The Price of the Ticket
The Price of the Ticket analyzes the historic development of African Americans among the landscape of equality politically and socially. Frederick C. Harris provides an in-depth and realistic approach to the effects, sometimes negative, of having a successful election for the first black President of the United States. Harris also discusses the lack of action on behalf of blacks that many have expected to occur, with a black president. Although some claim that the election of Barack Obama was the “pinnacle of political empowerment” for black America, many believe that factors, such as the politics of respectability and the “wink, nod, and vote” agreement led to there being a severe “price of the ticket” for black America. …show more content…
The arrest of Rosa Parks is a prime example of black America using the politics of respectability. During the Civil Rights era, leaders wanted to challenge state’s segregation laws on public transportation. In order to do this, they used the conviction of Claudette Colvin, a teenager who resisted giving up her seat to a white woman on March 2, 1955. Although she did the same as Rosa Parks, Colvin did not have the same status in the black community. She wasn’t seen as respectable enough to use as a representative because she was “emotional” and it was suspected that she became pregnant by a married white man. Fast forward o more recent times, Bill Clinton employed the politics of respectability by telling black America they had a “moral duty” to work from the inside out in changing the behavior of poor blacks. In 2008, President Obama became a central figure using the politics of respectability. Obama harped on the point that the change needed is not going come from the government; rather, it is going to come from within the black community. The politics of respectability has become a philosophy now in the sense that the black poor are regularly instructed that they should show greater responsibility in their lives and they need to lift themselves up
The Price of the Ticket analyzes the historic development of African Americans among the landscape of equality politically and socially. Frederick C. Harris provides an in-depth and realistic approach to the effects, sometimes negative, of having a successful election for the first black President of the United States. Harris also discusses the lack of action on behalf of blacks that many have expected to occur, with a black president. Although some claim that the election of Barack Obama was the “pinnacle of political empowerment” for black America, many believe that factors, such as the politics of respectability and the “wink, nod, and vote” agreement led to there being a severe “price of the ticket” for black America. …show more content…
The arrest of Rosa Parks is a prime example of black America using the politics of respectability. During the Civil Rights era, leaders wanted to challenge state’s segregation laws on public transportation. In order to do this, they used the conviction of Claudette Colvin, a teenager who resisted giving up her seat to a white woman on March 2, 1955. Although she did the same as Rosa Parks, Colvin did not have the same status in the black community. She wasn’t seen as respectable enough to use as a representative because she was “emotional” and it was suspected that she became pregnant by a married white man. Fast forward o more recent times, Bill Clinton employed the politics of respectability by telling black America they had a “moral duty” to work from the inside out in changing the behavior of poor blacks. In 2008, President Obama became a central figure using the politics of respectability. Obama harped on the point that the change needed is not going come from the government; rather, it is going to come from within the black community. The politics of respectability has become a philosophy now in the sense that the black poor are regularly instructed that they should show greater responsibility in their lives and they need to lift themselves up