The blog we chose for this week's discussion focuses on racism towards African Americans. Refer to this URL: http://www.racismreview.com/blog/category/african-americans/. We found this to be a very interesting and different topic that we have yet to discuss over this quarter. Many of us can probably say we have witnessed many instances of racism towards African Americans, for example the use of racial slurs. While we know this is a subject that may expose many strong opinions, we want to hear your thoughts! Do you believe there is still racism towards the African American race today?
THE CLASS BLOG FOR ENGLISH 110
Monday, August 1, 2011
5th Group Summary
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I first noticed the post on July 26th as very astonishing. It's sad that discrimination still exists like this.It's even more sad that our government had set standards of tolerance that we should follow (I give up hope for humanity when a government needs to set standards of tolerance because people can't be kind to everyone) and our government can't even follow themselves.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that we don't constantly think about racism because we are either not affected by it or don't see it blatantly as you would have in the past. We don't have the visual cues of seperate water fountains any longer. However, we seem to have separate prison sentences. That is nowhere near as profound as the water fountains and thus often not thought about. And it's sad that this sort of discrimination even exists. Equality doesn't seem to have been reached on the whole. It merely sounds like it's been out of sight out of mind.
I read "Florida’s Drug Screening Legislation: Created to Pander to Whites but Target Americans of Color?" At the end, I am a little confused. As the author said, this is an incident seen as racism and privacy violation. The government treats the people who lose jobs and need public assistance as suspects and meanwhile blacks are probably a big group in people who need welfare assistance. But as the government, protecting the benefit of taxpayers is surely a crucial mission since there are some people wasting assistance, like buying drug. Sounds that also makes sense. I don't know who has fault. Suppose there are no blacks in the United States (no offense), the people requiring assistance are all white who will wastes the money as well, does the government still make this decision? Probably yes. So the question is why the number of black Americas accepting assistance is large. I guess this problem is what we need to answer about racism.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the first post, I greatly appreciated the authors attitude towards African Americans and their writing. It impressed me when she noted that being raised in the south didn't negatively effect her opinion on African Americans considering the discrimination in this area. She simply stated that they were brilliant authors and deserved to be recognized for that no matter what their skin color is. Although African Americans have been created equal for decades now, they are still discriminated against and if more people had the same attitude as this author, American would be a more positive place all together.
ReplyDeleteI also found the post from July 4th to be very interesting. It never occurred to me that the African American in the 19th century were not aloud to celebrate July 4th. The fact that many people still struggle with this today shows that although America has come so far as a whole, everyone in the country is still not created equal. Reading Frederick Douglass' speech mad me realize just how hard African Americans have worked to get the rights they have.
Although i do agree with Daisuki about racism isn't as blatantly obvious anymore because we all go to school together, drink from the same water fountains, and sit on the same bus, racism still exists all around us. After reading the blog about the different sentencing between blacks and whites, it is obvious to me that racism is still occurring. People today that deal with jail sentences end up "coding" the difference between how dark an African American is. The darker they are, usually the more their sentence tends to be. This is unbelievable that this still occurs in prisons today because a sentence should be based on the crime itself, not on the color of someone's skin.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on Molly's post, after reading your post I had to go back and read that article myself because it is amazing how blacks were not allowed to celebrate July 4th because they were technically not considered to be American citizens. African Americans, as well as other minorities, have come a long way but there are still some signs of racism that persist in today's society.
I agree with Molly on the Fourth of July blog, and how horrible that African Americans could not celebrate Independence Day because it could give them an idea of protesting freedom from slavery. I think that is horrible about the past, but did not know African American's are still being treated with disrespect on that holiday. For the jail blog, I do and don't believe African Americans spend more time in jail than whites, only because of my hometown jail. There are more white citizens that are more trashy then there is African American's in the city jail. My uncle is a councilman for the city jail, and he said that regard skin color, the punishment is only determined by crime. He also said if they know someone in high authority it also determines if their jail time is decreased or not, and ignores the charges upon them. I think bringing that into a conversation about discrimination is a very good standpoint.
ReplyDeleteWell, this is been a very fascinating blog. Honestly in my opinion, racism isn’t going anywhere and it’s going to stick with us for a while no matter how it is downplayed in the coming generations. I don’t agree with Tracey on her disbelief on jail time in connection with skin tone. You have a right to your disbelief but your example is not a justification. Your town is a single place and it doesn’t represent the United States. I think the blog was talking about statistics that included a whole lot of different places.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the youtube video posted on the blog, I finally got a real sense of how African Americans were treated. I like how the first hand experience tells you his story so you give credibility to the speaker and really understand where he is coming from. I hear about the double standard of treatment between African Americans and Caucasians all the time but hearing a real life point of view really gives you a good picture of what life was really like. I definitely believe that there is African American discrimination today but just not as prevalent or obvious. I know people who have stereotypical views and insult or maybe even hate African Americans for no good reason. It makes me sad that people can treat each other with racism.
ReplyDeleteI read the post on Jun 29 and I personally think African Americans are moving south in order to have a better standard of living. Probably southern parts of US have much lower crime rates and great schools too which help to preserve property values in any neighborhood, even through an economic downturn. And I also think this is not just African Americans, I mean Asians, Latinos, or even East Europeans are also moving South for the same reason. I don’t think people should make a big deal out of it because to be honest I personally see this kind of “progress” showed people are finally starting to realize that there are opportunities in other places and good quality of life.
ReplyDeleteI also read the Light Skin, Light Jail Time post. I find it ridiculous that one's race determines the length of their jail sentence. What difference does it make if it's a white man or a black man who committed the crime? Racism against African Americans clearly still exists. I personally believe that racism and discrimination will always be a problem.
ReplyDeleteI have read the first blog given this month, and am deeply impressed by the serious conditions that African americans are suffering. In fact, I tend to understand the relics that the video"chillin" says to some extent. African Americans, just like other minority racism in Us, need more space to breathe and develop. That is not to say, the society doesn't supply the respect and chance. However, the space seems far not enough. As a result, if a minority, like African American or Asian, gets success in the US, he will be proud of himself, because it will be much easier to gain a same consequence if he were a white. That' s really not so simple like it appears.
ReplyDeleteReading the passage of black migration back to south from New York, I believe the most important reason is still economic problem. Superficially, black people live at low class. So they may want to find new opportunities back to their origin. Some people argue that it is discrimination is the real reason. However, why don't we think like this. Why new yorkers discriminate them now, and didn't when they just come. I believe this is because black people have huge economic problems and thus lead to high rate of crime. So people look them through colored glasses, thinking they are the reason of bad society. In a work, it is economic to determine the discrimination, not verse vice. The easiest example is that black people working in Wall Street definitely migrate to south because they can live a good life in New York and no one discriminate them. So the discrimination towards poor is the origin of racist nowadays.
ReplyDeleteAs a student never been Africa but only been America for one year, I don't think I have good idea on American culture, neither is the racism slur towards African American. However, here is a fact that my friends who has been in American a long time always warned me not to go to African American community alone, especially at night cause it is not safe. Depending on their comments, I guess I will go with 'there still exists racial discrimination towards African American'.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what many people have said already. Personally I don't find racism to be explicitly obvious anymore in our everyday lives and haven't seen anyone seriously racist in our generation I could understand how older generations may still be influenced by racism and may act towards it, but as for the newer generations I believe its almost non-existent. I know that many African American families are economically disadvantaged or live in "ghetto" neighborhoods and have to grow up in a dangerous environment which leads to crime and illiteracy. Ultimately, I think this leads to other people having a racist views imposed on all African Americans
ReplyDeleteActually I learn a lot from this blog, and the article”Black Migration South”, leave me deep impression. Because of my limit knowledge of the Africa American history, I cannot down the conclusion which reason is the main reason for the large African American migration back to the South. But in my mind, I believe the economic and racial must play an important role in this issue. Firstly, we have to say that Material decides consciousness, and economic basis decides overtop structure. So, if they cannot achieve the fail work opportunities, they’d better leave the north. However, a fact we cannot ignore is that the racial discrimination is still exists recently, because, if there is no racial issue, it is no need for us to discuss. Since the north cannot let the Africa American has the feeling of home and has the respect as those white people, they feel disappoint , maybe it is another important reason for the black migration south.
ReplyDeletei agree with Daniel about racism not being explicitly obvious anymore but there are little instances in which i can see racism still prevalent. For instances, at some of the bars downtown they have a dress code that is seemed to be aim toward keeping African Americans out such as no boots,no white shoes,no saggy pants,no long shirts, no hats, and no white shirts. It is not directly stopping from blacks from getting into the bars but it sure stop a lot of them.
ReplyDeleteRacial discrimination has been a controversial topic in American's history since long time ago. I have read" The Huge Racial Wealth Gap: A Systemic Analysis " It talks about the the distinction of wealth between americans and African Americans.It says that Americans mare much more wealth than African Americans althought they also make great contribution to America's economy.
ReplyDeleteI think racism today is not just towards African Americans but to people who are not Americans. It is hard for international students to find jobs in USA even they have much higher GPA than America students.
I definitely agree with all of the comments here saying that racial discrimination against African Americans has been one of the longest ruling controversial topics throughout American history, and that it still occurs today. I see it happen all of the time in the South, and there are still groups that are against African Americans that I have seen. Especially in certain types of music genres. It also has to be taken in consideration that racial discrimination isn't JUST an American problem. As a white female, I was extremely profiled when I went to Uganda last summer, and was charged more because they stereotyped me as someone who has money. I was called slang terms that weren't very nice. I think that racism will always be prevalent, especially when white people are still the majority of the country, and the minorities only fall in the low percentages (around 12.5% for African American, and 12.3% for Hispanic/Latino).
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to our foreigners to say whether there is a kind of discrimination really exist which is against to African Americans. But I know something from some foreigners' reacts to African Americans. Some are told, there may be some people who are African Americans are not very nice, and even violent. So when these foreigners are planning the place to live. They choose the places which are away from the African Americans. These may create a kind of new discrimination. The image is not easy to disappear, even we know that's not correct.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard for an Asian to talk about this issue. So I will just say some of my ideas which are probably wrong or unrealistic. I think the discrimination towards African American still exsits, but it's much better than before. Although there are still many people told me that African American are dangerous, most of people I know are quite rational about this. From my point of view, as I am taking dancing class. I think African American are so talented, they are good at dancing and they are so easy going. The only concern is they may not have a good neighbourhood to grow up, so some of them may take a wrong track. That's such a pity.
ReplyDelete