Genocide and geographical displacement
Racism in America appeared to have started from foreigners who invade the land. The European settlers came to North America and started displacement and genocide to take over the land. The British colonies introduced it and later it was the United States government. The lands that belonged to the natives were forcefully taken with some being killed and later shifted to treaties with certain conditions. The rights of these individual natives were later ignored on the basis that the natives were uncivilized and did not own lands since they lived a nomadic life and even in case where the American natives were …show more content…
agriculturist with proper settlements, they were still forced out, for instance, Cherokee people in 1830s were evicted even though they had a formal settlement, living as farmers and even had their slaves. By the 19th century, the displacement was complete with Native Americans confined in Indian reservations. In the 21st century, things changed, and the Americans are no longer living in Indian tickets since they are now fully Americans. The American still remember the racial oppressions as well as the geographical isolations they suffered.
Slavery
It is known that African Americansare descendant of the people who were considered as properties of the white American. The slaves suffered much at the hands of their masters. Killing a slave by slave master was not seen as a crime and would mostly go unpunished. The raping of slaves was a common routine; their children would be sold without their consent. The fact that slaves were African made the masters see them as the just any property owned. The slavery was restricted to South especially in the 19th century. It was the worst racial expression ever witnessed as explained by D'souza, Dinesh. The Northern economy depended on the slavery in the south. In this trade, the slaves were obtained from Africa using European goods and will be sold to Caribbean and others to North America then it becomes a triangular trade when profit were used to ship tobacco and cotton among other goods to Europe.
By the time of civil war, there were about four million slaves in the United States, approximately 13% of the entire population. After the civil war, slavery came to an end. The slavery in the United States was based because Blacks were intellectually and morally inferior hence could not be treated as full persons thus were worth degradations and dehumanization that they experienced. Towards the end of 1960s and earlier 2970s, as a sign of action for the civil right movements that were struggling for the Black freedom, the then President, Nixon, under Republican Party used the southern strategy to threaten the White elite and changed their politics. The black racial discrimination has continued to the recent shootings of the blacks being witnessed in the country. A lot though has changed towards the once considered as properties, American has shown a lot maturity to the extent of recently having a Black president.
Second-Class citizenship
After the abolishment of slavery by the end of civil war, the racial oppression continued in another form. When 14th amendment came, it offered equal protection to the people as well as the full right to the citizens. And in the 15th amendment in two years later indicated equal rights to every individual regardless of their color or race. In any case, the laws would have taken the effective start; probably second-class citizens would not have existed. The second class citizenship is a case where some groups of citizens have fewer rights compared to others. The second class citizenship becomes the new form of racial discrimination that was practiced majorly in the southern part.
After the civil war, the White masters did not have the right to the slaves.
The blacks were free, but very few could own lands. The white masters had landed but lack power over labor. To keep their ex-slaves, they came up with sharecropping. In this case, the black was given lands to rent and payback in the form of production share to the landowners. In this scheme, it was of importance to the landowners since almost all the Blacks wanted to tenant farmers while they were politically weak and economically unstable hence the landowners dictated them as demonstrated by Zieger. It was a new form of racism that blacks in the south experienced after being denied their political and legal
rights.
The other worst kind of racism experienced is the America includes the Chinese exclusion act that barred all the Chinese immigrants to the country and making the rest of the country permanent aliens.
Significant changes in racism
Even though racism still exists in American today, it is important to note that as a nation, the country has made great steps. In 1964, blacks elected increased from none to 2%. The occupational distribution today indicates that the score is almost the same for both the races with slight differences. According to statistical information, in profession as well as technical jobs, there has been increase in black women from 50-80% during the year 1950 till 1980. This change also applies to black men for instance, increased from 29-64% for the duration of 1950-2000. There has also been an improvement in median income between the different races in the country as a result of the struggle to wash-out the racism discrimination in the United States.