen adaptation released in 1961 was highly acclaimed in its own right, and was chosen in 2005 for preservation in the United States of America National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural and historical significance.
By Isis Maryam Muhammad On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In my opinion, the most consitiveral is article 4 No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. The reason why I believe that article4 is extremely groundbreaking is because black people was in slavery for over four hundred years. Genocides within micro generations.
Lance Freeman, an associate professor of urban planning in Columbia, wanted to investigate if there was any displacement going on in two predominantly black neighborhoods that was briskly gentrifying. Much to his dismay, he couldn’t find any correlation between gentrification and displacement. What was surprising to Freeman was his discovery, “poor residents and those without a college education were actually less likely to move if they resided in gentrifying neighborhoods”. (Sternbergh, 19) Freeman adds, “The discourse on gentrification, has tended to overlook the possibility that some of the neighborhood changes associated with gentrification might be appreciated by the prior residents.” (Sternbergh, 19)
Since this book is nonfiction and takes account of true stories, implicit norms are shown throughout the book. Much like many other cities, the book describes the city of Milwaukee as being racially divided. “The Menominee River Valley cuts through the middle of the city and functions like its Mason-Dixon Line, dividing the predominantly black North Side from the predominately white South Side” (Desmond, 33). Sherrena is the black landlord of the North Side, while Lenny Lawson is the white landlord of the South
Recently, there has been much debate over an athlete's right to stand or kneel during the national anthem. The protesting of the national anthem began back in 1968 when two US Olympic track athletes stood during the national anthem with a raised fist to raise awareness of black power during the times of racism and inequality. In Louis Jacobson’s article about the controversy, he stated, “The recent controversy over the national anthem came back up in 2016 when NFL player Colin Kaepernick sat during the anthem before a game.” This problem has filtered down to the high school level. It is against a citizen’s rights to keep him or her from kneeling.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry introduces a family trying to move up in the world but has trouble doing so because they are racially opposed by society. Starting in the 1890’s the Jim Crow Laws were used in the South as a way to oppose African-American giving them a status called, “separate but equal.” They mandated segregation of public schools, public transportation, public facilities including restaurants, bathrooms, and drinking fountains. In the 1950s African- Americans were starting to fight for equal rights and were starting to make headway.
A problem I would like to solve is the prevalent racial inequality in the United States today. African Americans and Hispanics are the most underserved racial groups in American society. About 45% of African Americans and 46% of Hispanics live in episodic poverty (defined as poverty lasting less than three years). Over 15% of African Americans are unemployed, and they make up 40% of the prison population in America. This is a shocking statistic, as only 13% of the United States ' population is African American.
A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period.
Bigger Thomas believes that although whites are to thank for affordable housing in Chicago, it segregates blacks from whites because of their income in order to avoid blacks at all cost. Bigger Thomas is frustrated with the fact that he cannot leave his neighborhood society has created to segregate him. “Thomas remind us that how blacks are constantly fighting against their own blackness, whereas black is inside the white people”(Yasmin 74). “Half the time I feel like I’m on the outside of the world peeping in through a knothole in the fence….” Bigger is again frustrated because his neighborhood prohibits him from exploring what life has to offer.
Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.