...Adam Winikoff 12/18/15 Hist. 253 Prof. Koppes The Women’s Movement, African-American Freedom Movement, and the Homophile Movement The African American freedom movement, the women’s movement, and the queer movement were all extremely influential periods in American history. After World War II the U.S. was in the middle of a moral crisis. This was a nation that was supposed to be a beacon of light and hope for all of mankind, but that was only true if you were a heterosexual white male living in America. This was a time when men were still “likely to be the heads of families and the primary breadwinners in the family.”. Black Americans were treated as second-class citizens and subjected to racist legislation especially at the hands of many southern states, and the subject of both male and female homosexuality was as taboo a topic as ever. Although each of these movements had the ultimate goal of equality, specifically between their group and white heterosexual males, so even though there were some similarities the type of equality and the means they used to try and obtain it were vastly different. The women’s movement of the late 1960s and seventies was a focus on trying to bring equality to women in the workplace. Dating back to the Great Depression liberal economic policies were focused on getting men back to work and allowing them to be able to support a family through assistance programs under the New Deals. One of the main goals of this movement was not just...
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...Civil Rights movement began in the mid 1950’s and spanned into the late 1960’s. This was a tumultuous time for African Americans, in that they were fighting for their rights. During and before this time period, Mr. Langston Hughes wrote several poems about the disparity between race in America. Through vivid imagery, Langston Hughes comments on the nuances of being African American in America in the era of the Civil Rights Movement. In “Theme for English B”, Hughes discusses both the differences and similarities between white and black americans. Hughes paints the reader a great physical and figurative picture of the disparities between the two races by describing the speaker’s college experience. The speaker starts off the poem by highlighting the differences between the white professor, his white classmates, and himself. He says that the speaker is the “only colored student in [his college] class” in a college “on the hill above Harlem”. Harlem is a predominately African American community in New York. It is symbolic that this predominately white college is situated on a hill above the predominately black community of Harlem. Even though the Civil Rights Movement had begun, African Americans still had a long way to go to be able to get up to the “college on the hill” where the white...
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...these events and felt their effects growing up while living in the Deep South. Looking at her only novel, it can be concluded that the similarities within it and reality are no coincidence. The Historical events that occurred during Harper Lee’s lifetime clearly influenced her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird as elements of the Scottsboro Boys Trials are undoubtedly evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, the Jim Crow Laws are unjustly in effect towards the African-American population of Maycomb, Alabama, and the deleterious economic hardships faced after the Great Depression are present in the citizens of the town throughout the novel. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the lawyer defending him. This fictional trial is in fact an almost exact recreation of a trial that Harper Lee lived through: The Scottsboro Boy Trials of 1931. Both the fictional and real trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys share several similarities, two of which are the race and crime of the defendant and the all racist white jury. The Scottsboro Boys were a group of “nine African American youths” who were “quickly sentenced to death for the crime of rape of two young white women” (“Scottsboro Boys Case”). Tom Robinson, a black male, was also accused of raping a young white woman. After careful interrogation, the defense presented strong evidence in both cases that suggested the defendants...
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...Gender Identity among African Americans Teresa Rucker SOC/338 10/29/13 Dr. A. McDaniel When defining Gender Identity it is said to be a person’s inner sense of being male or female and this sense usually developed during early childhood as a result of parental rearing practices and societal influences and strengthened during puberty by hormonal changes (Dictionary.com). This journey will examine the gender identity among African Americans and highlight the importance of African American women to the women movement. An African American woman will be chosen and a discussion will be done on her importance to the women movement era. Then the journey will end with a discussion on the differences and similarities between African American female and male identity and how has female identity change in the last thirty years. In examining the gender identity among African Americans it is said to be that men exhibit masculine traits and women express feminine traits. Even though African American men and women experience devastating times during slavery their identity roles were different. Black males were the first slaves to be brought to the colonies because they were viewed as being valuable and do to their strength they could perform various duties like building and plowing. Black women were purchased to be field workers. Mainly they worked the fields and this was seen as domestic work for women slaves. In slavery the black women identity was also seen as an economic advantage...
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...creates a similarity in their virtues that protecting rights of the people help produce happiness in a democracy. Aristotle discusses in the essay “ The Aim of Man”, that we aim to set goals to lead us into happiness. He believes that happiness is an activity for our soul. The soul is an inanimate object that can be driven by passion, which drives a person to do certain tasks in their life. These actions lead into happiness if the task is done successfully. Aristotle’s teachings on happiness collides with Alexis De Tocqueville’s teaching that Americans need a daily support of some energetic passion. Happiness from Americans will occur by protecting the American people’s...
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...include leadership, motivation, team work, conflict-resolution abilities and an understanding of diversity and diversity management. Today’s work population is constantly changing; we encounter different people from all walks of life. As a result there is more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. Maximizing and capitalizing on workplace diversity has become an important issue in the field of management. According to some experts “Diversity can have two competing perspectives. The first perspective embraces the “information value of diversity” and the importance of “celebrating our differences”. The second perspective believes that diversity contributes to conflict because “similarity attracts” and therefore, it is best not to draw attention to diversity and instead emphasize that as human beings our commonalities far outweigh our differences. The first perspective argues for customization, while the second advocates for homogenization. Whatever your perspective, the facts remain the same; today’s work population is changing and with any change comes both challenges and opportunities for organizations and their leaders. Diversity Management is a combination of programs, policies and activities that support an environment wherein employee differences are valued and integrated into each part of the organization's operations. It assists in developing and promoting culturally diverse employees to ensure that managers...
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...And Ethnicities in “Country Lovers” Charity Johnson ENG 125 Brian Freeland August 20, 2012 The literature of African America started from eighteenth century. The writings of the African American literature have focused on racism, ethnicity, and struggles of life for the African American people and the chase of freedom along with the search of equality in the society. Nadine Gordimer and Patricia Smith are famous contributors in the field of African American literature. This pare compares and contrasts the short story of Nadine Gordimer, “Country Lovers” and “What it’s Like to Be a Black Girl,” by Patricia Smith. Both the literature works put light on the racial background and ethnicities. The main character in both the pieces of literature is a black woman. The women in both the poem and the story face severe discrimination because of their color and their race. Racism and ethnicity is an issue which has ruined the societies and only the African American black skinned people, particularly females have been facing the effects of racism since long. The black skinned females have been tortured by discrimination and racism. (Clugston, 2010). Racism is something that most of us do not speak about but it is has penetrated deep in our society. The short story “country lovers” depicts a love story of a black girl named Thebedi and a white boy named Paulus. Both the main characters of the story were brought together since their childhood. They used to play together...
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...Like to Be a Black Girl by Patricia Smith and Child of The Americas written by Aurora Levin Morales. These two authors may not share the same ethnicity; Smith being African American and Morales being Puerto Rican but they have experienced similar internal fights; cultural and personal identity struggles coupled with the need for social acceptance in their worlds. I also felt a personal connection with it seeing as how I am a mix of ethnicities, from Hawaiian, to Filipino, to Caucasian. In this comparative paper, I will discuss the similarities that both authors wrote about as well as the differences. When looking into the theme these two poems share, we can expand our understanding and in some way, reflect on it personally as I have. Both Smith and Morales explain so beautifully in their poems how difficult it was to grow up as young women who were not of Caucasian descent. They both lived completely different lives yet their struggles were comparable because they both suffered racial discrimination and in their writing explained how hard it was to live with what was decided about them based on their ethnicity. The two authors correlate through race and cultures, there are countless life trials they had to conquer if they wanted to feel secure in their own skin. The two poems speak about how hard it was for women of all ages to be acknowledged if they were not of the Caucasian. They explain in their own way how hard it is to make an attempt to fit in to society...
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...Some cultures musical styles are similar; however many are also different. African Americans have quite different musical rhythms and instruments from the musical traditions of Native Americans. In this essay I will explain the differences and similarities between Iroquois, a Native American tribe and African American music. Music is used for various reasons between Iroquois and African Americans. It is used for recreation, rituals and ceremonies, story telling, and language. For example, African Americans sung spiritual songs to help one another during slavery, so the master wouldn't know what they were talking about. Music was also used in Iroquois and Africans Americans society by communicating with others parts of the world. Music was used as an early sign of general cultural diffusion. (Plantinga, p.6) Music is used to help expand our world and cultures. Music is a part of most activities that African Americans and Iroquois tribes enjoy. Music is taught and learned orally by both cultures. This means that they are sung and played together easily; working together as a team. Alternation between a leader and the group is a common way of call and response. For instance, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is a call response song, that's sung by African Americans. Music can be taught within every culture the same, but different at the same time. Iroquois and African Americans have different types of music they listen to. Iroquois...
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...enormous profits to be made by the America. The free labor used to pick cotton and other crops made it very profitable for the plantation owners and the owners of factories in the northern states. Another economic effect was the development of the south. Because slavery made it so profitable to continue an agricultural society, the south found very little use for industry and following the example set by the North. The social effects of slavery were also varied. One of the most important was the structure of society. The South was primarily agricultural because it was so profitable. It was therefore not necessary to develop an industrial base for society. Another social effect was the racism created by slavery. This contempt created between the races was a result of the institution of slavery. The effects of this racism were perpetuated throughout society for a very long time and are seen in our not too distant past. Religion was also affected by slavery. The result of slavery on religion was the creation of new beliefs and traditions. The slaves in the south were exposed to religion in their daily lives. They were able to take this new religion and apply it to their own beliefs and situations and create a new belief system from this new blend. This is not to say that entire new religions were created but that different variations of observance of the same Christian religion were developed. Slavery also affected politics of the South. The owners of slaves...
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...INTRODUCTION A number of African American women are succeeding on the long road to career advancement and leadership positions. Nevertheless, racism and sexism still hinder their efforts for career advancement and leadership positions. Black women are facing an intense combination of discrimination in American institutions. Because we live in a white male-dominated society, it is easy to underestimate African American women’s leadership potential and abilities. African American women are looked at as inferior beings, rather than as equals capable of accomplishing any and everything a man can. The purpose of this research will be to investigate how education influences career advancement and leadership positions of African American...
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...think about race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression. Multiple levels of domination are experienced through people being oppressed and discriminated. Hill Collins introduces this dominant theory of multiple levels of domination that involves gender as a site of identity and politics that sometimes involves African people. Collins believes that Afrocentric feminism is ultimately anchored in the unique experiences and struggles of ordinary African American women. Gender is always gender when spoken about in any race or nationality....
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...the south legal. Discrimination against a person based on their skin was legal. This lead African Americans on the whole being put a crucial disadvantage. As we have learned in class, the left many African Americans in the south, unable to vote due to grandfather and numerous other clauses, economically marginalized them, and greatest of all barred African Americans entrance into certain schools. This lead to the development of groups like the Niagra Movement, The NAACP and numerous more, to try and fight against these injustices. Highlander and citizenship schools begin to grow around the south in efforts to get African Americans to vote. In efforts to desegregate schools, we cases like that of Donald Gaines Murray, Lloyd Lionel Gaines, and many more that attempt to put people of color into majority white schools. These cases lead the groundwork for the talk of public schools to integrate their students. In 1954, the Supreme court ruled that “separate but equal” was not equal, overturning plessy v. Ferguson. A few years later is where the conflict in Little Rock picks up. With the segregation of schools determined to be illegal, people assumed integration would happen quickly thereafter. De facto segregation still made it difficult for students of color in the south to attend all white schools. Seeing this problem still persist, Daisy Bates took on the challenge to integrate and all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansa. The film describes Daisy Bates as, “Not soft spoken...
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...Media Influence on African American Males Keana Noyd California State University, Northridge PAS 325- The Black Male in Contemporary Times May 12, 2014 Abstract If a black man is mentioned in the news, newspaper, magazine ads, television shows, or internet blogs, it is usually related to a negative, stereotypical thought of black men as a whole. The media constantly produces images of black men as sexually-instable, violent, and unintelligent. Such portrayals ultimately influence the nation when it comes to what black men are thought to be like. If the media gave honest and positive portrayals of black men, less racism would exist because people would be able to see the black men of this world for who they really are. In this paper, I give examples of how black men are negatively portrayed in the media and suggest how such misrepresentation can be stopped; by positive portrayals of black men in the media. Over the decades, the media has become an extremely influential power tool when it comes to making assertions about certain groups of people. African-Americans are one of the media’s many victims of false generalizations that influence the world beyond the television screens. Black men are constantly depicted as sexually-instable, angry, uneducated criminals throughout the media, in which, has an ultimate effect on how these men are represented throughout this society. Such depictions are one of the reasons why racism and stereotypical beliefs continue to exist throughout...
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...defined, developed, and supported with examples from the criminal justice system. Second, the term discrimination will be brought into focus, defined, and supported accordingly. Third, the similarities, and differences between the terms will be brought into discussion. The assignment will conclude by defining the applicability of the problem as it relates to these terms and will attempt to suggest a solution in curbing or even eliminating discrimination and disparity within the system. It is often said that the American Criminal Justice System directly discriminates against minorities based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and economic status. To clarify the credibility of such statement, one must be able to understand that deeply weaved within such claim stands the issue of disparity. Disparity and discrimination are two important social factors affecting the American socio-cultural aspects, especially those aspects related to the criminal justice system. Often, these similar terms are used interchangeably, however, they differ in many ways. Primarily, according to Webster’s dictionary disparity is defined as the "lack of similarity or equality; inequality; difference" or "the state of being different or dissimilar.” This term involves a lack of equality between individuals or groups. Its meaning includes factors such as racial composition, offender’s gender, social class, criminal...
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