Racism in Today's Society

Racism: affects my life on a daily bases because I am an African American woman and a single mother of one son.It also affects me when I apply for employment because I am a felony and have been to prison five times for theft stealing items out of department stores so it will be hard for individuals to trust me and my character. I have changed my life around and graduated in May 2010 with an Associate in Science. I feel that some of the individuals who work at Firelands are also racism, but probably because they were not raised around blacks. I remember when blacks were scared to ride through Huron because this was known as a racism town.

Prejudice: to me is when individuals have an opinion about a certain group of individuals, who they don't even know. It also comes from fear because of their culture. I took a sociology class here and shared my story with the people in my class everyone was crying because they never thought I had been to prison and would share my story.Later on in the class we were having a group discussion and a woman brought up my past because she hates people who commits crimes, after I told her everything I did was for my son she hug me and told me she was sorry, that's an example judging people you don't know. I feel we should not judge any one we don't know because we are not God. People prejudge you also by your appearances, religion, and sex, age and color of your skin.

Privileges:I have lost a lot of privileges in the United States because I was not a law abiding citizen and went to prison five times.I am still discrimination against because of my criminal record which will follow me the rest of my life. I am okay with that because I know today I am a changed person and a law abiding citizen. My first job I was given is here at the school as a note taker which I will start on August 23, 2110.

I feel that we still have all three issues in our school systems and our children and grandchildren will have to be subjected to this issues.As a community we can teach our youth that everyone is equal and everyone is a person regardless of their skin color and the area they live in.I n schools children get picked on because of their clothing, so Sandusky Schools last year had them wear uniforms, and the children still got tease because of their shoes, they are ignorance because of their home training.

I also feel that racism and prejudice is here to stay and as long as we still have racism and prejudice people in the world will continue to pat it down generate to generate.

I feel the Chicano Movement addressed the restoration of land grants, farm workers rights and education rights. They also sought social changes and equality for all Mexican Americans.

They used these following tactics;

• The college students organized a four hour sit-in where they voiced their demands for the University to make changes for people of “Color.”
• The Chicano Movement also focused on Educational issues pushing for higher education for Mexicans-Americans. Which they had great success in their educational goals due to the Mexican-Americans school dropout rates were reduced and more bilingual teachers were hired in the school systems.
• These educational programs were formed: United Mexican American Students (UMAS), Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA).
• They organized a major grape strike with the help of the United Farm Workers Organization.
• They fought the Federal Government to honor the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
• They addressed discrimination in public and private institutions.
• Black power exercised a direct influence on the Chicano movement because it established racial identity.
• They help pass California Proposition 14.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THE CHICANO MOVEMENT:

• Caesar Chavez started the united Farm Workers Organization and went on a 25 day hunger strike during the grape boycott.
• Reies Tijerina worked on the land grant in the movement.
• Hector Garcia founded the American GI Forum and became the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

I feel the African American Movement focused on racial discrimination against Africans and better treatment for African Americans in the Southern States.

They used these following Tactics;

• Federal lawsuits to challenge the Jim Crows laws.


• Use churches and their members to help raise money for the civil rights movement.


• Martin Luther King Jr. used direct action.


• Sit-ins were used in especially in 1960 and 1961.


• Freedom Riders rode segregated buses across the Southern states.


• The African Americans use peaceful demonstrations and marches, even though some demonstrators were attack by white police officers, police dogs, and fire hoses at full force.


• Brown v. Topeka Board of Education help the African Americans gain entrance to white schools, especially the “Little Rock Nine.”

IMPORTANT PEOPLE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT:

• Marcus Garvey: leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and first African American leader in American history to organize mass people in a political movement.


• W.E.B. Du Bois: he was a spokesman for the legal right of African Americans, and founded the National Association for the Advancement of colored People, and the editorial of the African American Newspaper the Crises.


• John Lewis: He and the United Mine Workers launched a campaign to bring African Americans workers into the union by employing Africans Americans organizers and demanding equal pay, regardless of race


• The NAACP and CORE were also important agencies in the movement.

I feel the American Indian Movement used the Government property to stage all their protest so the United States public would become aware how the Indian were being treated.

They used these following Tactics;

• The occupation of Alcatraz Island for 19 months in order to reclaim federal land taken away from the Native Nations.
• They coordinated employment programs in various cities for the Indians.
• They use marches and the most famous is the The Trail of Broken Treaties.
• They took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building for seven days, which they delivered a twenty point manifesto to the United States Government.
• They led protest to monitored police brutality.
• In 1973 the American Indian Movement members seized Wounded knee, South Dakota for 71 days. The Government made 1200 arrest during this time period.
• They stages events that would gain attention from the media.
• They also fought for Indians mascots not are used for National and college teams, they held protest at the World Series and Super bowls.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT:

• Richard Oakes help the Indians enroll in at San Francisco State University, in 1969, Oakes led a group of students and urban Bay Area Indians in an occupation of Alcatraz Island that would last until 1971.
• Dennis Banks and Russell Means started the American Indian Movement in 1968.
• Richard Wilson was the tribal chairman on the Wounded Knee standoff.

The African Americans, Mexican-Americans and Indian Americans all used non-violence during their protest and marches and used Martin Luther King direct action plan to fight for better Civil Rights. All the important people I mention all played a huge part in their people Civil Rights movement.

Civil Rights Movement

I feel that Africans Americans individuals started to stick together and stand up themselves and become as one in order to fight the laws on discrimination in the South and other parts of the United States.
The Pre- War and World War 11 offered all individuals of color an opportunity to get out of the cycle of rural poverty, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th Amendment gave all persons born or naturalized citizen rights of the United States, these individuals could not be deprive of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Furthermore; the 15th Amendment allowed all citizens the right to vote regardless of their race, color, or prior history as a slave could not stop individuals from voting. The landmark verdict reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine the court had established with Plessy v. Ferguson in which it determined that equal protection was not violated as long as reasonably equal conditions were provided to both groups. In the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, another landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for African American and white students and denying African American children equal educational opportunities unconstitutional.

Many groups were formed to help the people of color fight the Government against unconstitutional laws. W.E.B.Du Bois started the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), A Philip Randolph fought for African Americans against discrimination in defense plant jobs, and he started the Brother hoods of Sleeping Car Porters in 1935, which was the first labor organization. and a campaign to bring Africans Americans workers into the union by employing African Americans who demanded equal pay, regardless of race. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sought to end discrimination and improve race relations through direct action, membership for this organization was granted to all people who believe all people are created equal, they also had white students from the North to travel to Mississippi, where they helped register African Americans voters staged a sit-in at a coffee shop in Chicago. The Jim Crows laws banned African Americans and other people of color from associating with whites in a host of instructions and public places; schools, hospitals, drinking fountains restrooms, forms of public transportation, hotels, restaurants, lunch counters, movie theaters, and parks.

When Africans Americans, soldiers returned to the United States they found the country that did not grant them full rights, and the Civil Rights Movement was reborn. These individual soldiers were not afraid to confronted white supremacies, which lead to many riots. The leaders in the African Americans churches also press for racial changes. The passing of the Federal Civil Rights legislation in 1964 did not address all the problems of African Americans they were still unemployed, facing police brutality, and unsafe housing conditions. The freedom Riders were Civil Rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (of 1960). Boynton v. Virginia had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. The Freedom Riders set out to challenge this status quo by riding various forms of public transportation in the South to challenge local laws or customs that enforced segregation. The Riders were arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating state and local Jim Crow laws, along with other alleged offenses. Most of the subsequent rides were sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), while others belonged to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (Snick). The Freedom Rides followed on the heels of dramatic sit-ins against segregated lunch counters conducted by students and youth throughout the South and boycotts beginning in 1960.The boycott in Montgomery Alabama where Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks' action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 343 days.

On July 2, 1964 the Africans Americans had won the battle of discrimination when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Right Act. The Act outlawed segregation in businesses, and also banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places.

IMMIGRANTS

“Immigrants were the most vulnerable workers in the united States economy”
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the President and Government permitted immigrants to enter into the United States in order to gain a profit from the work they would perform in order to gain a profit for the economy. The Government officials used Asians, Natives Americans and Mexicans as the permanent lower labor and rejected legal and customary barriers to their advancements in the United States.

The Government needed the profit for the United States so they relied on low-wage immigrant labor but rejected their language, cultures, appearances and unassimilated ways. The immigrants help corporations become rich, because they were force to do jobs the white men would not perform because they were unsafe and in unhealthy work places. Furthermore; the immigrants had to work long hours, and seven days a week. The men, women and children all had to perform work duties.

Immigrants were the workforce for sewing garments, agriculture, constructions of transportation networks, domestic’s workers in side homes, mining industry, cigar makers, sugar plantations, and meat packing factories. They also were the fuel for the factories in industrializing United States economy.

The Native Americans contributed to the United States economy by getting all their land taken away from them so the Government could sell the land to the white men at lower prices.
I feel all these immigrants were used by the United States Government as low-paying slaves and in today society individuals are still being used and receiving low pay for many hours of labor.

Immigrants and politics
The immigrants played important roles in the United States politics by helping to reform the Roosevelt Coalition, and establishing unions for better treatment in their work force and for equal treatment and better pay. Many unions were form by immigrants and our still in exists today.

How was nativism manifest in culture practices such as dress, language, religion and customs

As an immigrant in the United States the Government and white men tired to take away their customs, languages, and clothes and wanted them all to be Catholics, and become like the white men.
The Irish were Presbyterians and spoke the Gaelic language and had red hair, and there customs include celebrating St .Patrick days, eating corn beef, cabbage, and potatoes. They perform different types of dances, and give blessings to each other. The Irish men wear check trews and fringed cloaks and the women wear short tunics.

Jewish women wore long dresses that covered their arms and a hood that fasten under their chin. The men wore knee length shirts with a longer dress over it, and a plain felt cap. The Jewish people were not permitted to wear bright color clothing, and they practice the Judaism religion.

Japanese immigrants spoke the the Japanese language and their religion is Buddhism and Shinto. The women wore Kimono when they first arrive in the United States but now are worn for special occasions the men wear short pants and long shirts.

Native Americans dance to the sprits for many different occasions and ceremonies. The men wore breechclouts tuck over a belt and no shirts, the women wore shirts and leggings and the design on the skirt varied from tribe to tribe. They were force to practice the Catholic religion.

Mexican men wore pants and shirts with a large blanket cape, and the women wore skirts and sleeves tunics with a shawl.The Mexicans speak spanish, and celedrate three main holidays;Fiesta de Cico de Mayo (nine days before Christmas), Dia de Muetos(Day of the dead).They also are Roman Catholics.

Between 1600-1800

Between 1600-1800
Between 1600-1800 British settlers and Americans established belief and behavior systems which separated people base on their places of origins and their phenotype. What was the motivation for creating the divisions?
The landowners and masters of the indenture servants and servants of the 1600-1800 installed a racial class system between the races in order to divide the races. The system of privileges was started by the Virginia Assembly in order to grant special privileges to the “whites”. The whites were permitted to own land, bear arms at all times, go to school and college to receive an education, and vote. Whites were in the upper class of individuals in the United States. The Irishmen, Negros’s and Indians were not permitted the same privileges as the whites. The other division allowed whites to receive less time for running away or committing any other type of crimes, The British also felt that the other races were not capabof living in civilization.
What legal codes and social practices cause these divisions?
The Judicial system passed laws that gave whites less time for crimes they committed, and when they engaged in sex with the opposite sex they receive less punishment. The Legislation also passed laws concerning the color line. In 1821 the New York Constitution Convention wrote laws for free white’s males to become voters, pay taxes and could serve in the militia and gain employment as a highway worker. Other races were not permitted tm do these things.
When the Government made Negros “property” they also became victims of discrimination, segregation, and violence, which made them have a bad racial image. All these things contributed to the conditions of racial dreadful conditions.
What cultural practices legitimized them?
The Negro’s became victims of violence’s and they were segregation where they were forced to sit in the back of public places, in buses, and the schools were also segregation. Furthermore; Negro’s were forced to be slaves for life, feared as criminal because of their childlike and mentally deficient’s. The Irishmen were forbidden to wear English apparel, could not purchase land, bear office, and prohibited marriage between the Irish and colonizers. The Indians were consider devil-driven and not permitted to live in civilization.