Race and Race Memories - Essay Example

Race and Race Memories American history has a long and bitter experience of racism where the citizens other than whites faced and in some occasion still facing the scar. Race is a biological word but gained more popularity in its social context. Its history can be traced way back to the beginning of colonialism. The European colonialists finding distinctly different looking people in the newly found places suspected even their human status. They brought them to their own world and treated them as slave based on their views on “Race, and the interpretation of racial differences”. (Ore, 2005, p: 20). In the context of American society “whites” were considered as pure and any descendents of mixed blood was treated as nonwhite, though the concept was much flexible in Latin American countries. It has become common practice in human society to identify a person based on his/her race at first and the race or more specifically the skin color has become the reflection of one’s nature or capabilities. Maintenance of the system of race has become an integral part of US social order and electronic media play a vital role in defining the nature of different races. “In US television, the necessity to define in the briefest and most condensed manner has led to the perpetuation of racial caricatures…… ” (Ore, 2005, p: 23). The concept of racism evolved in America with the introduction of slavery. The Africans lost their individual identity and termed as “Black” as a whole. The slaves led a tortured life for a long time. The slavery system disintegrated in America after the civil war but the racial feeling was not removed from the minds of people. “The new freedmen entered Southern society with little or no material assets.” (Ore, 2005, p: 78). But they were able to transform the land there into productive one with their skill and power. But the landownership proposed to them never materialized properly. The common mentality was that if the black people became farmers then who would work in the land of whites. Racial discrimination was evident in relatively urban culture also. Suburbanization was encouraged during 1930’s but black Americans were denied access to these areas. They were not even granted loans from banks and government agencies for buying or repairing houses. The Federal Housing Authority used such a categorization which showed white dominated areas to be more in demand and disbursed loans based on those categories (Ore, 2005). The blacks had to depend on other agencies for loan at high rate and faced foreclosure or lost houses frequently. Denial to the opportunity of wealth accumulation and confinement in congested and underdeveloped areas took a great toll on the economic growth of the black Americans. The example of “Levittown” can be cited appropriately in this context. It was built in mass scale and offered a very affordable rate with the assistance of FHA & VHA financing. But it was found in 1960 that all the houses were owned by white Americans without a single representation by blacks. This example evidently reflects the fact of racial discrimination in granting finance by Government agencies. The economic disparity created by the discrimination by the banks, government agencies and financial institutions forced the black Americans to lag behind in education, employment and politics as they failed to afford the necessary resources required (Ore, 2005). The above incident made it clear that though the blacks had been freed from slavery but still the American society could not accept them to be equal to the whites. They still wanted them to be suppressed in terms of wealth, education, social recognition and rights. I myself can share a memory of such racially discriminative act still present in American society. I was a little child of eight years then. It was my elder brother’s birthday and we decided to have dinner at popular food outlet nearby. We reached there only to find a long queue of African Americans at the counter. The person at the counter told my father to pay for our order beforehand and wait in the queue to have it. As we were discussing the items to be ordered I saw one of my classmates, a white American, to reach there with her family. She came to me, wished my brother and went inside with her parents without paying for the order or standing in queue. All of a sudden my father decided not to order anything and we got back home. I was too small to understand why the people at the outlet were not letting us in while they did not stop my white friend. But I felt really disappointed and humiliated. Later in my life as I grew older I was able to understand the reasons and realize that the incident had left me with a permanent scar in my mind as I still don’t like to eat out. As discussed earlier, a great chunk of slave community was composed of mixed race resulting from the union of white masters and their black slaves. But after the end of slavery system, American white society tried to enforce every possible regulation to stop this kind of union. Some American states even passed laws against interracial marriage. A very famous example can be cited in this context. This was the case of “Loving vs. Commonwealth of Virginia” in 1967. Interracial marriage was illegal in the state of Virginia in 1967 along with 15 more states. Mr. Perry Loving, a white resident of Virginia, married Ms. Mildred Jeter an African American and American Indian in Washington D.C. and came back to Virginia to live. But the state of Virginia declared their marriage to be illegal and arrested them. They were convicted for breaking law and given option either to serve one year in jail or to just leave Virginia. This incident can also serve as an example of deep rooted racism in the minds of American whites. But this incident also led to ultimate nullification of laws against interracial marriage by the American Supreme Court and thus serves as a ray of hope against anti racism. The incident was able to change at least the unjust regulations though not the mentality of most of the white citizens of America. But the racial discrimination and demarcation are still quite evident in the society and several examples can be put forward in this context. While analyzing the history of mixed races it is seen that black and white union was quite common during the age of slavery. In that time the descendent was taken to be a part of the slave community and helped increasing the work force. Thus it helped the white community to gain more slaves and the practice was not much condemned. But after the slavery system was ended the descendents of the interracial union would become a part of the mainstream society and that led the intolerance among the whites as they were habituated to think the blacks as inferior and not equal to themselves. The incident with us at the food outlet might be a reflection of such feeling as it was impossible for them to eat together with us, the so called inferior race. The mixture in pure American race increased since the beginning of twentieth century resulting from the immigration from various countries. The concept of “melting pot” was introduced but contrary to the popular belief it did not help the American society to assimilate other cultures but it made people from other cultures to acquire American cultures losing their own identities (Ore, 2005). For example we all are African Americans now and do not speak about our original African identity though we do not enjoy the same rights as our fellow white Americans as evident from my own experience cited above. Not only the interracial marriages but also the descendents from these marriages are looked down upon even in the present American society. An inhuman example can be cited in this respect when Georgia Church wished to disinter the body of a mixed race child from its all white cemetery in 1996 (Ore, 2005). The church backed out facing protest but the whole incident reflected the feelings against mixed culture, which still exists in American society. The children from interracial marriages still fail to find the dignified position in the society unlike their purely white counterparts. The problem for such children aggravate when they born from the union of black and a race other than white. Immigration from different countries raised these possibilities. These children suffer from identity crisis in American society as they could not be identified as black or white. They are not acceptable fully in the black community neither in the other community which one of their parents belongs to. They feel confused about which culture they should follow or how to combine both the cultures. They feel humiliated when one of their parents is somewhat insulted due to her/his race. The condition is graver when the unions result from American war settlements in different countries. The mother from that country faces humiliation in both the societies and this leaves a deep scar in the minds of the children; they want to assimilate both the cultures. As stated in the book the child born to Japanese mother and Black father said, “…..no matter how offensive I am to their country or how much of a nuisance I am to their cause. I am Blackanese.” (Ore, 2005, p: 599). This discussion will not be complete without mentioning the brutal system of lynching that existed in American history. An example can be taken to clarify the system. Lige Daniel, a black, was forced out of jail by a mob of white people and was hanged from a tree on the road in 1920 in Texas. Not only that the whole incident was photographed and postcards made of those photographs were sold in the market to ensure proper reporting of this barbaric act. This is just one of the many incidents of lynching which made the blacks to believe in their sub-ordinance and the whites in their supremacy. Lynching was the social phenomenon used to terrorize the African Americans and to deny their social rights. Thankfully the system was stopped after long social and political interference and the lynchers were condemned socially (Without Sanctuary, 2000). To conclude it can be said that though the barbaric act of lynching was banned and more racial tolerance is found in present society still more improvement in the social structure can be brought about. The African American communities shifted to urban life style along with automation of agriculture since 1970. This ultimately increased unemployment as they lack education due to economic backwardness resulting from the earlier discrimination in wealth accumulation. But we can be hopeful as there are present a number of African Americans who overcame these situations and secured decent jobs. They are now being accepted as a part of the mainstream society gradually. Not only the African Americans but also other races and even mixed races are being accepted in the society and the new generation whites being nurtured along with the black and the mixed race learn to consider them as just their peers irrespective of skin color or features. Thus the society is progressing towards complete anti racism to become a more unified one in true sense. Reference 1) Ore, T.E., (2005), Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, Ed. 3, USA: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Read More