Group items tagged

"Racism is intertwined with discrimination in two dimensions. On the one hand, discrimination is a specific practice that can arise from racism. On the other hand, racism is a specific form of discrimination directed against a social group that is constructed with regard to physical attributes, for example the color of the skin or the hair type."

"Racism gets its full power by infiltrating people's own specific perceptions. In the minds of both victims and perpetrators, racism is produced and reproduced with prejudices and stereotypes from the other and the own."

This article explains the definition of racism and the forms in which it is found in society. The article discusses the psychological effects of racism and how it consists mainly of mind over body. Invisible Man shows how racism starts to physiologically engender the oppressed into believing in they are inferior. This article would provide insight and support into an essay discussing oppression and its effects.

Although Americans jump to think of the USA as a free country where people are generally accepting, racism has had an outcome on politics in last 10 years. Immigration policies like those at the Arizone border showcase that racism is still present, even if not against African Americans

The professor who shares his views in this article describes a "new racism" in America, that is seemingly transparent, invisible due to its lack of recognition. Racism has increasingly become a taboo topic, especially at colleges and universities. The author makes the point that it is acceptable to talk about different cultures in academic settings, while racism is still highly institutional in some parts of the countries and is much more of a difficult subject to discuss. This cloaking of the problem has led to the new racism and blindness of Americans to still occurring racial problems.

"In 2000, in the Middle Atlantic and East North Central regions, black families' median income was especially low relative to that of whites." In IM, a running truth that kept IM going was that "white men only allowed black people to go as far as the whites wish it to be." In this 2000 statistic, we can see that this is still happening, that even though there is parity between whites and blacks in terms of graduation rates, the median incomes, the lifestyles of millions of blacks living in the North East Central region of the country were significantly less than of their white counterparts. We were also introduced to the whole concept that racism seemed to be a distant issue when IM finds his way up north, but instead, he eventually realizes that the north was waging a secret racism war on itself, where the racism was in truth, more intense than it was in the more modest, and "well-mannered' south.

Discusses direct correlations between quotes from IM and the racist impact they have upon him. As seen in the case of the yams, it is only after IM decides to accept his own culture and past that he can have his own identity. Until then, he is still trying to live white. Also, back to the theme of oppression, the Brotherhood was acting in the name of blacks, yet truly just held IM back, hovering inches from success, in order to ensure that he never gets his fully deserved recognition or rights.

This timeline, and the following pages which bring the information to current day, serves the purpose of providing accurate information on the history of slavery and racism in the United States. Starting with the original enslaving of Africans in Jamestown and other colonies, it describes the gross injustices committed by whites throughout the years.

An interview in which Alex Haley, co-author of Malcolm X's biography, talks about his observations on racism, be it white-on-black, black-on-black, or other situations.

"By showing the prejudice and racism Malcolm X faced since he was young, the reader understands what he advocates for more"

This source discusses what brought Malcolm to his realizations about racism and how he portrays it to the readers in his autobiography. This source argues that it is effective to tell his story and then discuss his views.

"Southern blacks considered a move to the north as a step toward economic independence and a better life in a region of the country where they believed they might be treated more fairly."

This article provides historical background for the 1930's time period in which the novel, Invisible Man, takes place. The article provides additional insight into the society dictated position of blacks in American culture and racism throughout the society. This novel puts the book into greater historical context.

American traditions and institutions perpetuate the disadvantaged positions of nonwhites in ways that black people have experienced as personal in particular situations. This importance of race in public and private life, as well as subjective experiences of racism, have drawn to existentialism both black and white philosophers who address racial issues.

The source explains the difference of black existentialism and white existentialism. A definition of the term reads, "A philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will". However, while oppressed by whites in America, black existentialists cannot simply get what they want through will, so they need to include betterment for all blacks as a primary goal in life.

This document discusses an interesting social struggle, that for the better treatment of black women. It describes how this movement grew out of the black liberation movement and the women's rights movement, but explains how the Black Feminism movement is a completely different one.

"However, the migrants were no longer obsequiously dependent on agriculture or domestic service for livelihood, nor were their lives and limbs endangered because of political agitation. They were free to support racial uplift organizations and programs."

" Blacks were becoming less rural and more urban and aggressive. The social energies that fueled postwar activism had been built virtually out of sight of mainstream America."

This article provides historical background for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 1960's. The article explains the influence of the postwar era and other factors that engender and affected the movement. The article provides additional insight into the society dictated position of blacks in American culture and racism throughout the society. This article puts the autobiography, Malcolm X, into greater historical context. The article would be beneficial for an essay discussing oppression and the black's fight to attain equality.

"Unemployment among African Americans was well above the national average, and one-half of all black Americans lived below the poverty line (as opposed to one-fifth of whites). Not surprisingly, tensions ran high in black communities."

"Property damage exceeded $45 million. So many people had been arrested-more than four thousand-that some had to be detained in buses. More than a thousand people were injured, and forty-three people had been killed. The dead included looters, snipers, a policeman, and a fireman, as well as many innocent people who had been caught in the cross fire."

This article describes the major race riots in the 1960's in response to racial disparity. The riots were engendered by racial tensions between whites and blacks aggrandized by competition over jobs and housing. The black communities were overcrowded and crime-ridden, and the blacks were unwelcome in white communities. Racism results in riots that ends with bloody violence and the death of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. This article provides an example of the consequences of rampant inequality in society between races which resembles the riots present in Invisible Man and Malcolm X.

"El-Hajj Malik is a source of pride for African-Americans, Muslims, and Americans in general. His message is simple and clear: I am not a racist in any form whatever. I don't believe in any form of racism. I don't believe in any form of discrimination or segregation. I believe in Islam. "

This article is a biography of Malcolm X written from an Islamic perspective. This article discussed the legacy of Malcolm X in terms of his contributions to the Islamic faith in America. Malcolm X's perception changes when he witnesses the orthodox Muslim pilgrimage where everyone was free from discrimination. Malcolm X comes to the realization that he is wrong to decree all whites evil and that there are decent white people along with the bad just like any other race.

"Every society organizes around a set of beliefs, values, and behaviors. Prejudices play a major part in shaping these beliefs and the resulting behavior that leads to unequal treatment among various groups within the society. "

"These historical patterns of race relations greatly influenced how people in America through time perceived others and interacted with them. These patterns of behavior became entrenched, creating social standards people were expected to live by. Blacks were stereotyped as weaker, less able, and less valuable than whites."

This article explains racial prejudice forms and becomes instilled in a society. The prejudice then affects various aspects of the society against the object of the oppression. Invisible Man demonstrates this concept through the racism the narrator experiences being a member of society. Some of the discrimination against the narrator is unintentional, but some is deliberate. This article would support an essay discussing the effect of prejudice on society's values, customs, and beliefs.