Racism is embedded into essentially every American institution and is nurtured by people who have racist predispositions. Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between the World and Me, writes “the ground we walked was trip-wired. The air we breathed was toxic. The water stunted our growth. We could not get out” (Coates, p. 28). His book, published in 2015, implies that racism, even today, is everywhere in American society. This is true in many major institutions, from education to law enforcement and religious groups to judicial courts. Anne Moody in her book Coming of Age in Mississippi strikes right to the heart of the problem when she writes, “the federal government was directly or indirectly responsible for most of the segregation, discrimination, and poverty
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It was no different once black people entered the picture as slaves. Malcolm X writes about how the Devil white man is first introduced to millions of Africa’s black people by way of torture, enslavement and kidnapping their people. In this way, Malcolm first believes that the white man is inherently evil because he is the Devil himself. Malcolm talks about how black people’s bodies were considered goods, just like the cotton, tobacco and gold traded in early America, saying that they “accept our bodies as currency, because it is their tradition” (X, Haley, p. 107, 131). In support, Coates writes, “in America, it is traditional to destroy the black body - it is heritage” (Coates, p. 103). He raises politicians as proprietors in this illusion, citing Abraham Lincoln and James K. Polk. Nowadays, black people’s bodies are a currency for something else entirely: fear. This primal fear that Coates expresses in his letter to his son is shared by Moody and Malcolm. Moody as young girls writes, “I had known the fear of hunger, hell and the Devil. But now there was a new fear in me - the fear of being killed just because I was black” (Moody, p. 107). This fear emanating from and surrounding the black figure in America is central to America’s racist …show more content…
11). This much is true regarding the workforce, with black people making a fraction of the money that white people did, and much of it involving crucial labor. In the case of Moody and Malcolm, they never had the chance to be teenagers because of the responsibilities they had to assume, taking care of siblings and making a living. Working black teenagers were a double-edged sword: they promoted cheap labor and subjugation but only so that they could support their families and continue their education. The teenage work industry remained alive and well as a way for teenagers to stay busy and out of the civil rights movement, in the eyes of white people. Black teenagers faced a harsh dilemma in which taking part in the civil rights movement risked ruining their entire family’s livelihood. It is all part of the system to keep black people uneducated and inundated with poverty and fear. In an attempt to escape the constant terror embedded in the life of a black person, many blacks tried to stay blissfully unaware in an act of self preservation. Moody explains that people are too ingrained in everyday life to look up and see that they can provoke social change because there is no instant gratification - or in some cases, any gratification. C.O. Chinn, one of the most successful black men in his neighborhood, dedicated his life to the movement and became impoverished and worn
It was no different once black people entered the picture as slaves. Malcolm X writes about how the Devil white man is first introduced to millions of Africa’s black people by way of torture, enslavement and kidnapping their people. In this way, Malcolm first believes that the white man is inherently evil because he is the Devil himself. Malcolm talks about how black people’s bodies were considered goods, just like the cotton, tobacco and gold traded in early America, saying that they “accept our bodies as currency, because it is their tradition” (X, Haley, p. 107, 131). In support, Coates writes, “in America, it is traditional to destroy the black body - it is heritage” (Coates, p. 103). He raises politicians as proprietors in this illusion, citing Abraham Lincoln and James K. Polk. Nowadays, black people’s bodies are a currency for something else entirely: fear. This primal fear that Coates expresses in his letter to his son is shared by Moody and Malcolm. Moody as young girls writes, “I had known the fear of hunger, hell and the Devil. But now there was a new fear in me - the fear of being killed just because I was black” (Moody, p. 107). This fear emanating from and surrounding the black figure in America is central to America’s racist …show more content…
11). This much is true regarding the workforce, with black people making a fraction of the money that white people did, and much of it involving crucial labor. In the case of Moody and Malcolm, they never had the chance to be teenagers because of the responsibilities they had to assume, taking care of siblings and making a living. Working black teenagers were a double-edged sword: they promoted cheap labor and subjugation but only so that they could support their families and continue their education. The teenage work industry remained alive and well as a way for teenagers to stay busy and out of the civil rights movement, in the eyes of white people. Black teenagers faced a harsh dilemma in which taking part in the civil rights movement risked ruining their entire family’s livelihood. It is all part of the system to keep black people uneducated and inundated with poverty and fear. In an attempt to escape the constant terror embedded in the life of a black person, many blacks tried to stay blissfully unaware in an act of self preservation. Moody explains that people are too ingrained in everyday life to look up and see that they can provoke social change because there is no instant gratification - or in some cases, any gratification. C.O. Chinn, one of the most successful black men in his neighborhood, dedicated his life to the movement and became impoverished and worn