On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all men and women under slavery in the South. Under its clauses, many African Americans were freed that day, and even more as the War came to an end and the nation become united under one government. Still, for many ex-slaves, their lives changed little. Even with their freedom guaranteed and their rights inalienable, they still faced discrimination and hostility. With the development of the Jim Crow’s laws, Black Americans were legally isolated from the public, effectively keeping them away from the opportunities to advance their lives beyond that of a former slave. Those of biracial descent, who happened to inherit pale skin, were able to assimilate
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Ryder is willing to abandon his racial heritage, which would mean his very own identity, just to clear his colored status. For a high class person, who has earned his place solely with effort, to agree to this trade shows the tremendous pressure and discrimination society has placed on colored people. These terrible acts of racism, legalized by the Jim Crow’s laws, were evident and can be observed in the picture of a Black American drinking from a fountain specifically labeled “COLORED”. In the South, where the Jim Crow’s laws and Black Codes were enforced with an iron fist, equality was a false promise. Like the filthy fountain the man was forced to drink from, all the public facilities provided to African American at this time were inferior to those of white’s: restaurants, restrooms, public transportation, etc., were all unmaintained and unsanitary. The discrimination also extended to job and education with many high paying jobs denied to people of color; schools for Blacks were also overcrowded, underfunded, and inadequate. Under these conditions, life for African Americans were comparable to slavery. It is not unexpected of Mr. Ryder and other members of the Blue Veins Society to wish for the disassociation with their racial origin; since for them that is the only way to escape the …show more content…
Ryder and many other African Americans, who shared the same circumstances, were actually striving for a better future. There were little choice for them: they can remain faithful to their color and be doomed to the bottom of society or they can rid themselves of any connection to their past and embrace the white culture. The ironic situation where the oppressed, in order to escape the oppression, must be willing to become the oppressors themselves was a sad reality that actually happened in the South following the emergence of the laws of
Ryder is willing to abandon his racial heritage, which would mean his very own identity, just to clear his colored status. For a high class person, who has earned his place solely with effort, to agree to this trade shows the tremendous pressure and discrimination society has placed on colored people. These terrible acts of racism, legalized by the Jim Crow’s laws, were evident and can be observed in the picture of a Black American drinking from a fountain specifically labeled “COLORED”. In the South, where the Jim Crow’s laws and Black Codes were enforced with an iron fist, equality was a false promise. Like the filthy fountain the man was forced to drink from, all the public facilities provided to African American at this time were inferior to those of white’s: restaurants, restrooms, public transportation, etc., were all unmaintained and unsanitary. The discrimination also extended to job and education with many high paying jobs denied to people of color; schools for Blacks were also overcrowded, underfunded, and inadequate. Under these conditions, life for African Americans were comparable to slavery. It is not unexpected of Mr. Ryder and other members of the Blue Veins Society to wish for the disassociation with their racial origin; since for them that is the only way to escape the …show more content…
Ryder and many other African Americans, who shared the same circumstances, were actually striving for a better future. There were little choice for them: they can remain faithful to their color and be doomed to the bottom of society or they can rid themselves of any connection to their past and embrace the white culture. The ironic situation where the oppressed, in order to escape the oppression, must be willing to become the oppressors themselves was a sad reality that actually happened in the South following the emergence of the laws of