The early onset of systematic oppression forced racism through laws and actions, the creation of the government, slavery, and the inadequate treatment of African Americans throughout time. A long-term effect can be seen in the treatment and statistics of African Americans over the years.
In present-day America, the saying “Make America Great Again” is seen everywhere among Donald Trump’s supporters, who are the current president of the United States. This is the ideology that the Former President ran his campaign on. Many have argued about when America was great. In fact, in a study conducted by the New York Times, it was found that most of his supporters did not even agree on when America was truly great in the previous years. “You certainly see that in the 2016 presidential campaign. An elite person, like Donald Trump, attempts to forge a link with working-class whites” (Antoinette). Many people question when America was truly great for those not in similar shoes as people like Donald Trump. When they were asked, many supporters could not even support their opinion with evidence. For African Americans, there was not such a time. This greatly affects the government and its people, due to the early onset of systematic oppression forced racism through laws and actions, the creation of the government, slavery, and the inadequate treatment of African Americans throughout time. A long-term effect can be seen in the treatment and statistics of African Americans over the years. To understand where oppression and racism are based, I will be examining further the origin and history of the United States of America.
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When scrutinizing the antebellum period it must be taken into consideration that many historians and literacy analysts believe that the idea of racism is modern. They profess racism is determined by skin color or by another unmanageable trait. On the contrary, the idea of Africans being less than another race was exhibited before the colonization of the Americas. “Sub-Saharan Africans were grimly depicted as killers of John the Baptist and torturers of Christ in medieval art. It may not be the hate of the race, but the thought that the race itself brought tyranny and was nothing but trouble”(Geraldine). The point of view is from a female professor of English and Comparative Literature, which would give her an advantage when analyzing documents and trying to find an effective way to either inform or persuade her readers. She is a seemingly trustworthy source, because she has a history of research in certain topics, and has written quite a few books on other topics.
When the Americas were first “found” by Christopher Columbus, he was captivated primitively by the Native Americans’ different ways of living. The Europeans were baffled and exhibited fear of these so-called creatures. It is possible to say the ideology of a dominant race being enforced in the Americas occurred here and was portrayed through the letter Columbus sent back to Spain, which forever changed what he believed to be India- or the United States of America which exists today. “I reached the Indian sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of which I took possession without resistance in the name of our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and with unfurled banners. To the first of these islands, which is called by Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the blessed Saviour” (Columbus). This document exhibits how within the first contact of the original inhabitants of the USA, there was a lack of respect to the point Columbus freely named, or rather claimed, the thought to be Indian land. The colonization of the Americas was ensued by many. Many Natives were killed and exploited, and colonists used common justifications of manifest destiny, righteousness for the natives, and giant profit. The systematic oppression was truly being born and created for the nation here. They almost obliterated a whole race for their well-being, which we often see displayed today.
With the new gain of terrain, people were needed to keep it thriving. They were to tend to crops, cook, take care of families, and commit to other hard labor. Starting in the 1500s African American slaves were brought from Africa to the Americas. America was, and still is the only country that had race-specific slavery. Many other countries looked at the United States in disgust due to their racist beliefs and treatment of their slaves. When the triangle trade developed in the 1560s to the 1800s, slave traders began to make huge profits. This gave them a bigger motive to support slavery, and even sell freemen. In the early 1600s slavery was officially made legal, and most of the states became entirely dependent on the work of the slaves to tend to the crops. The cotton gin is created to relieve the need for slaves. As a result, plantation owners could make more cotton. Throughout history and the creation of the Americas, African Americans were utilized. Not for their good, but for the benefit of the colonists. They were torn from their homes, their families, and even their own country, but to the colonists, it was justified because they saw themselves as the dominant race. They believed African Americans needed guidance; as they said with the Natives. African Americans were continually oppressed as they were never, or rarely, given the chance to rise and be more. They were not taught how to read write, or speak properly in American society. Specifically “What is a Negro slave? A man of the black race. The one explanation is as good as the other. A Negro is a Negro. He only becomes a slave in certain relations. A cotton spinning jenny is a machine for spinning cotton. It only becomes capital in certain relations. Torn away from these conditions, it is as little capital as gold by itself is money, or as sugar is the price of sugar”(Socialist Worker). The purpose of this document is to emphasize the role of African Americans, and how they were seen to the white race. Even from the starting point of America, African Americans are oppressed and beaten to make them stay at the bottom of the social chain. By making slavery legal, the legal system becomes systematic oppression and fails its people. It lets white people have the room to believe that it is okay to not only treat African Americans badly but to define them as less than human. For African Americans, many are born into slavery, and the slave life is what they believe to be normal. All of their basic human rights have been stripped from them.
Often during the Era of Slavery, it was very common to see many slaves try to escape their captivity, in the Underground Railroad was built to help those who needed a safe passage. A lot of the time, they were caught and taken back to their masters where they were badly beaten and punished, or even killed. However, not all African Americans in the colonies were slaves. Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is an example of this. He was born a free man, was educated, and had the same or even more than many of the white men in the colonies. Despite this, he was tricked into slavery, and his true identity was concealed to hide the wrongdoing. He became a slave for the next 12 years of his life, being ripped away from his family until he was recused. It was often seen that “free African Americans were unfortunately rarely treated with the same respect as their white counterparts”(history). The relevance of this document is that it shows how the idea of racism was truly forced, and how even when they were given the right starting tools to be essentially equal to their counterparts, some whites just would not allow it, due to their view of the world and their thinking. The system was beginning to change and it was not illegal for an African American to be legal. But it was illegal to sell a man that is a freedman. However, because of the forced racism ideals in earlier times, the population continued to portray them as African Americans. Multiple people could have saved Solomon Northup, but they chose to act as if he was lying and would beat him into submission instead.
Passed in 1869 and later ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment granted African American males the right to vote, which was one of the things to be worked on during Reconstruction. Once given the right to vote, African Americans were finally supposed to be seen as equal and legal citizens of the United States. With many conservatives, many people were against the equality of different races. When the 13th Amendment was ratified, people in opposition to it supported Black Codes to restrict the amount of access African Americans had. As African Americans began to gain more and more freedoms in the states, the Jim Crow laws were passed in a similar effort. They “were deployed to create a black and white divide among the working class”(Antoinette), as we know today as segregation. This is one reason why many people see the reconstruction era as a failed time.
The oppression is finally fought with relevance but is brought down again by oppression by the people. The people involve the government which enforces laws that end up taking or limiting the basic rights of African Americans in a completely different way.
At this point, you may be wondering, if racism is so horrible and affects many people in such a bad way, why don’t we just get rid of it? One of the reasons is that it is prevalent and therefore cannot easily be rid of. It was a survival tool that our ancestors used, as it’d be “no good to be altruistic and allow other groups to share their resources; that would have just decreased their chances of survival. But if they could subjugate and oppress other groups, this would increase their access to resources”.(phycology Today) In these terms, according to Pascal Boyer, racism is “a consequence of highly efficient economic strategies”(phycology today), enabling us to “keep members or other groups in a lower-status position, with distinctly worse benefits” (phycology today). Another related idea is that to see one’s group as special or superior would have helped us to survive by enhancing group cohesion. Also, it is very difficult to get rid of an idea that has been in existence as long as the nation itself. Because America was built on this ideal, people will continue to support and exhibit it knowingly or unknowingly.
Over time, the oppression of Natives, African Americans, and immigrants has not ceased. In the present day, the butterfly effect is seen almost everywhere in our society. People of a minority race are more susceptible to being stopped by police and more likely to experience police brutality, injustice in the law system, and much more. “Black households, for example, have far less access to tax-advantaged forms of savings, due in part to a long history of employment discrimination and other discriminatory practices. A well-documented history of mortgage market discrimination means that blacks are significantly less likely to be homeowners than whites, which means they have less access to the savings and tax benefits that come with owning a home. Persistent labor market discrimination and segregation also force blacks into fewer and less advantageous employment opportunities than their white counterparts. Thus, African Americans have less access to stable jobs, good wages, and retirement benefits at work — all key drivers by which American families gain access to savings”(Hanks). There is a clear gap still seen today between African Americans and whites.
For African Americans, there has not been a time when America was great. Even when given the proper tools for success, systematic oppression always questions them and influences the people. Many people have humbly fought and given up their lives for the freedom of the race. It is not fondly looked past, but it is clear there is still a great deal to fight for.
Works Cited
- Antoinette. “Exposing Bias: Race and Racism in America.” Harvard Professional Development | Harvard DCE, Harvard Continuing Education, 20 Apr. 2017, www.extension.harvard.edu/inside-extension/exposing-bias-race-racism-america.
- Blunden, Andy. “Marx-Engels Archive.” Modern History of the Arab Countries by Vladimir Borisovich Lutsky 1969, www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/>.
- “Free African Americans in the Colonial Era.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/6e.asp.
- “Geraldine Heng.” UT College of Liberal Arts, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/faculty/heng.
- Hanks, Angela, et al. “Systematic Inequality.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2018/02/21/447051/systematic-inequality/.
- “The Roots of Racism.” SocialistWorker.org, socialistworker.org/2010/10/21/the-roots-of-racism.
- “Christopher Columbus.” Google Books, books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZftqV0XJcu4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=christopher
- http://psycholologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201801/the-psychology-racism
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