As a result, America was naïve to believe that his entrance into office would transcend the nation- one that was originally founded on the devaluation and enslavement of nonwhite lives- into a post-racial society. The black community, in specific, was overly idealistic to believe that Obama’s presidency would magically abolish the white hegemony and black inferiority that has plagued the nation before it’s independence in 1776. Although symbolizing hope and racial progress for millions of lives, especially the lives of African Americans, Obama’s embodiment of an iconic negro, failure to address racial issues that disproportionately affect black lives, and own repetitive pronouncement of being America’s president confirm that, despite the hopes and expectations of African Americans, the improvement of black lives was not a primary goal in Obama’s presidency. As a result, African-Americans should not rely on Obama to enforce the improvements they’d like to see; instead black leaders and community members should devise new tactics that will effectively address and advance their objective to enhance black…
After discussing the consequences of racial dictatorship in the United States, Omi and Winant argue that “The transition from a racial dictatorship to a racial democracy has been a slow painful, painful, and contentious one; it remains far from complete” (66). Omi and Winant argue that this transition has started already, but it was never finished because the ideas of racial dictatorship were the norm and they remained like this for so long and the transition to racial democracy will require a strong reason to make people change their definition of race. Obama’s speech gives people the reason to change their attitudes towards racial formation. He wants to unite the people because “We cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union…we all want to move in the same direction — toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren” (Obama 2). Obama suggests that the desire for a better future will encourage people to end the views of racial dictatorship.…
Throughout American history, black communities have been discriminated and incriminated due to the color of one’s skin. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ expresses his discontent with the proclamation of American independence and democracy through means of social media and other public platforms. Coates’ conveys American democracy as a biased, violent, and racist tactic used to distract audiences from the cruel uses of power. America is categorized as having the inability to take responsibility for its actions during times of civil or physical war. Coates’ describes America considers itself to be a glorious and exceptionalistic country when he writes, “America believes itself exceptional, the greatest and noblest nation to ever exist, a lone champion standing between the white city of democracy and the terrorists, despots, barbarians, and other enemies of civilization” (8).…
The latter half of the nineteenth century saw a bitter and bloody Civil War fought over one underlying factor: slavery. Though many, including President Abraham Lincoln himself, claimed this war was to ‘protect the union’, the south clearly wanted slaves, and opposed anyone who could take their slaves away. To all, this contention for slavery brought up questions as to what American liberty and freedom really meant in relation to African Americans, questions that yielded an incredibly wide array of answers within the country. What caused this array of answers differed with the race, sex, socioeconomic demographic that Americans were a part of. These perspectives on liberty and freedom in relation to African Americans, though different because…
White Rage Racism in America has been a constant dilemma since years of slavery. The United States of America, a country that praised and advertised “true freedom” of the masses, yet displayed the exact opposite when it came to African Americans. The United States came to power through the enslavemnt of an entire race of people and the oppression (and massacre) of other minority races. In the book White Rage, Carol Anderson exposes the evils of the United State’s government and citizens during Reconstruction all the way into present-day as we said our goodbyes to our first beloved black president, Barack H. Obama. African-Americans, since the late 19th century have tried to create history for themselves as a race of people.…
In the novel United by Cory Booker, there are countless examples of how different the people of America are, based especially on their different classes and ethnicities. Poverty, racism, crime, and finding your place in the world are three common themes scattered throughout the book, and make others realize how segregated people still actually are. In the beginning of the story, Booker discusses how he grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, however he and his family suffered great racism-- despite the fact they were a wealthy African American family. Throughout Booker’s life, he was a very successful businessman, politician, and U.S. Senator. He made numerous significant changes in his time as a politician, including decreasing crime…
When growing up in the United States many have heard throughout their childhood that “society here is equal”. This, however, is untrue in many ways. For one, America didn’t become close to equal until women achieved their rights a couple of decades back. The United States shows how unequal it actually is towards its people, the land of supposed freedom to obtain success. Malcolm Gladwell informs in his article, “Black Like Them”, how there is an aspiration for a better future due to the people looking past racism, however it can’t be achieved due to there always having to be a scapegoat in society.…
Racism: The Other “Color Spectrum” A young black man walks through the road of life wearing a hood to hide his identity while a young white man walks through the road proud and confident about his identity. Situations such as these happen everyday and are discussed through articles such as “Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples and “Is Everyone a Little Racist?” by Nicolas Kristof. Articles such as these discuss the racism that plagues the country and devastates the communities of minorities due to the constant prejudice against their race. Consequently, the minorities begin to fall short of their potentials in life because of stereotypes that lead to unequal opportunities.…
As Darden (2009) describes, “the detachment of the American public from the South’s Jim Crow past still complicates domestic race relations today, let alone the public’s perceptions of the legacy of racism in the developing world” (8). Jim Crow was the figurehead for race relations in the South for well over 60 years. Although many would concede this was in the distant past, it would be difficult at best to argue that race relations have fallen…
The past 21 years that I have been alive, our nation has experienced both racial progression and digression. On November 8th, 2016 when Donald Trump became the president of the United States, I realized that as an African-American my ideological perspective would be a combination of a Black Nationalist and a Radical Egalitarian. Today I am going to argue that there are characteristics from both ideologies that are vital to African-Americans racial progression. I will do this by giving you examples of some of the African-American community’s major turning points in the country, but also how those accomplishments are still limited today. To get full racial justice for a group of people who have been oppressed for hundreds of years is going to…
If it is true that tragedies come in threes, then the death of American democracy is surely inevitable. The trio is affecting this nation is evangelical, paternalistic and sentimental nihilism; a toxic combination of institutionalized practices and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism and imperialism. The threads of nihilism were woven into the fabric of America since the values of the nation were conceived in the Constitution. The architects of this paramount document set a precedence for faulty democratic tradition as they struggled to consolidate the assertion that “all men are created equal” while simultaneously deeming slaves to be worth three-fifths of a person. Much like the slaveholding land capitalists, America’s contemporary…
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” (George Balch, “The Pledge of Allegiance”) is a line read with a hand proudly placed on one 's heart. As a child in elementary school each morning we had to pledge our allegiance to the flag with those very words. As an adult, I see now those words were said and are continually said with no merit or truth to stand behind it. We are not indivisible, there is no liberty, and there is not justice for all because black America is left out when the term “all” is used. Analyzing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations”, Julia Craven’s “We Absolutely Could Give Reparations To Black People.…
“One more minute” I told myself for the hundredth time that night. At 2:45 AM, Donald Trump had 266 electoral votes; only four more was needed to win the election. My page refreshed; Trump won the presidential election. A shiver went up my spine; the idea that Trump was going to win was something I had joked about weeks prior to the election. I grew scared for not just the immigrants residing here, but also America.…
Gary Gerstle’s “American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century” thrive upon the ideals of race and civic nationalism definitively shaping the American twentieth century (Gerstle 5). Racial divides impacted most conceivable aspects of daily life: economic status, social divides, laws, and even military practices. Civic nationalism is synonymous with patriotism, and a loyalty to one’s country of citizenship, an aspect constantly under question with an unsure government. Along-side race and nation-key American figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, and the prominent Roosevelt cousins, Franklin and Theodore shaped America’s policies and cultural attitudes for over half a century.…
An Ever Changing Country Although it has been decades since slavery ended, racism is still a profound controversy in the United States today. Charles Blow describes some of these levels of racism and its effects on people in the United States in his article “White America’s ‘Broken Heart’”. The article, as can be deciphered by the title, is about how white Americans today are handling the changing situations of equality in the United States. Blow published this article February 4, 2016, on The New York Times’ Opinion Pages on their website. Many Americans assume that racism is almost completely gone in today’s society, but Blow believes that it still lingers and is affecting the health of Caucasians in America.…