Racism A History Part 2 Analysis

So there were three sources for this weeks reading and viewing. All three had different thesis statements that tighter I believe cover a majority of cultural issues that we face today as a society. First we have the video that is titled “Racism a history part 2”, what this video introduces the humble beginnings of the abolitionist movement in and throughout history! Then this week we were also asked to read chapter one of “Landscape and Race in the united States”. The main argument of this chapter is the basic over view of the book itself that claims that the aspect of race is always in the landscape of the US to some degree. Finally we were asked to read the main introduction to the book “Racial Formation in the United States”. This introduction …show more content…
What the video does is that it shows us our past and how this entire topic of racism came to be as well as the impact of our ancestor’s actions on the peoples and cultures of the world. Evidence that is sighted are numerous historical events like the abolitionist efforts made by the churches of Europe and the Holocaust examining the believed notion of German Arian cultural superiority over lesser groups like Jewish families. Another area that is examined was the extermination and great repression of aboriginal/native groups during the time period of colonization. This destructive behavior was truly a terrible point in history with colonial expansionism either killing or assimilating native populations. Examples of this are the extinction of the native Tasmanian people, the genocide of countless American Indians, and the partial formation of the slave trade in African Colonies. This relates to our class from more of a history perspective in my opinion showing us the events of the past to hopefully move us to a better future. Also this source of information seems to not disagree or agree with the information we have cover taking a historical perspective. What I could say though is that it slightly disagrees with the idea that the past was terrible but today we are a much better …show more content…
He sights examples such as a residency map outlining segregation zones, a local courthouse that used to be a market for slavery, and various signs that presented a racist massage. The main arguments are presented with visual aids being a residential map, memorial in a Birmingham park to the civil rights movement, and two very different symbols on immigrants. To start off Richard notes that in his residence map there is an area labeled “Negro Dwellings” this refers to the Jim Crow area of segregation. He goes on to build on this point citing that often the suburban areas in most cities are primarily white and the inner downtown settings have a minority presence due to the segregation of the period but also that people wouldn’t sell houses in a all majority neighborhood to a minority family or even finance the house. Instead the minority groups were forced to live in minority neigbororhoods that were in a state of decline and generally the families were always in debt if not foreclosed on due to landlords taking advantage for families. Next he refers to a local courthouse in Lexington Kentucky that someone would think is completely free of predjuce. In fact you couldn’t be more wrong Richard then goes on to point that in the 19th century it was actually the site of a public market that sold slaves to most of Kentucky. Despite the interesting past there isn’t one monument to that ear to