The concept of Blackness or black skin was used for both external and internal characteristics of a “black group” or “race”. Blackness is defined in the “Critical Perspectives on Bell Hook” by Arnold Farr as “the social construction of essentialist racial identities is oppressive and dehumanizing for people of African descent.” According to Farr, the essentialist racial identity is intensified by the system of white supremacy and maintained and perpetuated by blacks who are victims of racial essentialism. Bell Hooks urges, that” racial identity must be deconstructed and calls for a deconstruction of race and post-modern blackness as a way blacks asserting emancipation from white supremacy.” When race is deconstructed it enables anti hegemonic groups to be developed that confronts hegemony or dominant white supremacy. The reason for deconstruction is show that things refuse to conform to the static definitions given. In terms of race, racial essentialism tries to create fixed racial identities that robs or takes away the agency of black people.
Introduction Theorist Rogers Smith deemed racism an inherent tradition and key component of American political culture, denoting its prominence in both the social and legal systems since the country’s inception. In the United States, societal biases on race and immigration have come to greatly influence and provoke partison divisions and federal legislation. Tali Mandelberg identifies post-Emancipation attitudes as the source for past and current tension between the Democratic and Republican parties in seeking out support from white voters disgruntled by the racial shifts. This example serves as a prototype by which attitudes of voters and, as Vesla Weaver argues, conservative politicians create institutional racism evident in political campaigns
Portraying the horror of the Afro-American experience of Blacks in America, one should logically start by investigating the physical and spiritual traumatic effects that were imposed on the Blacks before starting to investigate their journey of emancipation with special reference to Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) and Song of Solomon (1977). However, this portrayal would be more effective if it is done within the framework of postmodernism with its emphasis on the past, on one hand, and on defying binary oppositions in general. The past here is epitomized in the effect that African-American heritage of slavery is represented to have on the lives of the characters in the two novels. In addition, the binary opposition defied here is that which used to be held between Whites as superior and Blacks as inferior. Postmodernism is a general tendency towards viewing the world in its new context.
Moreover, King uses these three rhetorical elements to express the treatment African Americans faced, the unjust laws by using examples back in history to show that these laws were not right at all, and his reason as to why he is in Birmingham due to the racial inequality whites have shown towards negroes. King main idea of his letter is “Injustice anywhere will be a threat to justice everywhere.” (King 1) Therefore, King is using this letter as a way of saying we have to protest racism and injustice, but we cannot do it violently because then that will be considered unjust too. Martin Luther King uses a tone of righteousness to talk about the right versus the wrong and explaining why what he is doing is correct. So, he is also making an ethical appeal, meaning he is talking about ethics and showing that he is a credible person. King is a person of character with an
This paper reviews John Howard Griffin’s Black like me, the paper provides a summary of the book, a critique that assesses the strengths and weakness of the book and a discussion of at least three incidents found personally interesting and an identification of what they illuminated concerning the way prejudice and discrimination were both overt and covert during the Jim Crow era. The theme of Black like me draws significantly from autobiographical memoirs of the real experiences of the author. This forms the strength of the book and helps in portraying a realistic approach to the question of identity as it is influenced by racial orientations (Griffins, 1961). The quest of the author to pioneer for social justice resulted to a transformation of his race from white to black. This step was because the
Critical race theory is a discipline that engages in the discussion and analysis of race, its evolution and social impacts, emphasizing the need to understand race as a consequence of the dynamic social processes and challenging the ways in which race and racial power are represented and understood in the American society. Hence, the work of critical race theory seeks to question the traditional ways of studying race providing consistent analysis on the multiple dimensions of this concept. One of the most diligent analysis is provided by Michael Omi and Howard Winant in the book Racial formation in the United States, a book in which the authors explain the transformation of race and its multiple approaches and manifestations through U.S. history, from its early conception in which it was strictly related to biological features to the current understanding of race as a social construct. In this context, the authors argue that race is a fundamental component of the U.S. society since it influenced the construction of social structures and contributed on the establishment of a system of inequalities. Throughout the book, the authors analyze and criticize the different conceptualizations of race and the ways in which this concept was historically created.
Definitions can be the starting point for understanding racism. Racism is simply the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to specific people on the basis of their race and some racial groups are superior to others. Dictionaries define the word as follows: The Oxford English Dictionary : “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races” Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary : “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” In Portraits of White Racism, David Wellman uses R = P + P formulation while defining facism. R is racism, and the two P’s are power and prejudice. Wellman(1993) explains it as asserting that we all have our prejudices, and we can be prejudiced about things, ideas, or people.
On that note; does ‘Black Lives Matter’ mean that only black lives matter; or is it the concept that Black lives mattering is a precondition for all lives mattering? This paper will discuss in the rationality of the movement. The movement was created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for Trayvon Martin’s death. It underlines the “racism and policing that shatters the illusion of a colour-blind , post racial United States” (Keeanga-Yamahtta, T., 2016). It demands an explanation as to why, people are so quick to press a trigger?
Critical race theory is a movement that had taken and continuously takes shape as a result from the ideas of pre-existing movements such as the critical legal studies movement and a radical feminist movement. Theorists within critical race theory strive, through the analysis of the structures of law as well as legal traditions within society (particularly within America) to recognise inbuilt racism within the structure of the law through the “history, contemporary experiences, and racial sensibilities of racial minorities”. Critical race theory is a twentieth century movement emerging from the 1970s as a movement created on the realisation for new “theories and strategies were needed to combat the subtler forms of racism” that were remerging in society as a result of the stalling of the civil rights (within America). With regards to the forming of the CRT movement, (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001) asserts that “CRT began as a movement in the law” where law was initially the original discipline under critical race
In the case of justice, both these ideas contribute the dismissal of this notion of impartiality by creating terms of inequality among every group. On a deeper scale, the cause of “disability” in minority groups can be linked back to the social construct known as racial formation: the theory that “social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings” (Omi and Winant 14). For