There those among us (us being U.S.A citizens of all backgrounds) who would like to ignore the fact that prejudice and racism exist. Some would like the so called African-Americans who complain, point out, and protest racism and prejudice to simply forget about it, endure it, put up with it, shut up about it, and act as if slavery and the residual affects of the slave trade (which include prejudice, racism, and self hate) have no bearing on life in the U.S.A. and race relations therein.
Ignoring the truth and facts will never change the reality. The reality is that historically there has always been this attitude based on actions that the life of the African-American or Black man is not as important as a white person's life.
Why Obama Will Never Call Out Racism
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In a piece for Time, Touré explains why he believes the president will never really tackle race head-on.Barack Obama is not a black leader. He’s a leader who’s black. This is not an insignificant distinction. In order to become President, he had to promise to be President for all the people and not be someone who would be a special friend to the black community, and he has lived up to that pledge. Black America has enjoyed the spiritual boost and pride injection that’s come from seeing the brother break the highest glass ceiling and strut through the White House lawn and parade his beautiful family before the world. But when Obama turns to governing, it’s a different story.
When he spoke of Trayvon Martin, Obama did so in a humane and paternal way, though he was careful not to bias the ongoing Department of Justice investigation. But more crucially, he was careful not to racialize the situation, which has become a racialized time bomb. Obama leavened his comments by using a rhetorical device he often employs, which is to universalize the situation. He said, “I think about my own kids,” which personalized the moment but risked coming close to pointing out the racial aspect, so he immediately followed that phrase with a universalizing statement: “Every parent in America should be able to understand why it’s absolutely imperative to investigate every aspect of this.” A moment later he repeated that pattern: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon, and all of us Americans are gonna take this with the seriousness it deserves.” This rhetorical gesture signals to black Americans that he’s not avoiding race — he references it in coded ways — but avoiding making white Americans feel guilty about racism. He gives everyone a way to feel that these issues are their purview while downplaying the pernicious impact of racism on the moment.
We must acknowledge the existence of racism in America
By Beverly McPhail Updated 08:08 p.m., Friday, March 30, 2012
The tragic death of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African-American student gunned down in Florida while walking home after buying candy, has transfixed the nation. To make sense of his untimely death, which may have been a result of racial profiling, a national discussion on racism is necessary. However, just like every other race-based incident in our nation, the conversation quickly devolves into sideshows and rabbit trails, and the complex discussion never materializes. America should change our national symbol from an eagle to a head-hiding ostrich.It is analogous to "The Wizard of Oz," where a scared little white man hides behind a curtain while projecting powerful images and an authoritarian voice to distract the audience from his shaky and fearful presence. Many white pundits and politicians hide behind the racism curtain to preclude serious discussion and obfuscate issues by projecting multiple images upon the screen: Black-on-black crime is a much more serious issue and must be dealt with immediately before we can even discuss this singular case. Acknowledging race and racism makes one a racist while pretending race and racism don't exist makes one not a racist. The hoodie-wearing victim is to blame, as his clothes are dissected and his reputation discredited, a tactic very familiar to rape survivors. We have a black president in the White House, so that means racism no longer exists. Fallacies all.
So what would it be like for our nation to have this long-delayed discussion of racism in a manner in which people and institutions could seriously address this issue? And if we had such a discussion, what would it look like? I humbly offer a three-point plan.
Americans would have to acknowledge that our great country was built on racism and discrimination, from enslaving Africans for forced labor and later enforcing a Jim Crow system of apartheid, to the near annihilation of indigenous peoples while stealing their land, to forcing Japanese Americans into camps during World War II and excluding Chinese through the Chinese Exclusion Act, and profiting from the cheap labor of Latinos while simultaneously punishing them through hostile immigration policies. Ironically, acknowledging this simple fact makes us strong while denying it makes us weak.
Discrimination against both Blacks and Jews has the unfortunate distinction of a history that dates back centuries.
Long before the Nazis existed, anti-Semitism manifested itself most commonly in the form of pogroms - riots launched against Jews by local residents, often supported by authorities. In the 1800s, xenophobic German scholars formed the "Voelkisch movement" to cultivate their conviction that Jews were not "truly German." German Nationalists feared political movements such as Marxism, Communism, Pacifism, and Internationalism, which they associated with Jewish intellectuals. Now they produced pseudoscientific theories of racial anthropology which found political expression in the formation of the Nazi party in 1919. Leaders in literature, music, medicine, science, finance and academia, German Jews were at the forefront of their country's culture - they'd fought in World War I and were proud to be thought of as Germans, despite their awareness of growing anti-Semitism.
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 Warning! Jews! |
In 1931, the SS (named for Schutzstaffel, the elite military unit of the Nazi party) formed the Race and Settlement Office to "investigate" the suitability of potential spouses for SS members. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they passed the Civil Service Law, calling for the purging of Jews from all government agencies, cultural organizations and state positions. Jews were segregated to the back of public buses and restricted entrance to restaurants. The works of leading German writers such as Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger and Alfred Kerr were ceremoniously burned in Berlin. Economic sanctions limited the rights of Jews to practice their trades. The Law for Preventing Overcrowding in German Schools and Schools of Higher Education took effect in April, 1933. Initially restricting the enrollment of Jews, this law soon resulted in the dismissal of Jewish professors.
While few, if any, could imagine that by 1941 the Germans would begin the systematic slaughter of Jews - a slaughter that over the next four years would take the lives of close to six million souls - many of these scholars realized in the early 1930s that Jews had no future in Germany and fled to the United States. Most of the 1,200 refugee scholars who arrived in the U.S. could not find work in their fields. A small number, however, would end up in the historically Black colleges of the American South. In many ways, these scholars discovered that the American South was not unlike Germany had been in the mid-1930s before mass murder became the policy of the German state.
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In 1933, America had its own share of troubles. World War I had left its mark in the form of a profound isolationist sentiment. The Depression paralyzed the economy, leaving 25 percent of the workforce unemployed. The Jim Crow Laws, strictly segregating Blacks from Whites, were still in effect in the South and racial tension was high.
Like anti-Semitism abroad, discrimination against Blacks in the U.S. had a long and complex history. After the Southern states were defeated in the Civil War and slavery was abolished, Black codes were enacted in 1865 and 1866. Though the codes granted Blacks certain basic civil rights (to marry, to own personal property and to sue in court), they also called for the segregation of public facilities and restricted the freedman's rights as a free laborer, to own real estate, and to testify in court. These were soon repealed as the radical Republican governments, led by so-called carpetbaggers (Northerners who settled in the South) and scalawags (Southern Whites in the Republican Party), began to rebuild the Southern economy and society. The civil and political rights of Blacks were guaranteed (on paper), and Blacks were - for a brief time - "free" to participate in the political and economic life of the South.
Most Southern Whites were very uncomfortable with the former slaves' new role in society. Social custom persisted, legal obstacles (such as the poll tax and unfair literacy tests) were established, and terrorism was used to keep African Americans and White Republicans from voting. Informal vigilante groups or armed patrols were formed in almost all communities. In Louisiana in 1896 there were 130,334 Blacks registered to vote; by 1905 there were only 1,342. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan arose, the radical Republican governments were overthrown, and Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 as all federal troops were withdrawn from the South.
Between 1889 and 1918, a total of 2,522 Black Americans were lynched, including 50 women. Often the excuse was used that the accused Black man had supposedly raped a White woman, a popular myth at that time, yet in 80 percent of the cases there were no sexual charges alleged, let alone proved. Hanged, burned alive, or hacked to death, people were lynched for petty offenses such as stealing a cow, arguing with a White, or trying to register to vote. Social critic H.L. Mencken explained, "In sheer high spirits, some convenient African is taken at random and lynched, as the newspapers say, 'on general principles.'" This practice went unpunished until 1918.
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In 1908, in the aftermath of an especially violent race riot in Springfield, Illinois, a group of Black intellectuals joined forces with a coalition of humanitarian Whites to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). At the same time there was an increasing migration of Blacks out of the South and into the North, where they could register, vote and have an impact on state and national politics. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and offered the economic benefits of his New Deal more-or-less equally to Blacks and Whites, employing one-fifth of the Black labor force on relief projects instituted by the United States Government.Discrimination against both Blacks and Jews has the unfortunate distinction of a history that dates back centuries.
Long before the Nazis existed, anti-Semitism manifested itself most commonly in the form of pogroms - riots launched against Jews by local residents, often supported by authorities. In the 1800s, xenophobic German scholars formed the "Voelkisch movement" to cultivate their conviction that Jews were not "truly German." German Nationalists feared political movements such as Marxism, Communism, Pacifism, and Internationalism, which they associated with Jewish intellectuals. Now they produced pseudoscientific theories of racial anthropology which found political expression in the formation of the Nazi party in 1919. Leaders in literature, music, medicine, science, finance and academia, German Jews were at the forefront of their country's culture - they'd fought in World War I and were proud to be thought of as Germans, despite their awareness of growing anti-Semitism.
|
Warning! Jews! |
In 1931, the SS (named for Schutzstaffel, the elite military unit of the Nazi party) formed the Race and Settlement Office to "investigate" the suitability of potential spouses for SS members. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they passed the Civil Service Law, calling for the purging of Jews from all government agencies, cultural organizations and state positions. Jews were segregated to the back of public buses and restricted entrance to restaurants. The works of leading German writers such as Bertolt Brecht, Lion Feuchtwanger and Alfred Kerr were ceremoniously burned in Berlin. Economic sanctions limited the rights of Jews to practice their trades. The Law for Preventing Overcrowding in German Schools and Schools of Higher Education took effect in April, 1933. Initially restricting the enrollment of Jews, this law soon resulted in the dismissal of Jewish professors.
While few, if any, could imagine that by 1941 the Germans would begin the systematic slaughter of Jews - a slaughter that over the next four years would take the lives of close to six million souls - many of these scholars realized in the early 1930s that Jews had no future in Germany and fled to the United States. Most of the 1,200 refugee scholars who arrived in the U.S. could not find work in their fields. A small number, however, would end up in the historically Black colleges of the American South. In many ways, these scholars discovered that the American South was not unlike Germany had been in the mid-1930s before mass murder became the policy of the German state.
|
|
In 1933, America had its own share of troubles. World War I had left its mark in the form of a profound isolationist sentiment. The Depression paralyzed the economy, leaving 25 percent of the workforce unemployed. The Jim Crow Laws, strictly segregating Blacks from Whites, were still in effect in the South and racial tension was high.
Like anti-Semitism abroad, discrimination against Blacks in the U.S. had a long and complex history. After the Southern states were defeated in the Civil War and slavery was abolished, Black codes were enacted in 1865 and 1866. Though the codes granted Blacks certain basic civil rights (to marry, to own personal property and to sue in court), they also called for the segregation of public facilities and restricted the freedman's rights as a free laborer, to own real estate, and to testify in court. These were soon repealed as the radical Republican governments, led by so-called carpetbaggers (Northerners who settled in the South) and scalawags (Southern Whites in the Republican Party), began to rebuild the Southern economy and society. The civil and political rights of Blacks were guaranteed (on paper), and Blacks were - for a brief time - "free" to participate in the political and economic life of the South.
Most Southern Whites were very uncomfortable with the former slaves' new role in society. Social custom persisted, legal obstacles (such as the poll tax and unfair literacy tests) were established, and terrorism was used to keep African Americans and White Republicans from voting. Informal vigilante groups or armed patrols were formed in almost all communities. In Louisiana in 1896 there were 130,334 Blacks registered to vote; by 1905 there were only 1,342. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan arose, the radical Republican governments were overthrown, and Reconstruction officially ended in 1877 as all federal troops were withdrawn from the South.
Between 1889 and 1918, a total of 2,522 Black Americans were lynched, including 50 women. Often the excuse was used that the accused Black man had supposedly raped a White woman, a popular myth at that time, yet in 80 percent of the cases there were no sexual charges alleged, let alone proved. Hanged, burned alive, or hacked to death, people were lynched for petty offenses such as stealing a cow, arguing with a White, or trying to register to vote. Social critic H.L. Mencken explained, "In sheer high spirits, some convenient African is taken at random and lynched, as the newspapers say, 'on general principles.'" This practice went unpunished until 1918.
|
|
In 1908, in the aftermath of an especially violent race riot in Springfield, Illinois, a group of Black intellectuals joined forces with a coalition of humanitarian Whites to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). At the same time there was an increasing migration of Blacks out of the South and into the North, where they could register, vote and have an impact on state and national politics. Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and offered the economic benefits of his New Deal more-or-less equally to Blacks and Whites, employing one-fifth of the Black labor force on relief projects instituted by the United States Government.
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From Swastika to Jim Crow
The Jewish refugees of the early 1930s arrived in a country rife with conflict but ripe for change. Activities of civil rights organizations just before World War II gave rise to a tide of opposition across the nation. Public opinion may have been influenced by the paradox of a nation urging war for democracy overseas while at the same time tolerating discrimination at home.
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 John Biggers while student at Hampton Institute |
Administrators at Black colleges in the South saw in these immigrants, prominent scholars who might share a unique understanding of oppression with their Black students. These historically Black private institutions offered students a rare opportunity for educational advancement and - because they were exempt from local segregation laws - a unique sense of freedom. On campus, Blacks and Whites associated freely and an atmosphere of mutual respect between faculty and students was encouraged. Fifty-one refugee professors found positions at 19 different institutions.
From the start, Southern Whites in the segregated communities surrounding these academic havens looked suspiciously upon their new neighbors. Close relationships between the refugee professors and their Black students only added fuel to the fire. Faculty who attempted to eat meals with students in town or invited students to their homes were often harassed, threatened, or accused of being German spies. Off-campus, professors could be arrested for fraternizing with Blacks in public restaurants because this was interpreted as "incitement to riot," a violation of the still-effective Jim Crow Laws.
came from a situation of forced segregation [in Germany] where we were victims and now suddenly I was on the other side. I belonged not to the oppressed, but to the oppressor. And that was very, very uncomfortable for me."
- Ernst Manasse, professor at North Carolina Central University, 1939-1973
The irony did not escape the immigrant scholars. Talledega College teacher Lore Rasmussen recounted, "When they found out that I had escaped the Nazis and I was a refugee, they said, 'Well, you should be glad to be in a place where there is democracy and freedom.'"
Despite their different histories, the Jewish refugees and their Black students understood racial tension and oppression. This common understanding and mutual respect could well serve Jewish-Black relations today.
There is a history, there is a kinship, and it goes beyond the rhetoric. Look, there's never going to be a crisis in Irish-Black relations or Italian-Black relations, because they have no relations. But we do.
- Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League
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