Slavery and Race in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Slavery and Race in the USA - Essay Example 'Racism' started its origin from the field of sports when baseball distinguished between two teams, 'blacks' and 'whites'. The teams used to show sense of honour when the communities to which they represented, win. It was due to the separate block of black institutions that caused feelings of a separate 'race' among black Americans. Kelly & Lewis (2000) writes that it was the utmost efforts of those segregated institutions to exclude black community from every walk of American life including education, jobs, civil services etc. Even the situation got worse when in many cases it was observed that African Americans started paying heavy taxes and duties in order to acquire public facilities which were free of cost for Americans, hence the Great War was an eye opening occurrence for blacks, after which they realised to be a separate identity from that of whites, and that whites never accepted them. The main reason was the 'stamp' of slavery on blacks, for which the whites still considere d them as slaves. World War I where on one hand infused the spirit of 'democracy' among African Americans, on the other hand it remain failed to cope up with the segregated units, which started building among blacks and whites. Blacks possessed the view, which negated the presence of any skin colour, so they expected whites to behave with them in accordance with equality and justice. Hence the new understanding of social relations of the world war rights era authorised African Americans thereby giving new dimensions of race, class and ethnicity. Worst situations were created after Afro- Americans started getting urbanised. After the new perception which whites taught the blacks, blacks considered white Americans to be their worst opponents, which would never turn into their allies. The main reason behind such attitude was the experience of blacks which majority acquired. Collins (2004) writes that blacks were directly or indirectly affected by the racial discrimination identified by whites. World War I infused a new seed of hatred that strengthened the bond of 'racial discrimination' among the whites and blacks. In 1930s racial discrimination went on its peak after blacks joined umpteen gangs who used to create violence among those areas influenced by whites' majority. According to Collins (2004) 1 "African Americans were often accused of the crime of raping White women which resulted in lynching". (Collins, 2004, p. 222) Such violent acts gave rise to many civil rights organisations like NAACP (National Association for Advancement of Colored People) and National Urban League, which worked, for the rights of black communities. Harlem Renaissance Among the major problems created by World War was the urbanisation of African Americans due to the isolation they were confronted to. This isolation created classes among various black groups. The whites already did the segregation, now the rest of the task was carried out by black ghettos. Urbanisation increased the emergence of a gay, lesbian, and bisexual presence within urban African American communities. (Collins,