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In the beginning of the document in the pre-read part it talked about the newer generations of African Americans wanting to travel to the city to have a new life. Each generation of African Americans, as they moved farther and farther away from their slave ancestors, received more rights and education. As time slowly went forward they were awarded more opportunities than their forefathers. Until finally they got the courage to branch out and travel to the city.
Of course their move to the city wasn't all sunshine daises. Hearing about the violence in Chicago and the amount of racial tension was unbelievable. It got to the point where African Americans were too scared to even come to work. The Red Cross, who usually comes to third world countries after disasters like floods and famine, had to be brought it to pass out supplies. It's hard to believe that in one of the finest cities in the world race riots and hate could escalate that high.
To me the most difficult part to hear about is the innocent people being hurt. Whenever one person of one race does something to another person of a different race, their race has to retaliate. The excerpt also described situations where a black individual would do one heinous thing to a white person and then white people would go out into the street and kill 20 black people as revenge. Same goes with blacks having to kill innocent whites to try to get revenge on them. Fighting violence with more violence. An eye for an eye. Leaving the entire city blind to see what they were doing was just making everything worse.
The amount of fear blacks and whites had for each other and the huge gender and class divides in 18th century England are both caused by the same problems. Division by society through labels. In society we label everyone and everything so it's easier to talk about. These labels just allow some people to float to the top and for other people to stay at the bottom. It almost makes one want to shed society completely and return to nature. In a state of nature we would all be equal and free. Everyone would be the same and we wouldn't have to worry about society's confines. Of course these transcendentalists ideals wouldn't work. We can't all just shed our clothes and run into the forest and start anew. It's human nature to form laws and create society. Soon enough everything would be back to the status quo.
Of course as time goes on women and minorities become more and more equal. Modern day American is 100 times more tolerant than Chicago at the time, as evident by our black president. I know that change is possible and it happens everyday. I believe it is part of evolution for hate to disappear. As we and our society evolves hate will become less and less.
The brief excerpt that we read in class about the riots in Chicago surprised me. I had always known it existed but didn't think about it the same way it was described. People have drastically changed over just the last 50 years to become much more accepting of other races and cultures. When there is racism on this level, nothing good comes out of it and it hinders the society, even to destroying it. I find it odd how long it took before we were able to accept African-Americans and learn from them and all they can offer as well as equals. I look forward to reading one of these new books being introduced to us today.
ReplyDeleteChad L.
I am not sure who wrote this post, but I am glad the information today was useful in providing background you will need to appreciate these novels. Things have changed, but not as much as we like to believe. I remember within the last ten years when a number of apartment complexes were proposed for development in Rancho Cucamonga and there was a loud outcry from a large number of citizens. They said that building apartments would increase crime and cause the city's safety and reputation to decline. Essentially the message was that people who lived in apartments could not afford homes and, therefore, would encourage a bad element in the city. Sound a bit like the article? We need to be aware of this kind of discrimination and not be fooled by the thin veil which obscures it.
ReplyDeleteI think I know who this is! We talked about this together...I definitely agree with you and I think it is absolutely ridiculous how bad the riots got, and how inhumane people became when they couldn't control their anger. What made me mad the most was how even the police didn't do anything to stop the crimes if an African American committed it, and how they even contributed to the chaos by shooting Blacks for no reason. This, I believe, is inequality at its worst, other than racism of course. If the people who are meant to do right and work for the good of everyone else don't, meaning police officers in the article, what would make anybody else want to fight for what is right? Moreover, how could anyone else differentiate between good and bad?
ReplyDeleteI agree, to an extent, that discrimination and growing out of discrimination is part of evolution. But, I don't think that discrimination will ever go away entirely. Don't get me wrong, I completely believe in equality and all philosophical and moral standards that I hold myself to encourage me to feel that way. However, I feel like discrimination is kind of a vicious cycle. I mean, look at the Jewish people - they were horribly, sickeningly discriminated against during World War II and the holocaust. Now, they have the mindset of "never again". While I agree that never again should that happen to them or anyone else, the Jewish people of Israel, going off of that very same mindset, have completely taken over and are committing ridiculous human rights violations in their country upon the Palestinians. Another example is gay rights. We went from denying marriages to multi-racial couples, now we deny marriage to same-sex couples and allow their human rights to be violated quite often as well (and not just in the US, the problem is horrendous in Africa). So, I agree with you, but I doubt the goodness in mankind just a little. I don't know that we'll ever break out of the cycle.
ReplyDelete-Melanie N.
I'm really looking forward to reading Native Son and I agree that reading those articles will really help with our understanding of both our new novels and the time periods that they're set in. Concerning discrimination today, Melanie and Mrs. Elliott both helped to explain how discrimination is a "cycle" and still occurs today on many subtle, and some not-so-subtle levels. I don't know whether true equality among all human beings will ever be possible. We may say that there is complete equality, but if you take a closer look, you can see the discrepancies. For instance, we claim that men and women are completely equal, but women cannot be drafted. I think as a society we tend to hold on to "traditional values" and we have come a long way, but the evolving process is clearly still underway.
ReplyDelete-Hillary D.
Your post and Mrs Elliott's comment really got me thinking about both obvoius and subtle racism. Back then it was obvous that the whites did not see blacks as their equals and would do anything they could to keep it that way. Today people believe that we have come a long way since then, but every once and a while a story will come up that shocks people back into the reality that there are still racists out there. The story Mrs. Elliott wrote about with the aoratments in Rancho got me thinking if it is better to have outright racism or closet racism. Would you rather know who your enemies are, or would you rather it like it is now with few people being secretly racist until something like an apratment building arises?
ReplyDelete-Sapir L.
These articles that we read in class really put into prospective the hardships African Americans had to deal with in the 1940's and the character's potential struggles dealing with racism,in life,and Chicago. I really like Chad's and Sapir's views on this subject's matter.
ReplyDelete-Vaness
That was well put together. It really helped any of those absent that day to truly comprehend what Mrs. Elliott wanted us to learn that day.
ReplyDeleteI also found these articles insightful into what it really meant to be a minority, and to an extent what it means today. I particularly like what you said about labels inspiring hate, because I have always felt this way. Why do I have to be a white female? Why can't I just be me? Our need to classify everything inspires separation and separation causes inequality. We have progressed, but there is still a lot of work to be done before we can call any minorities truly equal.
ReplyDelete-Elise P.