Black and White Communities - Essay Example

175676 INTRODUCTION In the American society, Black and White communities represent the Minority and Majority respectively. Though they started ina very rough way to live together, after centuries of grief and unhappiness, they seem to be coming to a certain understanding. They are showing compatibility and the Minority is trying hard to adjust itself into the Majority white society, while Majority is definitely showing the willingness of eradicating the past wrongs. The current study is about the agonizing past and hopeful present social landscapes in America. The study gains importance because there are claims today that a new kind of racism is cropping up in America, which is not visible like its old counterpart, but is equally dangerous. The study makes an effort to understand these areas that are highly relevant to not only the American society, but to all societies that are plagued by skin color and the racial problems. PART ONE: Approximately 33 million African Americans are living in USA today and most of them are descendents and results of Trans-Atlantic slavery trade. There were no Blacks in America before the obnoxious slave trade. The slaves, naturally a minute minority in those days of flourishing slave trade, were treated inhumanly in the predominantly European white society of the day. In the beginning, Blacks were not considered to be the part of American society. They were not even treated as human beings and were continuously degraded till the American Civil War and its aftermath terminated their slavery status. Still they had to wait for the Civil Rights Bill to gain equality. The white majority that heaped centuries of discrimination, at last accepted them as part of American society. Recently people have migrated from Caribbean, West Indies and various parts of Africa. They are definitely not the descendents of the shameful slave trade and have not been in US for generations; still, being black, they are part of nation's minority and hence, are slightly at a disadvantageous position. "An ethnic minority, on virtue of being a minority, is by definition in a disadvantaged position, which facilitates the characterisation of black people as problems, as being essential inferior and so on" Staples (1973). The equation between Black and White has changed considerably although it took a very long painful length of time. Majority group initially thought that the minority is stupid, illiterate, and superstitious, lacking motivation. They were thought to be fit only to remain slaves and retain their subservient status. They were from the Dark Continent and thus, were barely human. They also were thought to be devoid of any human qualities like cleverness, sadness, sensitivity, feelings, pain and suffering. White community lulled itself into self-forgiving with these convictions. They needed such assumptions to treat a lesser group and remain self-righteous about it. Now after centuries of living together and understanding each other's ways, things have changed and new perceptions have dawned. The minority is coming into higher prominence and this is the evidence that it is, at last, making inroads into the white dominated society. This does not mean that there is no discrimination and its evidence in the American society of today to negate and discourage this fact. Sometimes the minority group see itself in the same way as the majority does and vice versa and both the communities in America have shown this psychology of belief and reaction. Centuries of discriminating Blacks has hardened some of the Whites and in the same way, being discriminated for centuries and having accepted a miserable existence has left hopelessness and easy resignation amongst the Blacks. Minorities had very little cohesive identity in the past. During the days of slavery, they were neither visible, nor were heard. When they started regaining their voices slowly after decades and decades, they were already resigned to their fate. It took many leaders like Dr. King and White Leaders, activists and writers to make them come out of the apathy that years and generations had heaped on them. Still there are traces of psychological conditioning that has defied all the efforts to erase. The present equation between the two is beyond recognition from the standards of the past. It has definitely changed over the time and especially after the Civil Rights Bill, the Blacks in America have changed beyond belief. Now they feel that they are part of America and the white community cannot negate the fact any more. Both are equals today and not the ruled and rulers. President Lincoln was the first person who made any difference in the conditions of this unfortunate lot. During the Civil War, Northern States who were uncomfortable with the slavery stood apart and fought with the Southern pro-slavery states, who got defeated and had to accept eradication of slavery. To the world, they looked like monsters. Thinkers, intellectuals, writers, progressive minded sociologists and political leaders who worked hard to eradicate the system along with its combination of social discrimination, succeeded eventually as the rest of the world would have never accepted America if the slavery and other forms of discriminations had continued. America had to modernize itself to become coherent in the world stage. Race and racial discrimination had not existed only in America. They exist in some way or other in every region of the world. But unfortunately, America is once country that showed the world the worst side of racial discrimination by practicing slavery. Legal expression of the naturalness of race and the appropriation of human beings had been in the forefront of this system. "Citizenship, also a legal category is derived from ownership of the self, and nationalist movements have accorded it only to these supposed to enjoy complete possession of themselves as well as property in land or chattels. Subject peoples, wives and servants have, at various times since the category of citizen was invented, been excluded from it. Race, which became a legal category after citizenship, is also related to ownership of the self," UNESCO (1980, p.47) provides an explanation to race, racial discrimination and citizenship in the modern state. Over centuries, Black community sociology in America has been changing its perspectives. United States of America is one nation and its citizens, irrespective of the fact that they were slaves of the majority community centuries ago, are equal and they all belong to the same nation. This fact has taken a very long time to impress upon the American society. "In its pristine sense, a nation refers to a group of people who believe that are ancestrally related. It is the largest group that can be aroused, stimulated to action, by appeals to common ancestors and to a blood-bond. It is, in this sense, the fully extended family. An "American nation," whether used in reference to the United States or to its citizens, is therefore a misnomer," p.23, Wimmer, 2004. Relations of the two communities had much deeper unfortunate history. It is the history of European hegemony, its exploration, economic stability, adventurous conquerors of far-flung colonies and mainly its scientifically advanced weapons and flourishing sea trade. People who lived in other parts of the world were comparatively ignorant, darker skinned and helpless. The roots of slavery and colonial imperialism started from this perception and continued for centuries. "Race relations theory drew extensively on theories of maladjustment, which influenced the Anglo-American sociological tradition of the interwar period. This perspective regarded colonial and racial conflict in terms of the maladjustment of individuals and groups to the conditions of change and modernity," says Parker (2001, p.27). With the colonialism and slavery, western powers flourished better. America cannot be blamed for colonialism; but it adopted a much worse form of it, in the name of slavery which gave birth to very sad exclusion. American society practiced social exclusion of Black community for centuries and even after the eradication of slavery, the politics of exclusion did not disappear. "Nationalist discourse drew on and gave force to a wider politics of exclusion. This version was not concerned solely with the visual markers of difference, but with the relationship between visible characteristics and invisible properties, outer form and inner essence," says Stoler (1995, p.8). Some sociologists feel that slavery was just the beginning of the problems for black race. Eventually when the Black family structures emerged, it was very different from White families. It is historically proved that Black women were treated better as they were the bearers of future slaves. Fear of being ill-treated and even killed took away all the powers of Black males and they hardly could become real fathers for their children. When the urbanization started, Black men have already become very weak physically and morally in their social positions. To some extent, the Negro children became anti-social due to the lack of a strong father figure and guidance. It is easy to see the degeneration of the society because of very little guidance from the older generation. Black community have lost the power to fight and as it has already been uprooted from Africa, it had nowhere to go, but felt the necessity of somehow managing to live with the White community by making adjustments and not fighting for their rights. This apathy and acceptance of the fate went on for decades. Even today, Blacks have a mentality of accepting discrimination. They try to excel in education and training so that they could be treated in the same way as the Whites. In the same jobs, Blacks feel that they are more harshly judged than the whites and should do better. There is a definite underlying conviction that success is the key of their future and surprisingly, Whites do not fight for their success with that mentality. They still feel rightly or wrongly, that a covert racism combined with double standards still exists. A psychology of being a prejudiced victim might have contributed to this assumption. PART TWO: Race and racial discrimination have changed their identity in the modern American society by merging, re-emerging and almost becoming part of the society and slowly getting blurred till their existence became a matter of shame. "Yet it is also clear that in much of contemporary political discourse and research the concepts of racism and racial discrimination have become merged, so that they have little apparent difference. The concept of racism is used in practice to mean almost the same thing as racial discrimination," says Solomos (1996, p.63). This does not mean that all the past discrimination has totally vanished and has become completely unrecognizable. Certain economic and residential patterns are associated with Blacks, especially in places like Black Belt. Surprisingly immigrants are financially better off than those who belonged to US. For nearly 300 years, Blacks have lived and struggled, were insulted and discriminated and this is perhaps the result of that saga. They are aware of it and feel that their black culture is yet to be defined properly in America. They still sometimes feel like aliens and behave as though they are not equal citizens of America, and this is the result of enduring centuries of Black life. It is not possible to deny that the Blacks at last have found their own identity to some extent and are living a life within the majority and slowly becoming more and more visible in the national scene. Most of them project a kind of racelessness and it has created an atmosphere of security and social change. They have understood that they can use education as the redeeming weapon, and through education, they achieve respect, better employment opportunities and better way of life with a guaranteed better future for their next generation. Still, the minority status of the Black community will be there for a long time and it could be accompanied by a certain amount of discrimination too. Somehow White community had shown intolerance towards other communities and this could be seen from the historical unfortunate treatment bordering to elimination of Native Americans in the initial days of European conquering of America. This attitude has changed over the years. The prevalent democracy and political correctness have enabled the minority group to attain more and more freedom through training and education facilitating a movement towards higher status in private and public fields. With the government support and benefits, their economic, social and political opportunities have improved and will continue to improve, as their equal rights have already been established by the political system. The majority group has accepted the minority and mostly white people of this generation are uncomfortable with the terrible treatment meted out to the Black community all these years. They usually go out of their way to be good to the Black community, at least the majority of them. Threat from the majority to the minority has diminished and Majority, to some extent, feels responsible for the Minority in America now. Even though the entire White majority has not wholeheartedly accepted the Black community, Blacks have hardly any grievances now. Definitely there still might persist discrimination against Black while educating, training, recruiting, and promoting. Stereotyping in the media is another form of discrimination. There are still places where Blacks are not permitted even though it is not clearly specified. There are underlying discriminatory current in the modern American society, especially in Southern States even to this day. Disliking people due to the color of their skin and race has made the American society to lag behind to a certain extent. Achievements always could be less, when a sizeable portion of the society is unwanted and untutored. Minorities have not been given any opportunity to get better education, employment and thus have remained economically backward. Lacking direction and purpose in life they have taken the wrong road of mugging, stealing, robbery and anti-social behavior. Earlier they were openly shown so by the media, and this made them confirmed law breakers. By discriminating the Blacks, White community lost out an opportunity to be more human in life and also lost the co-operation and help from the minority. Political leaders from time to time have taken the initiative of correcting the discriminatory attitude of the society and some of these leaders made immense effort towards the realization of a raceless society. Thomson (1991, p.45) says that more than any other President, President Kennedy was personally committed to the passage of the Civil Rights Bill and the summer of 1963 became known as the Civil Rights Summer. "Because of white oppression or black apathy, tens of thousands of Negroes had never voted or even registered to vote in many of the farming towns all over the South. The civil rights campaign was meeting fierce opposition from extremist groups and from ordinary whites who could not accept that the days of white domination were numbered." This was a landmark in the social mapping of Black and White Communities of America. Today, minority has learned to live and adjust within the majority of Whites and they have, with years of education and better social status, have realized that America is their country too, and there is no going back for them. They are certain that they have to build a future for themselves and their children here, in this land and for achieving it, they have to compete with the White community. They are being largely successful in recent years. There are studious children, coming up in education, sports, music, arts and in many other fields. Whites have realized that contrary to the earlier beliefs, Blacks are equal to them and should be treated so. Black community has not used much of political strategy to get ahead in recent years. Their political strategy was mainly under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King and that earned them the equality. Today they are part of the American dream and getting ahead is mainly their own personal effort. To some extent, they have overcome the minority status by being visible as much as possible and advancing in every field. They have been more successful in their strategy, because fighting politically can give them only certain rights and most of the rights have already been achieved. Now what they need is individualistic moving forward in every field and they are doing well on that road. As long as they do not nurse a grudge based upon the past, Blacks will do very well in America. In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about the new racism. Talking about new racism, 'that doesn't appear to be racism' Sniderman (1993, p.66) says: "If true, it shows that an irrational animus against blacks remains more pervasive than many have been willing to acknowledge. If false, it teaches the no less valuable lesson that sensitivity to racism, commendable in itself, can have pernicious consequences." It is difficult to prove that a new form of racism exists today, because America has moved forward taking both the communities, Majority and Minority, along with it. There was a time when Black families were considered to be social problems and now the trend has changed. Today it is part of the social system of both Black and White America. Despite this change, it is difficult to say that absolutely no after-effect shows in the behavior of Black community. Even today, Black families to some extent reflect the trauma of being transplanted across the Atlantic Ocean. To some extent, they try to retain their African roots in one way or other. Their social identities have not completely forgotten by being in America for centuries mainly because being an American was not their choice and especially so, for those families who are the descendents of slave trade. Cultures and ethnicities have a way of recurring very often in the form of a slightly fanatic identities and sociological history is full of it in every region of the world. PART THREE: Black community has achieved virtual mobility today and has shown clear potential to bring about the socio-cultural and economical change in the Minority group. It has also shown willingness to do so in collaboration with the White majority. Minority has not alienated itself in any way. Instead it has made commendable effort to mingle with the national mainstream. Black community has not remained a monolithic group. It has shown different financial, social, economical and political status within its own framework where 'New Negro upper class', 'New Negro Middle class' etc. have emerged. No doubt Black culture is more or less completely diluted and mixed with the American way of living. Still there are groups who try to retain their own culture and ethnicity and most of them are the recent immigrants. Greater racial and ethnical diversities have not made noticeable harm till now. America is a vast country that can assimilate many cultures and ethnicities as it is doing today without harming the national fabric in any way. The nation has become much more diverse in recent decades and continues to be so. Perhaps a day will come soon when story of diverse cultures, colors and races will become part of ridiculous history. CONCLUSION: The study has shown that in spite of being discriminated for centuries, the Black community has endured and has emerged triumphant out of the trauma. Its present generations, even though not living the same kind of life that the White majority does, are showing improvement in every field and as time marches on, America will definitely be proud of its Minority who has shown grit, determination and at the same time, a certain resignation and these qualities have not alienated this community from its major counterpart. Today's America belongs to both the majority and minority communities. The present sociological landscape of America is diverse, ambitious and modern. But it depends on the White and Black communities to abolish the differences of olden days and come out to restructure a modern national fabric. It also depends upon their social skills and how far they are capable of sincerely mingling with one another. It depends upon the White community to what extent they can change the social scene forgetting the differences of color and creed. It also depends on the Black community to decide to what extent they could reduce the humiliation and discrimination the history heaped on them. Both the communities have to work for a united future leaving the burden of history behind. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Staples, Robert, Race and Ideology, An Essay in Black Sociology, Journal of Black Studies, Volume 3, No.4, 1973. 2. Stoler, Ann Laura (1995), Race and the Education of Desire, Duke University Press, Durham. 3. parker, David and Song, Miri (2001), Rethinking 'Mixed Race', Pluto, London. 4. Wimmer, Andreas et al (2004), Facing Ethnic Conflicts, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Incl, New York. 5. Solomos, John and Back, Les (1996), Racism and Society, MacMillan, Hampshire. 6. Sociological theories, Race and Colonialism, UNESCO, Paris, 1990. 7. Thompson, Cecil (1991), The Afro-American Quest for Freedom, Vantage Press, New York. 8. Sniderman, Paul M. anmd Plazza, Thomas (1993), The Scar of Race, Harvard University Press. 9. Brink, William and Harris, Louis (1987), Black and White, Simon and Schuster, New York. Read More