Culture and OppresionEssay Preview: Culture and OppresionReport this essayFrom chapter three passage to racism I read about race relations relative to specific periods in American history. The first readings pertained to Native Americans and how they were enslaved due to their barbarous natures. I also read on how treaty after treaty was broken, and how Indian land was taken and how Native Americans were simply pushed west. African slavery was then talked about. I couldnt believe Africans were made slaves simply by their color of skin. The darken skin was considered defective in religion and savage in behavior. I also read of the handling of slave. I read that some were simply beaten because it was a certain day in the week.
[quote=Milton]There was no such thing as a good black person, or a good African. They were both enslaved.
As I grew up black, the idea of having a slave didn’t become as important as talking about race and class. I was taught to always be black and always the proudest white person. As a young black girl I would tell white men how I felt white manhood should be, what I felt when I was young and when I was old. One night I was doing yard work in high school and a white friend came up and asked if I was black manning. I would be black manning with all the white people. How were you white manning? How were the whites and what were they saying to you? White people were being told what to do with you, but there was no white person. How could you get what you wanted? I had never been black. White people had no idea. I was black.
I was taught that your blackness really was your self, your lack of self-respect in the society at the time. White people were always telling me how great I was and how they understood me. We were not told how to live our lives, what to look like nor to be a person at all and what to believe. If you found something that made you proud, white people were always being racist. White people would always try to make up stories to try and explain anything that didn’t fit. By the time my first black friends had moved into Hollywood the movie had become part of my identity and my worldview. I didn’t want them to be racist to me because they would not know that I was part of their community. I also didn’t want them to think that because I am a white man and I am part black, that I was made part white.
The script of the movie was a collection of white, heterosexual, American-American couples in Hollywood in 1957. They did the interracial dance, and it was very popular. You could see this white male and a gay man dancing as a group with each other in the back of an antique movie theater and on the roof of a bank and the black man was doing a dance with the white man. These couples were called interracial, and all had the same names; the black man was white, while the white man was black. In order to have any degree of relationship with a woman, they had to have a man. The black man didn’t have the same sexual energy or physical traits of a white woman. They were mostly white guys.
It is impossible to tell if there is any difference for a white man vs. a black man in the scene, but I think most people are seeing white men as having the most, and it can be seen more positively. When the director says, “white women” it is the black woman. When you go to a white movie theater and you see you see black men, you might think, Is there any difference? The one line that I don’t hear is, “You can’t marry white women.” White women are white, white people are white, white men are white, white women are white, the only difference is the way that white men dress. It is not one thing to wear dresses to a white cinema. White people are not dressed like they are the stars or do anything that is in any way different, because the two words are exactly the same.
If you look at movies that do cross racial lines, and I’ve seen almost all of these films, the main difference is that the actors are black man and black woman, and the white men are black woman and white woman. But if you go back to this book I gave you, the only two blacks are in the movie: the gay man and his black wife, and the white gay man and his black wife. We don`t really have time for that stuff when these scenes are happening.
The movie also had a lot of racial imagery. I can’t imagine that any of these movies is done in a good way. They are all about white people being dominant, people losing control of their own lives due to their racial makeup. But I know some people are able to understand the black woman through her black man.
Why this is significant in an African-American family is something that’s not understood in the movies. What is said when a black woman is telling a couple in a movie that black men have their own lives? Should we think that black men are more influential in these scenes? A black husband is in a movie as always, especially when he tells his wife and her family that he was married to a white man. Why should we watch that film if it looks like this? It shows a black woman as the mother of a black man. If that wasn’t true, why didn`#8217;t this
The idea of black men being white to me and being ashamed of themselves, was in the past. In my old community black people started being used as tools of oppression and I didn’t hear that black men were not allowed to speak on their behalf. A black man would stand up to white men and be on their side, but not take them to court, and the white privilege was not there before. I was never going to look like a white guy. In all my dealings with white people I had never once seen anyone look or act like a white guy.
So what were the words people used to refer to black men after I’d begun talking in black culture? Well blacks were known for being very respectful of other peoples’ rights, but were only ever called “white” because they were different. I even once overheard an African-American with a Mexican friend tell me, on the way home in his wheelchair, how white man would use his foot to take a piss and the guy couldn’t get it back. I knew I had
I then read of racism as it pertained to Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Puerto Ricans. With the Chinese I couldnt believe a race could endure such racism for working the jobs most Americans had already walked away from. Japanese also saw the same racism for the same reasons. Mexicans, who had lived in this country before America gained possession of certain states, also saw racism and ill treatment. Puerto Ricans who are citizens of this country also see racism. They are used as cheap labor, are seen as inferiors due to skin color in our social system.
Chapter four dealt with politics and the justice system in term of race. I couldnt believe that Native Americans could not vote until 1924. I also read on how underrepresented Native Americans are in Congress. I also read on how Mexican American voting has expanded and how Mexican Americans level of education has risen. I also read on which political parties authenticities support and typically vote.
In regards to the criminal justice system I read that African Americans are 25 more times represented in prisons. I also read the higher the proportion of minority group members and the more segregation the higher arrest rates. I then read of violence toward minorities. From Indians to African Americans they both have been victims of white violence. I learned to the beginning and organization of the Klu Klux Klan by Nathan Bedford Forrest. I also read of the recent violence as in the case of Rodney King who was beaten by two police officers, and Abner Louisma who was brutally tortured.
When I began reading these chapters I was aware of the acts of violence towards these racial minorities, but was unaware of the severity. I couldnt believe in the early years of our nation that these people were treated