Most Americans would be horrified to think that anyone would laugh and joke about another person's agony and suffering as Jed did in the story. A politician who would make the kind of remarks that Jed made could never get elected to office today: "Sorry, but ain't no Christians around tonight. Ain't no Jew-boys neither. We're just one hundred percent Americans" (p. 383). He would be roundly condemned by the entire television-watching nation. The brutality of the story -- the idea of burning a human being alive (and calling it a "party") would be totally obnoxious and impossible to pardon, let alone encourage. The white people in the story have no conscience and are socialized into a system that denies black people their basic humanity. It just couldn't happen today. In general, white people today recognize African-Americans as human beings, not all alike, but each different from the other with faults and virtues like everyone else. Because this story depicts a specific time and place in our history, it may be misleading for young people to read it today. It gives the impression that the story is about something that is happening in society today. Moreover, the man who was murdered had no name, but neither did the white people that attended "the party." The story makes it seem that all white people are like that, thus, promoting a destructive stereotypical image of what white people are like. Even in 1930, the era when the story was written, there were plenty of white people who did not do such things and did not approve of that kind of racist behavior. People who lived up north -- although admittedly they, too, had racist...
The song raised the awareness of white people living up north about what was happening and was an early indication of the civil rights era soon to come. Likewise, the airplane that crashes down near the scene of the fire is a metaphor for God's "wrath." The plane crashes down like an angel of justice, and the storm that ensues for three days reflects the profound wrongness of lynching -- that lynching goes against all the laws of the universe.
Judy Helfand -- Constructing Whiteness 1.) What's your gut reaction? I was quite surprised with the revelation that Whiteness was not always so clearly defined. I take it for granted that European meant White, if for no other reason than that Europeans look clearly different from Africans or Asians. Helfan's study of Irish experience, in the context of labor relations, is valuable because it reveals deeper socioeconomic dimensions of racial identity. 2.) How
Vann Woodward and Jim Crow Evaluating the impact of Reconstruction social policy on blacks is more controversial due to the issue of segregation. Until the publication of C. Vann Woodward Strange Career of Jim Crow in 1955, the traditional view was that after the gains of Reconstruction, Conservative Democrats clamped down on the blacks by instituting an extensive system of segregation and disfranchisement (Woodward, 1974). Woodward, however, argued that there was
Michelle Alexander does not assume full credit for the striking title of her book The New Jim Crow, recounting having seen the slogan on a “bright orange poster” in 1998.[footnoteRef:1] Former ACLU attorney turned law professor, Michelle Alexander had always been aware of the need for justice system reform. Alexander worked headed the ACLU Racial Justice Project but it took that bright orange poster to help her draw the connection
Public Passions In "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," Richard Wright provided a brief autobiographical sketch of his life growing up in the segregated South. He described how he learned about the laws of Jim Crow in the South, and the unwritten code of ethics or manners that all blacks should follow in the presence of whites. Fox example, some informal rules held that blacks must always address a white man
African-American loyalty to the Democratic Party has rarely been called into question since the early 20th century. As of 2008, "voting demographics for African-Americans suggest an overwhelming propensity to cast ballots in favor of Democratic candidates in presidential elections," (Young 2008). It would be expected that the election of Barack Obama further solidifies the commitment of African-American voters to the Democratic Party. The reasons why African-Americans have consistently voted
Authenticity and Legacy of the Black Panther Party Authentic is when someone is true to their heritage and culture and a growing number of modern observers agree that despite their otherwise militant activities, the Black Panther Party was an authentic representation of the blacks in America at the time. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a background and overview of the Black Panther Party,
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