Policing the poor by Neil Websdale, mainly focuses on the “Power Control Wheel” describing the power black men have over women living in Nashville. Websdale argues the “Power Control Wheel” has been an explanation why domestic violence has occurred frequently among African American women and men. Websdale historically ties the domestic violence from women and their partners with the enslavements of African Americans and their white plantation owners explaining the “Power Control Wheel”. Websdale mentions how women continually to let the “Power Control Wheel” be overrun by men because of the fear of not being able to receive a stable income, illegally activities that are performed, satisfying drug addictions and the black kinship (132). According to Websdale, the Black Kinship system is a cultural legacy giving women a reason not to …show more content…
Websdale demonstrates this by explaining the “Power Control Wheel”, which is defined as the people who have power over someone controlling their lives or labor in return those needing a stable life from the person in control. For example, Websdale gives an example of women who have been abused by their partners needing and having a stable income, satisfying drug addiction and their importance to keeping a family together. Quinney theory is related to Websdale because the dominant group has power and control over the underclass by owning production and for the underclass to gain capital. Although, Quinney’s theory does not support economic equality, instead since the dominant group wants to make more production they commit crimes like abuse in work labor and dangerous environment living condition. Webs deal ties this “Power Control Wheel” with the suffering of women living in abused homes and white plantation owners with slaves for a better-controlled
In 1973, Clifford Geertz- an American anthropologist- authored The Interpretation of Cultures, in which he defines culture as a context that behaviors and processes can be described from. His work, particularly this one, has come to be fundamental in the anthropological field, especially for symbolic anthropology-study of the role of symbols in a society- and an understanding of “thick description”-human behavior described such that it has meaning to an outsider of the community it originated. Alice Goffman is an American sociologist and ethnographer widely-known for her work, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City (2015). In this work, she relays how for her undergraduate and doctoral research project, she immersed herself in a predominately African-American community of Philadelphia as a white, privileged woman. Goffman goes on the explain how the frequent policing and incarceration of young, black men from this neighborhood affects the entire community and even affected Goffman herself.
However, the issue that is still a major struggle today is what Fitzhugh calls “the White Slave Trade” (164). By this, he means the capitalist way of using hard labor to earn profit. Instead of calling these people laborers or working men, he refers to them as “slaves to capital” (166). The mark of this is still seen in sweatshops and lower paying jobs. People can work ten hours a day toward their deaths and still only make enough
There is a systematic erosion of black families. All too often, black male fathers are absent from the home, leaving black mothers to raise young black children in single parent households. This absence of black male fathers in America originated during the days of slavery. Dick Gregory penned the autobiography depicting his struggles for acceptance and equality in a country that resented him based on the color of his skin. Unfortunately, like many African American children, Dick grew up without a father in his household.
In _The White Scourge_, Neil Foley uses a wealth of archival materials and oral histories to illuminate the construction and reconstruction of whiteness and the connection of this whiteness to power. Focusing largely on cotton culture in central Texas, Foley 's book deconstructs whiteness through a new and detailed analysis of race, class, and gender. The most intriguing aspect of this book is its comparison of the impact of whiteness on various ethno-racial classes and how each struggled in relation to the other to develop a meaningful existence. _
As Wilson explains how American culture reinforces disadvantage, he talks about the media. In the media, African American individuals, young men especially, are viewed negatively. The shortcomings of the workforce leads some African American men to get involved in crime. This negative coverage in the media begins this cultural phenomenon among society. These reports of crime give people such a negative response to African American men, resulting in racism and starts a cycle of
On top of this, he argues that the white middle class are unrelenting with their methods of depriving black advancement in American society. Knowledge of this incites many blacks to occupy dead-end jobs, or to settle for mediocrity in the face of adversity. A large number of black males in America find themselves forced to take jobs that offer no security, or socioeconomic growth. He also contends that many blacks are not very literate and therefore left behind in cultural revolutions like the information age. For twelve months between 1962 and 1963, Liebow and a group of researchers studied the behavior of a group of young black men who lived near and frequently hung around a street corner in a poor black neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C. Liebow’s participant observation revealed the numerous obstacles facing black men on a day-to-day basis, including the structural and individual levels of racial discrimination propagated by whites in society.
Throughout our history our society struggles with inequality. Sexism and racism still addresses like class, gender or other dominating classifications a structural problem in our United States culture. In Jean Baker Miller’s essay “Domination and Subordination” she discusses the temporary and permanent inequality. Miller states that the temporary inequality is a relationship between a dominated individual who explains and is a teacher to the subordinated individual. In contrast her explanation of the permanent inequality is the relationship of different individuals who always will be unequal.
Over the last 500 years people of color, especially African American, have endured a pattern of state-sanctioned violence, civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered, and executed private persons, while brutally repressing struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination” (Fitzgerald, 2007). More often than not, police brutality has been a persistent problem faced by African Americans. “Historically, racist violence has been used to impose racial oppression and preserve white power and privilege. Racist violence has served five primary purposes: to force people of color into indentured, slave, peonage, or low wage situations; to steal land, minerals, and other resources; to maintain social control and to repress rebellions; to restrict or eliminate competition in employment, business, politics, and social life; and to unite “whites” across ethnic/national, class, and gender lines” (Fitzgerald, 2007).
In the 1980’s black women are faced with a lot pressure in society, Because women of color are both women and racial minorities, they face more pressure in which lower economic opportunities due to their race and their gender. This pressure is reflected both in the jobs available to them and in their lower pay. Also because they are women of color they are likely to be the giver of the house and also within the families. Through the use of anecdotes,rhetorical questions, anaphora, ethos and metaphors, "In The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Audre Lorde argues that women of color need to respond to racism with anger spurred from their fear and that not a bad thing depends on how anger is portrayed.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
“Black Men and Public Spaces” Diagnostic Essay Brent Staples in “Black Men and Public Spaces,” illustrates the inescapable prejudices and stereotyping that African-American men face in America. He does this by relating to his audience through his personal experiences with stereotyping, and sharing his malcontent on how these events have made him alter his way of living. From “victimizing” woman, watching people lock themselves away, and having to whistle classical music to calm the nerves of people around him; Staples builds a picture to help people better sympathize and understand his frustration. Although Staples describes himself as a college graduate, a journalist, and a softy in the face of violence, he details that the overall public deems him a dangerous criminal.
Will society ever view African-Americans as people and not as less than? In “Chokehold” Paul Butler will discuss this very idea depth. Butler provides history on why and how society sees African-American men as violent thugs. Butler goes on to explain in detail how the chokehold plays a part in oppressing African-American men and how to avoid the ramifications of the Chokehold, if possible.
Slavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue.
Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.
Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.