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The Role Of Oppression In African American Society

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A big part of our history is the challenges different races had to face when fighting for their rights. There are groups in today’s society that are still battling oppression, even though they were granted rights by our government. It seems like when one door opens, another closes right in their face. One race that had to deal with oppression, and is still dealing with it today, is African Americans. Africans Americans were brought over to the United States to be slaves for Caucasian people. All African Americans had to endure torture, losing family members, punishment, and much more. They had no freedom whatsoever and if they tried to fight for it, they were punished for it dearly. African Americans had to face so much to gain their freedom, and even when they did some people did not agree with the ruling. Even in today’s culture there are still people who see African Americans as less and judge them harshly based off of the past. It pains me to think that our society used Africans Americans for …show more content…

One of the readings for week three talked about the complete destruction of the Native American race because of Christopher Columbus. Many believe Christopher Columbus was a hero, and in a way they are right. However, our history books do not talk about him killing off an entire race because of his own greed. Columbus took the Arawak Indians hostage because he believed that they would lead him to gold. When that did not turn out as planned, Columbus decided to go on a slave raid and bring five hundred Indians back Spain. Two hundred Indians ended up dying while the survivors were put up for sale. The Spaniards did barbaric acts to the Arawak such as cutting off their hands, hunting them down with dogs, hanging them, and burning them alive.This scenario shows the oppression that Arawak Indians had to face when an outsider took over their land (Zinn,

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Additionally, Christopher Columbus enslaved and mistreated the natives. Not only did Christopher Columbus change the culture of the natives but actually tortured them. Columbus used the natives for his own use. “Throughout his years in the Americas, Columbus forced natives to work for the sake of profits. Later, he sent thousands of Taino “Indians” to Spain to be sold, and many of them died during the journey.”

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For many years, people have debated over whether Christopher Columbus is a hero or a villain. Based on background research I have done, Columbus, to me, has proven to be a villain. Columbus forced the Indigenous people of America (Native Americans) to change their religion. He put them into slavery and abused them. They were also infected by the diseases that the Spaniards were immune to.

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Zinn states Columbus’ encounter with the Indians: “They would make fine servants….With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want (Zinn, 1)”. With that approach, it didn’t take time before enslavement, murders, and rape to begin. With the goal of bringing back gold for the royalty in Spain, Columbus and his men took slaves and forced them to find gold or they were to be murdered. By the end of the 16th century, the Arawak Indians became extinct due

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Christopher Columbus has been viewed as both a positive historical hero and someone who was selfish and brought harm and misfortune to the Indians to benefit the white men. When flipping through a history textbook or sitting through a high school history course Columbus is viewed as a hero who embarked on many expeditions that helped others as well as brought people together with an abundance of goods. God, glory, gold, government, and geography motivated Columbus on his voyages. Columbus discovered land that he believed to be the Indies, which is what led him to identifying the natives as Indians. The people Columbus met were welcoming to Columbus and his men although they didn’t have the spices that were originally expected and needed.

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Christopher Columbus did not treat the natives like Spaniards. Christopher columbus is believed to be an american hero on behalf of him discovering America and brought gold to Spain. Even today people are grateful for his founding of America so present day he has been given his own day. I don’t believe he is a hero to America, here is why we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want is what he said he would think nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. Many people have died in the hands of Columbus over 3 million native people died from 1494 to 1508.

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In order to prove that the Arawak people were being abused by the Spaniards, Zinn uses sources from both Christopher Columbus and Bartolome De Las Casas. Zinn talks about Las Casas because he had the only information on what happened after Columbus met the Arawak people. One example that Las Casas states that Zinn brings up to display the cruelty of the Spanish people was “Las Casas tells how ‘two of these so-called Christians net two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys.’ ” .4 This quote alone gives the reader the proof that the Indians were mistreated horribly and that this changes how we should view Columbus and the Europeans in the New World.

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Christopher Columbus is a villain because he emerged an economic system in which Africans were used as slaves, forced Christianity on the Natives of North America and treated the Native Americans very cruelly. Columbus’s discovery of the New World convulsed Europe, Africa, North America and South America. The economic system that had emerged was called the Columbian Exchange and involved Europe, Africa, North America and South America. In this economic system Europe provided the markets, capital and technology; Africa provided the slave labor and the New World provided the its raw materials. Columbus traded goods from the New to Africa in exchange for slaves and the Africans unwillingly became slaves to work on the plantations of the New World.

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Long ago, African American people were sold to be slaves. They struggle for freedom and have to listen to the owner, or the white people and listen to their commands. The owner or the white people doesn't care much about them and making them work hard non stop. But, people began to stand up and fought for the African American people. A civil war even happened to decide whether to keep slaves or not.

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(1) This shows Columbus’s ignorance towards other people and his use of a militaristic approach due to capturing innocent people. Columbus has not only caused problems in his era but also to this day. Today Natives are still constantly struggling socially because they have been overlooked for so long, some could argue beginning first with Columbus and Colonization. In September of 1493, when Columbus set sail for his second voyage, he became much more aggressive towards the Arawak’s since he had already captured

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Before the civil war African Americans were enslaved forced to work on plantations. They were treated harshly, and faced many different hardships. This would change after the civil war, because they were granted their freedom. They were no longer forced to work on plantations, but that does not mean they were treated any better. After the civil war African Americans were still treated poorly and faced persecution for many years.

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And that is why I am grateful to have learned many details that shine the light on the way that Christopher Columbus actually was like, a villain. I have my reasons for considering Columbus a villain. For example Because of him there is much less diversity in animals. And if that wasn’t bad enough he is also the reason why there are very few native americans left.

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African Americans have systematically been deprived of equal opportunities and fundamental rights in America since the establishment of slavery. Although the Civil Rights Act banned the implementation of segregation and racial inequality over 40 years ago, the overall concept of racial and cultural hierarchy still lingers at the forefront of today’s society. White America’s history of racially oppressing, isolating, and segregating African Americans have led to present-day issues surrounding the political and economic forces that intentionally limits Blacks access to and opportunity from social, economic, educational, and political advancement through the institution of structural racism. Structural racism within America’s governments and

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598 Words | 3 Pages

the Holocaust. African Americans and Jews have both been oppressed for centuries. Oppression for the African Americans started when europeans brought them to America for cheap labor. Oppression for the jews started when Hitler came into power and took away Jews rights. As I started to study the two groups, I realized that African-Americans and Jews have many similarities, but they also have many differences.

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372 Words | 2 Pages

Who is Christopher Columbus? Some say he’s a hero, others say he’s a villain. Teachers tell their students that he sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and discovered the New World, but he lingers in history as a question mark and a mystery. He may have exposed the New World to the Old World, but many of his actions were unacceptable. Christopher Columbus was a villain who brought devastation and slaughter to the native population.

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995 Words | 4 Pages

During the early years of this nation’s history, America was stricken with the cancer of slavery. For nearly 250 years, indigenous Black people were kidnapped from the western shores of Africa, stripped of their culture, and robbed of their human dignity. This was the fate of indentured servitude on American soil. Slavery was the inescapable subjection of an African diaspora to uncompensated labor by the dominant white Eurocentric citizenry of a fledgling nation. In 1864, Negroes in America, now known as African Americans, were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln.

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