Racism In Crow Country

Al Sharpton radio host, and minister once said, “We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.” (cite) He then goes on to say that his “son” is smarter, slicker, and more cunning than him. This metaphor describes that even though the Jim Crow Laws have been ratified, there is a new racial discrimination in America that is growing and is harder to defeat than the last. The Jim Crow Laws were the set of laws that set the whites and blacks separate from each other in the 1900s, although they have been defeated, America today may be equal lawfully but not on an individual level. With the beginning of the Jim Crow Laws in the 1900s to their abolishment in 1965, and even today, America has yet to resolve the issue of “separate but equal.”

This novel written by Michelle Alexander presents research on the issue of colorblindness and mass incarceration of minorities in African American and latino racial groups which is a result of bias judgment. The author’s research indicates that people of African American and Latino ethnicity are more likely to be searched and imprisoned than white Americans although the crime rate of African Americans and Hispanics are roughly at the same rate or slightly lower than the white American crime rate. This is important to the criminal justice system in general because it shows that the government is encouraging an issue great civil rights activists have worked hard and gave their life fighting to improve.

The piece of writing which I felt was unsuccessful for me was the Rhetorical Analysis of an article relating to a topic from our course book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. This piece of writing was difficult for me to organize my ideas around. The article that I decided to use for my rhetorical analysis highlighted mass incarceration among African American and the effect of civil liberties being are taken away from these individuals. I had a lot of repetition because many of the examples I used demonstrated more than one type of appeal. I found myself repeating what the purpose of the example was and how it demonstrated proper use of ethos, pathos, and logos. This also made it difficult

In the essay, “A Genealogy of Modern Racism”, the author Dr. Cornel West discusses racism in depth, while conveying why whites feel this sense of superiority. We learn through his discussion that whites have been forced to treat black harshly due to the knowledge that was given to them about the aesthetics of beauty and civility. This knowledge that was bestowed on the whites in the modern West, taught them that they were superior to all races tat did not emulate the norms of whites. According to Dr. West the very idea that blacks were even human beings is a concept that was a “relatively new discovery of the modern West”, and that equality of beauty, culture, and intellect in blacks remains problematic and controversial in intellectual circles

Trapped in society, and treated like nothing- the government has fallen into corruption, and is no longer able to help loved ones. Citizen rights are stripped away, leaving inequality and unfair treatment. This was the Jim Crow Era. Blacks were stripped of the rights that they had gained when freed from slavery. They became soil to the white man territory. They were unable to do anything in society, all due to the color of their skin. In the 1900’s the Jim Crow Laws were established due to a corrupt government, unfair treatment to blacks, and the lack of motivation to protect blacks rights as citizens in America.

Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New

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. Popular opinion in the United States is that race is no longer an issue (Pew Research Center, 2014) (Gallup, 2014) and point to examples

‘The Divine Wind’ written by Garry Disher, is a novel that explores the lives of many individuals as they face a time of hardship through war and conflict. Hart, the main protagonist of the book, develops several relationships along the way, the majority unfortunately ruined by his personal insecurities. Hart loses the friendship of his two close friends, Mitsy Sennosuke and Alice Penrose, causing him to feel alone and ‘friendless’ for some time. Consequently, he resorts to becoming friends with Jamie Killian, despite the fact that he didn’t get along well with him. Hart’s mother and father share a similar situation- a strained friendship due to individual insecurities.

December the 6th, 1865 marks the end of slavery and white supremacy. A glance at the 21st century America manifests otherwise. Racism is an ongoing issue that contributes largely to class boundaries within significant aspects such as economy, education and society of the United States, making people of color inferior to white people. The key components that construct a country into greatness are economy, education and society. The inequality and injustice present in these interlinked components, bound by social class hierarchy, can lead to desisting the full potential to be a globally respectable nation.

In the eyes of Martin Luther King Jr., Justice within a society is achieved through the implementation of just laws. Furthermore, “just laws are regulations that have been created by man that follow the laws of God for man” (“Clergymen’s Letter”). Any law that does not correspond with the ideals of God and morality are considered to be unjust or a form of injustice. King identifies that injustice is clearly evident within the justice system. This injustice can truly be seen through the misconduct imposed toward the African American community. 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.

What is the purpose of racism? In Theorizing Nationalism, Day and Thompson discuss how racism and nationalism are precisely the same. Racism has the ability to help build nationalism, especially in our young country. LeMay and Barkan in U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Laws & Issues talk about how this racism is used during a specific time period, 1880 to 1920, in the United States of America. Both of these articles argue that when the United States was in a time of peril, they used racism as a unifying factor to bring the country together and as a way to put a group of people lower than themselves to bring their status to a higher point in society.

In the novel Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow tells a complex story where historical figures and fictional characters are woven together to make up the narrative. Evident themes include: race, class, and change and transformation. Throughout Ragtime, there are many characters who are influenced by certain people or encounters. Ragtime not only tells the individual struggles of each character throughout the novel but also shows how each character is affected by another. The different characters in Ragtime represent different responses to change - from encouraging change to responding to it, and from resisting change to accepting it. The novel represents characters who provoke change (Coalhouse), characters who accept change (Mother and Tateh), and characters who resist change (Father).

Racism is considered to be one of the most important and difficult topics to be spoken about all over the world. It has become a major problem for the nation during the years. In my essay I would like to speak about the beginning of racism, the situation nowadays, about the Civil Rights Movement and of course about a person, who had the greatest influence on the problem of racism in the history – Martin Luther King.

In retrospect, the history of the antebellum America is quite fascinating. During this period, the young republic faced several challenges. One of the most serious ones was the slavery issue. Reading the related materials, people might understand that the Founding Fathers had actually pondered about the solution to the issue; however, they did not pursue it because they foresaw possible turmoil in American politics. Unfortunately, the issue kept simmering until it reached the boiling point which resulted in the disastrous Civil War. It is also interesting to read how the anti-and pro slavery camps argued for their beliefs, how politicians abandoned their old parties and formed the new ones based on their common beliefs or interests and how they fought for their political gains. The period of the antebellum America presents such a tumultuous one, yet it shows how the young republic struggled to find a path to a better union among those hungry for power and wealth. Above all, it does require wisdom, vision, courage, determination and political maneuvers

Source: Boundless. “The Functionalist Perspective.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 13 Jun. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-textbook/race-and-ethnicity-10/sociological-perspectives-on-race-and-ethnicity-83/the-functionalist-perspective-484-6546/