...The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch by Richard Wright personally is both enlightening and at the same time disheartening. In the one sense, it gives a glimpse into our past as a country as well as a society. Just how great the racial divide really was. Although some may object, feeling there is still a racial divide, all parties concerned have to agree though that much has improved in terms of advancement and treatment of African Americans in this country. It is just amazing how ignorant Jim Crow Laws were but incredibly was instituted and implemented by the southern portion of the United States. I tried to place myself in Richard Wright’s situation, but in order to do so I needed to gain more understanding and knowledge on Jim Crow Laws. Jim crow laws are defined as the systematic practice of discriminating against and segregating black people, especially as practiced in the American south from the end of reconstruction to the mid 20th century. Some examples of Jim Crow laws were: A black male could not offer his hand ( to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Blacks were not allowed to show affection in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites. If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person the black person sat in the back seat, or back of the truck. It is very hard to place oneself in that time period with all the freedoms that we enjoy today. Thanks to the civil rights movement and...
Words: 1031 - Pages: 5
...Historical Influences in To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a “time of devastation and uncertainty”, also it was a time “bread lines and debt” in the American history (McCabe 12). After the stock market crashed in 1929 there was a height during the time that “ the unemployment rate had reached nearly 25 percent” (McCabe 12). In To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee had many historical influences several from real life events. Harper Lee drew her influences from Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a racial caste system. Jim Crow are a bunch of harsh against Blacks laws (Pilgrim). The Whites did these actions because they disliked any benefit made Blacks including economic and political (Pilgrim). If the Blacks are to disobey then the punishments could be a lynching (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws are seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the laws that you could see was “ Never assert or even intimate that...
Words: 841 - Pages: 4
...Mockingbird. In the novel, Harper Lee used real life stories as a guide to help her write her novel correctly and accurately. The novel is tied to a few stories such as, Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. One of the first connections to America’s history of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. To begin, Jim Crow was a racist system that promoted inequality between the races. A bountiful number of people believed the laws were necessary to keep black people in their place. In addition, they used the Jim Crow...
Words: 1177 - Pages: 5
...August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Freedom and being born in America is considered the American dream. It is the general idea that every citizen should achieve success and be given an equal opportunity. The idea that if one works hard enough with great determination and initiative his prosperity would be un-numbered. That is until the color of one’s skin comes into play. Being born black in the United States of America specifically. Image, you yourself are born American. Your ethnicity is that of another descent....
Words: 1783 - Pages: 8
...The New Jim Crow The New Jim Crow is a book that gives a look on how discrimination is still and at some post more prevalent today than it was in the 1850s. Author Michelle Alexander dives into the justice system and explains how a lot of practices and beliefs from slavery times are just labeled differently now. The labeling creates legal discrimination, but most people over look it because it is hidden with words such as “criminals” or “felon” in order to legally enslave and segregate a certain type of people. This discrimination is located in multiple areas of the U.S. government. Alexander goes through the ways of how discrimination is still prevalent in employment, the housing market, education, and basic voting rights. Alexander unveils these discrimination practices by comparing modern government systems to the old Jim Crow laws. Alexander believes that the racial caste system is mostly the same and the only thing that has changed is what we call it now. People of color are mostly the ones incarcerated, so if you use the label criminal you are able to mention people of color without directly mentioning them. Language is everything and how you label it changes the way people view it. Throughout the book her biggest argument and case on this new system is incarceration specifically. Alexander uses a few good points in order to justify her claims. Alexander talks about the “War on Drugs.” Alexander says that the War on Drugs, a policy put into effect through Reagan’s reign...
Words: 1185 - Pages: 5
... painted, composed music, and produced movies. “The Help,” a film directed by Tate Taylor, has received critical reviews for its uplifting, heartwarming tone on such a profound and intense era. “The Help” follows a white female, Skeeter, in 1960s Mississippi who interviews black domestic workers assisting white households. It has been described by critics as “a small domestic drama that sketches in the society surrounding its characters but avoids looking into the shadows just outside the frame” (Johnson 4). While “The Help” does not delve deep into serious issues in the Jim Crow time period, Morrison’s novels have been acclaimed because of her writing from outside the “center,” with her somber issues that can make a reader uncomfortable. Although Morrison’s writing can be unpleasant to read in some sections, she paints a realistic picture of the Jim Crow Era. “The Help” brings a more joyous view to the Jim Crow Era with a “feel good” film, showing how “far” we have gotten in society; whereas, Morrison’s novels have painful and harsh tones to make the reader feel uncomfortable to more understand the oppression and hardships of the black...
Words: 903 - Pages: 4
...The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander—a Ohio State University professor, director of Racial Justice Project at ACLU of Northern California, and director of the Civil Rights Clinics at Stanford Law School—was the uncovering research about the system of mass incarceration, which are rules, policies, and laws that helped control the amount of criminals entering and leaving prisons. The author begins with slavery and continues to explain the Jim Crow segregation, which both represent mass incarcerations. Mass incarceration prevents discrimination towards groups of people. For example, the author states, “After the death of slavery, the idea of race lives on.” (26) This specific example...
Words: 2005 - Pages: 9
...The issue of mass incarceration sparked conversation about racial disparities within the prison system. Following the abolishment of Jim Crow, legal racial segregation in the United States appeared dead. According to civil rights advocate, Michelle Alexander this is not the case; racial segregation appears dead, but mass incarceration perpetuates a racial caste system that preserves this outdated practice. In Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, she points to the cause, enforcement, and victims of this system, but her arguments lack the depth to stand against counterarguments. Primarily, Alexander links mass incarceration’s cause of the War on Drugs. Her secondary cause for this phenomenon appears after this war begins; many defendants cannot obtain “meaningful legal representation” (Alexander 17), a claim which widely goes undisputed. Meanwhile, the argument that “convictions for drug offenses —not violent crime—are the single most important cause of the prison boom in the United States” (Alexander 102), a repetitive argument in her book, sparks controversy. Scholars, such as Pfaff, believe that writers distort the role of drug convictions due to focusing on only...
Words: 1261 - Pages: 6
...this little dog and its experience of being taken in by a little boy. The amount of symbolism used throughout this essay is staggering, and is the main literary element used in this piece of work. Written in 1890, this story represents the period of time that came shortly before. The dog, the boy, and the father all act as important symbols in this classic retelling of the reconstruction period know as Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the period of time in the United States after the Civil War. Slaves had been emancipated, and equality was supposedly underway. Unfortunately that was not the truth of what really went on in the United States. Many blacks were either still kept as slaves, or subjugated into a serf like state. The dark brown dog, which the story derives its title from, enters the story and takes on the role of a former slave. He is seen in the beginning as walking down the road, tripping over the long piece of rope tied around his neck. This piece of rope is symbolic of the former slavery which he just became free of. However, it is impossible to do anything with that freedom because now the dog has nowhere to live; the dog is forced to walk along the road dejected with no means of protecting or caring for itself. The fact that the dog is stumbling shows that it does not know what to make of its newfound freedom, and is awkward in this new state of being. On the opposite end of the street sat a little boy. The boy represents the new generation...
Words: 1275 - Pages: 6
...have felt discriminated over many centuries starting with slavery. They have experienced segregation and unethical treatment from people around them. Race and racism, two highly talked about topics, are never completely out of the news. The most controversial topic recently is related to the many blacks that have been shot by police officers, which have led to death or serious injures. This has happened numerous times across the United States. I do believe that African Americans deserve to be treated equally and the police officers taking part in these acts need to be held responsible for their actions. One of the first recorded incidents of racial discrimination towards African Americans was the action of slavery. Slaves were forced to work against their free will. Even though slave life depended on the slave holder, all conditions were not tolerable for a human being. Life as a slave meant working sunup to sundown six days a week, having food sometimes not suitable for an animal to eat, and living in a shack with dirt floor (“Slave Life”). This all took place while the slave holders enjoyed cracking the whip. After slavery took place for a long period of time, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 (Balser). The proclamation declared that “all persons held as slaves within the rebellious states are, and henceforward shall be free (Balser). As you can imagine, African Americans felt a feeling beyond anything else they had...
Words: 1539 - Pages: 7
...hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Throughout the duration of gaining independence, Americans struggled against the suffocating reign of Great Britain. Colonists saw themselves as equals to those in England and did not believe that their rights should be neglected. Similar to the British-Americans during the Revolutionary War, the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement sought equal rights and freedom. Prominent civil rights leaders brought new ideas to the world, dreaming up ways to eliminate an archaic mentality. Ultimately, without the reinforcement of society, advancement would have never occurred. The compelling works, “The Politics of Slavery” by Louis Menand, and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., took impactful steps toward society’s quest for the good life by examining how individuals unite to achieve civil rights. Louis Menand brought together the thoughts of multiple notable individuals in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “The Metaphysical Club”. His first chapter, “The Politics of Slavery”, contains the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., revolving around Holmes’ experience with racial prejudice as a white man. Holmes believed in equality, which developed his central argument that the misallocation of black individual’s rights should be not be allowed. Being a strong abolitionist, he did not agree with the Fugitive Slave Act. It declared that all escaped slaves must return to their masters, taking away the “good...
Words: 1218 - Pages: 5
...relationship we should be focusing on is the one between social class and education. Races and cultures that put a higher value on education tend to produce more members of society that move from a lower social class to a higher social class or retain their social class from one generation to another. Also, I believe that the movement between social classes becomes more available within a society that does not apply a caste system on its members. Ultimately, it is an individual’s personal responsibly to determine their outcome. This goes beyond race, social class, and culture. I believe America has equal opportunity, but not equal outcomes. As Martin Luther King famously said in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” We are unique individuals and have an opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are natural rights that are given to us by God. Today the President of the United States is of mixed White and Kenyan heritage. Any remnants of a caste system, perhaps from the days of Jim Crow and the laws of “separate, but equal” are but all behind us in America. If you look at the achievement gaps in the Jersey City, NJ public schools, there is a significant gap in the graduation rates of different ethnic groups; fewer Black and Hispanic/Latino students graduate than Asian and White students. Blacks are graduating at about 55%, Hispanic/Latino’s at 65%, Whites at 80%, and Asian’s at...
Words: 790 - Pages: 4
...inequities played in the lives of Henrietta, her family, the researchers and even the author of the book. The standard of living is a measurement which is used to measure the quality of life of the people who live in a country. Economists use it to compare geographic areas, (e.g. the standard of living in the United States versus Canada.) This measure can also be used to compare points in time. For example, compared with a century ago, the standard of living in the United States has improved greatly. The same amount of work now buys an increased quantity of improved products. Life expectancies have increased and racial segregation has been abolished. The divide between the rich and poor isn’t as great as it was a few decades earlier. The most popular method of calculating the standard of living is real GDP but this not gives an accurate measurement of standard of living. It normally requires considering additional measures. Nevertheless , the real GDP per person does tend to be positively associated with many things people value, including better goods and services , health, life expectancies and education”.(economics text book page 124) Henrietta Lacks was 31 years old when she died in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, one of the few healthcare facilities that admitted African Americans. Prior to her death, cells from her tumor were examined by Dr. George Gey. Dr. Gey had tried for decades to grow malignant cells outside of the body in the hopes of using them to find the cause...
Words: 1371 - Pages: 6
...was written, African Americans were still suffering from inequality and discrimination. The need to end racial segregation and discrimination sparked the build up to The Civil Rights Movement. Like society, literary trends started to focus on racism and prejudice. In particular, the principled southern-bred writer Langston Hughes shows social injustices and racial prejudice in his writings because he experienced the culture first hand. His poems became the voice for African American’s because he clearly depicts the emotions they felt during this time. Literature as a whole grasped the public’s attention towards The Civil Rights Movement to show the importance of social equality. Langston Hughes’ poems “Merry-Go-Round” and “Dreams” express how necessary it is to put segregation in the past, and encourage African Americans to stay hopeful in order to reach their dream of living in a racially equal America. The Civil Rights Movement was victorious because many African Americans did not get discouraged and lose spirit, but instead properly fought to change the peoples’ mindset by demonstrating unity and nonviolent tactics. During the Civil Rights Movement, it was easy for African Americans to lose sight of achieving the ultimate goal, equality among all races, because they were constantly being suppressed. Hughes wants to keep the ultimate...
Words: 1326 - Pages: 6
...manufacturers. This effected George Washington as well. Let’s not forget, George Washington was a slave owner. He held as many as 350 slaves. During the Great Depression in 1929, blacks were hit really hard. In some Northern cities, blacks were fired from their jobs so that whites weren’t without work. There was a law put in place called the “Jim Crow” law. This was put in effect all across America which represented a system of American Laws that were applied after the civial war for the purpose of controlling the emancipated exslave. The “Jim Crow “ law was simply reconstituted slave laws to keep blacks and whites from drinking from the same fountain. The laws were unambiguous back then. And now that we are in the twenth century, there is a black president of the United States of America. But what does say? Yes there has been improvement made. Obama is a black man, and I’m sure he is reminded all the time of this. When he ran for election, all you would hear is change, change and more change. The US development remains to be seen here in America. Having Obama for president just isen’t enough, even he has advisers. So although he has exspressed good ideas on how to make the economy work for the people, change will not...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
