Racism and the African Condition in America - Research Paper Example

Racism and the African Condition in America Racism against African-Americans ran deep in the period after the American civil war, where African-Americans were viewed as a plague in the American society. White supremacist spread their ideologies and propaganda against them leading to widespread segregation, seclusion, and subordination through slavery, lynching, economic sabotage and religious seclusion. Thus, it is crucial to understand the history of racial discrimination against African-Americans from the period after the civil war to the mid 20th century when they received their civil rights and gained recognitions. Racism in America has manifested itself against African-Americans in many ways of which slavery is one of them. The African Americans, who during the early times of the American civil war were not part of the recognized American society, were used as sources of labor. As such, they were treated as no more than animals that provided labor for the benefit of the slave owners and drivers, who reaped the benefits of free labor and controlled how much output they wanted from the slaves. This was one of the highest levels of racism, where non-blacks would not work, and if they did, they would do the least amount of work. The above case was also demonstrated by the use of African Americans being used to take part in and complete tasks that were deemed degrading to the prestigious and elite white race. Due to this, African-Americans had their role in the society reserved as per predisposition that they were inferior to the whites, which allowed African-Americans to be used for heavy manual labor in the farms and plantations. Following their predisposition in society, they were referred to as Negroes and were entitled to all forms of slavery-affiliated activities concerning forced labor. This was by all means, against traditional convention found in ancient civilizations, in which slavery was not based on skin color, but rather on the superiority of character and ability of the person I question. This is because ancient slaves were often the spoils of war, or people that were captured from wars and raids, but the African American slaves were only picked to work based on the color of their skins. The above was a blatant portrayal of racism that existed in the period prior to the American civil war from the time of their capture from their native homes in different parts of West Africa. In addition to slavery, due to the color of the skin African-Americans bore the title of slaves from as early as the 18th century. With this in mind, they did not hold any form of human dignity as they were viewed and perceived as being less than human, but better than animals considering that they understood the directions given to them. Under the treatment as slaves, they did not enjoy equal rights with the rest of the human population in America, as they were not human to the American slave drivers and owners; a direct translation of this statement indicates that as slaves they lived under very dilapidated conditions with no necessities except those that sustain life. However, they had to work for the same food they fed on in spite of working on plantations and fields for hours on end. They were forced in sugar factories and tobacco farms, with no form of protective gear, as they were as disposable as the next animal of no value despite raking in plenty of fortunes for their owners. As such, no other races were involved in work as slaves except African-Americans who were denied their rights as individuals and humans through collective treatment and misconceptions of inferiority in a white dominated continent or land of Americans.1 In addition, for African-Americans to be denied their rights there must have been a form of recognition of them being humans in order to decide that they were not equal to the rest. Religiously from the moment that the African-Americans were allowed to practice their own religious practices, they were faced by numerous racial challenges. This is due to their skin color, where after slavery, the Americas faced a new form of social disaster that involved a harsh form of racism than the earlier mentioned slavery. Due to this, the entire population was segregated according to their respective skin colors, and those that were not of the “superior” skin color were discriminated against, in which case they were denied of their rights to any form of freedom in a “free country”. Due to the level of discrimination and segregation amongst the American population, African Americans were forced to engage in their religious practices in secret in order for the non-blacks not to realize it. As such, they had an invisible church, which was not concealed to the white population and was only open to the African-American population. They assembled in illegal secret meetings, in which they discussed religious issue putting into consideration that they were not allowed to associate with each other in any way. This is while the white population interacted freely on religious grounds and kept African-Americans from their creek of religious activities despite having a common superior authority in whom they believed. African-Americans religion was a form of solace for them considering the common fate they shared as slaves and a cast out race in the American population. As a result, African-Americans came up with their own religious groupings and organization in which they had similar denominational differences as the whites, although they had a modified form of Protestantism, which differed from the conventional white American system.2 The race based, African-American churches later became the models for a better society as compared to their condition prior to the religious grouping. This is because the racial segregation against the blacks brought them close together to fight against it under the umbrella of the church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was one such religious institution that created a front for the African-Americans to congregate for the sake of racial nationalism, as altogether, African-Americans had been condemned to exclusion and subordination by the superior whites. This proves the level of racial discrimination expressed against the African-American population as the whites used religious practices and teachings, especially the Christians ones, to belittle the formers slaves. The religious gatherings did not involve any form of racial basis, except that they were composed of African Americans, but they desisted from preaching racism and hatred against whites as they viewed God as the parent of the world’s population. Due the seclusion from the overall religious practices of the conventional American society of whites, African Americans made available opportunities, through which they could garner racial pride, moral development, leadership and self-respect so that they could overcome the demon of racial segregation and subordination by whites.3 This is in a community where the majority Christian religion called for equality amongst all populations. In addition, morally on the grounds of religion, the whites looked down on African-Americans as uncouth beings with no sense of morality, whereas they engaged in religious practices based on Christianity. In relation to the military, African-Americans faced widespread racial discrimination, in the First World War, especially after it ended, this is because African-American soldiers were not viewed as of equal status as their white counterparts, in which case they were perceived as being disloyal and less of soldiers. This is as seen in the humiliation that American soldiers of African descent faced after their return by being stripped of their uniforms by white supremacists. Failure to obey their orders or commands led to their lynching, in spite of fighting for their country, where they were killed inhumanely in times of peace rather than at war.4 In addition, there were radical groups that acted as white supremacists in America, where they lynched any African-American who dared to cross the racial divide. This was especially so for the Ku Klux Klan, a group that participated in racial violence against African-Americans while the U.S. department of war faced a predicament over pleasing the supremacists and enrolling the services of African-Americans in the war efforts of world war one. As such, the department of war required the services of African-Americans as soldiers with lesser rights than white Americans are. In this case, civil rights activists called for there to be a relative degree or amount of rights for African-American soldiers enrolled in the military with complete integration into the army. After the war, there were massive race protests against African-Americans following the tensions that had built up because of inclusion of African-American soldiers in the military and the near-equal treatment that they received.5 Due to this, the supremacist groups were on the rampage against African-Americans lynching them for demanding equal rights and improved legislation protecting them from racial segregation and social lynching by white supremacists. Following the qualms of world war one, there were major policy changes in the Second World War within the military. The new policies were not in favor of African Americans as there were numerous perceptions that did not favor the African-Americans from the whites in the Americas. This followed their performance in the war that saw them discriminated against on more levels as compared to prior events. As such, reports were collected on the military performance of African-Americans in the army, and all were skewed to incline against African-Americans. They were labeled as incompetent beings that could not do a thing to save their troops, especially when it came to working with haste. In the army, they written off as useless beings whose flaws were massive, and it was all blamed on their internal composition, which the whites considered different from their own.6 The end of world war two was the worst time for African-Americans in relation to the military as they openly discriminated against in the downplay of the abilities while reports from the beginning of the war favored them as being capable of handling combat. However, the above later reports show the level of discrimination that they faced to the point that they were put in non-combat situations as opposed to earlier events. In the Second World War, they were placed into roles of labor, where they acted more like slaves, rather than soldiers who would die for their country. Their opinions in the army were also not considered the meaning that they were viewed as being of lower capability in airing views or inferior in opinion, which would have cleared the issue of confounding by looking at only side of the proceedings. The racial discrimination in the military was a result of discrimination in the country itself to the pint that it spilt over into war zones. They were also labeled as suffering from intrinsic inferiority due to their inability to meet military performance standards, whereas the same white society deprived them of their rights and abilities. In turn, this had led to the inferiority complex in the African-American soldiers, which was another form of racial discrimination against African-Americans. In addition, following the passing of the Selective Training and Service Act, African-Americans were not integrated into the different branches of the military as the law required.7 Due to this, the act was a mere political sham meant to quell the African-American uprising against discrimination. As a result, it led to ore discrimination against the target population by the whites. It also created a loophole for African-American not to be inducted into the military by including a clause allowing for selective training. Through this, the earlier mentioned redeployment into labor units of African-Americans was accomplished while white soldiers participated in combat leaving the rest to engage in slave-like duties. Politicians made use of the act to further their political agendas by appointing a black general, which was aimed at getting the then president a strong base to further his career. This is not just an isolated of how African-Americans suffered discrimination in the military under the guise of legal protection and legislation. Racism or racial discrimination also manifested itself in economic injustices perpetrated against African-American farmers in the Americas. After the Second World War was over, there were a large number of African-American farmers in the country operating on millions of acres of land. However, the numbers the numbers began to dwindle thanks to economic sabotage through racist practices directed at African-Americans. Their successes in owning property were overshadowed by racist policies such as segregation, denial f voting rights and public accommodation, which were all so popularized by press coverage stealing the limelight from African-American farmers. As such, racism was everywhere in the federal government, where on all levels of the federal government in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) openly practiced discrimination in order to counter the gains made by African-Americans on other fields. As a result, federal state and county USDA officers and employees denied farmers their civil rights by bending laws and subverting government programs in order to punish African-American farmers.8 All the racism in the government offices saw the numbers of farmers decline sharply as their farms and fortunes dwindled due to government interference in policies meant to curb their development. They lost huge tracts of land through laws and policies that were meant to protect them as the USDA spent large sums on agricultural programs in an attempt to cut back on the number of African-American farmers with properties that were successful. The programs and projects ran by the USDA were under the guise of development, where those who refused to follow new development in agriculture faced adverse conditions to the point of non-survival after the projects concluded. In addition, there was the concept of agribusiness that involved lobbyists in the agriculture sector who dictated that which was right for the country and that which was not. Due to this, lobbyists called for more segregation against black farmers in policies as they sought to deepen their agenda in ridding the society of African-American property owners. The worked hand in hand with the USDA to deny the farmers of their rights and take away that, which was rightfully theirs in the form of land. This was especially through then use of research facilities and experiment systems that came up with policies to change from the labor-intensive practices in farming, and turn towards laborsaving science and technology of mechanization. This progress saw many black farmers eliminated from their farms and facing economic hardships, as their mode of making a living was taken away from them. The above is because most of the farmers were tenants, sharecroppers and small-scale farmers further showing by how much racial discrimination was spread and aimed at bringing down African-Americans economically.9 Further legislation was passed granting the USDA advanced powers in the agricultural sector, which were open to manipulation by lobbyists and interest groups that saw poor black farmers fail to benefit from initiatives meant to help them overcome their hardships in agriculture. After all the interference of racial discrimination in agriculture reforms were made to create stability in the sector, but most, if not all of the reforms did not work for the benefits of black farmers as they were denied civil rights of equality in their agricultural enterprises. Laws and policies on civil rights overlooked the civil rights of African-Americans in practice as they were only practiced on paper and not in reality. As a result, African-American farmers were denied credit to advance their farms and access to information and government largesse, which led to the downfall of African-American economic activities as farm owners or agricultural entrepreneurs. In education, they had to fight for their own studies to show how much the African-American population had suffered under the racist American society. Due to this, demands were made to different learning institutions, where minority African-American groups were denied the right to hold meetings in schools, which was similar to the religious grounds for discrimination.10 It went to the point that there were protests to make meetings amongst blacks in academic institutions legal, although the protests were conducted nonviolently. Academic instructions blatantly refused to include the program involving the study of African-Americans further showing how much they were denied in a collective society.11 In conclusion, African Americans were faced with racial challenges from all directions that targeted them based on their skin color until the mid 20th century when they were reprieved from the miserable segregation, seclusion and subordination. Prior to their inclusion and acceptance as part of the larger American society, they called upon as slaves who were used for cheap labor and treated no better than animals. They were also cast out of the society as they were viewed as outcasts in religious circles, where they had to come up with their own religious groupings to counter racist white people and their religious organizations. Economically, they were sabotaged in agriculture to deny them a voice through which they could rise and fight for their civil rights, as well as mistreatment and poor opinion they received in the military. The history of racism against African-Americans runs deep as they were treated as less than humans were with no opinion or feelings to understand when their civil rights were violated. References Daniel, Pete. "African American Farmers And Civil Rights." Journal Of Southern History 73.1 (2007): 3-38.  Davis, David A. "Not Only War Is Hell: World War I And African American Lynching Narratives." African American Review 42.3/4 (2008): 477-491. Paris, Peter J. "African American Religion And Public Life An Assessment." Cross Currents 58.3 (2008): 475-494.  TAYLOR, ULA. "Origins Of African American Studies At UC-Berkeley."Western Journal Of Black Studies 34.2 (2010): 256-265.  Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo. "Black Women Historians From The Late 19Th Century To The Dawning Of The Civil Rights Movement." Journal Of African American History 89.3 (2004): 241-261.  Pike, Brett. Discrimination Against African American Soldiers In World War Ii: Racial Policies And The March To Desegregation. (2011): 1-26. Accessed December 12, 2012. http://www.usfsm.edu/academics/cas/capstone/2010-2011/history/pike-discrimination%20against%20african%20american%20soldiers%20in%20wwii.pdf. Thompson, Amanda. Scientific Racism: The Justification of Slavery and Segregated Education in America. (n.d): Accessed December 12, 2012. http://pat.tamu.edu/journal/vol-1/thompson.pdf. Read More