Slavery In The 20th Century

“We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us” this quote by accurately describes America during the 20th century, one could go as far as saying the 20th century shaped what has become of society in the early years of the 21st century. The turn of the century shed light on a new world forming, a world with new opportunity and new discoveries, however, a sense of newness did not cover up the old, deep rooted problems. Slavery was still looked at, by the majority of people, as a norm. Despite the growth in mass communication and more untraditional views beginning to emerge people still believed it was not only morally acceptable to treat human beings that way, but saw it as a duty to uphold the social norm. There is an overall theme …show more content…
Therefore, slavery should be a clear indicator that America started off horribly wrong, so wrong that it has remained an issue for hundred of years. Before looking at the 20th century it would be helpful to take a further look back to our early colonial days when slavery began. Author and civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander touches upon how slavery started in her book, “The New Jim Crow.” She explains that due to an increase in plantation farming and owners unwilling to work themselves, they searched for free labor (Alexander, 23). What better idea then to enslave a bunch of people who were completely isolated from the European culture, then, deem them as uncivilized beings who weren’t worthy of anything but to be the white mans slave. This idea formed and reform in a couple of different ways, however, the hatred and inhumane treatment continued on for centuries, the early 20th century was a horrid time for Enslaved African Americans. Wilkerson and “The Warmth of Others Suns” exemplifies just that, by using a number of different individuals he shows the cruel treatment African Americans received before and after the “death” of slavery. For example, a young African American boy was skinned alive, in front of his father, for giving a white girl a Christmas card …show more content…
However, it is the manor in which we achieve these things that demonstrates our failure as a country. War is another example that sheds light on America’s corrupted ways, whether that is a war against a foreign enemy or against our own citizens. War in general can be difficult to wrap your head around, especially during the 20th century when media, and mass communication was flourishing, making it easy to manipulate the situation. Andrew Bachevich, in “California Dreaming” explains that America’s form of democracy causes some uncomfortable truths that Americans shockingly don’t like to hear, and with these truths comes some sort of way to distort the truth (Bachevich, 97). One man who appeared to be great at altering the truth was President Ronald Reagan. Bachevich explains that the culture climate is hard to measure, however, there is no doubt that attitudes on war went through a tremendous change during the Reagan era, especially in Hollywood ( Bachevich, 111). After the Vietnam War going to war was no longer the most attractive thing Americans wanted to do, with a feeling of sorrow and dissapointment, American citizens needed motivation. Movies such as top gun, An officer and gentleman, and Blood part II, were great movies to get the America in the war spirit again. Reagan’s form of