The Separation Of African Americans In Usher's Song Chains
In the song ‘Chains,’ by Usher featuring Nas and Bibi Bourelly say, “You act like the change/ Tryna put me in chains/ Don't act like you saving us/ It's still the same/ Man don't act like I made it up/ You blaming us/Let's keep it one hundred/You gave the name to us/ Nigga/ We still in chains/ We still in chains/We still in chains/ We still in chains/ We still in chains/ We still in chains/ We still in chains/ You put the shame on us.” This song can resonate with Underground (tv series), Roots, and 13th (Thirteenth). This paper will discuss African Americans are still living in a post-slavery even after the law had abolish it. It will show that even when Africans Americans were in slavery, they still fought for their freedom.
Underground (tv …show more content…
series) is about the Macon 7 who plan and escape Tom Macon plantation to freedom. The main character Noah has the map to freedom and he needs help to get there. He recruited Rosalee, Cato, Henry, Moses, Zeke, Pearly Mae, Boo. Underground (tv series) showed the emotional, physical, and mental abuse that the Macon 7 and others received on Macon plantation. It showed what would happen when slaves run away from their owners. It even showed Ernestine who was head house slave having sexual relationship with Tom Macon to protect her children that he fathers with her. Underground (tv series) allows us to see the resistance that many slaves have chosen instead of spending the rest of their lives as a slave.
Roots is a miniseries and remake of the 1997 Roots which was based on Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an America Family. Roots is about Kunta Kinte who is a Mandinka warrior from Juffure in The Gambia, in West Africa. His family is loyal to the Mandinka King and resistance to the Europeans, but the rival Koro family was trading African slaves for English guns. Kunta wanted to go to a university, but his father disagreed. He ran away to jungle to meet up with Gina who he was in loved with. While talking to her, the Koros surrounded them and wanted to hold Kunta for ransom. When he fought back and killed one of the Koros, they captured him and Gina and decided to sell them to the English. On the Lord Ligonier slave ship, they tried to upraise against the Europeans, but they failed. He was sold to John Weller an owner of a tobacco plantation in Virginia. They remained his Toby, but he continued to resist by trying to escape. He was capture and whipped until he said his name was Toby. Throughout the series Kunta Kinte never forgot where he came from and always fought for his freedom.
13th (Thirteenth) by Ava DuVernay is an American documentary that explored how the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration affects Blacks in the United States. The movie is title 13th which represent the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). The movie talks about how slavery is still in America through the loophole that was put in the 13th Amendment. Since the end of the American Civil War freed all slaves it put the South economy in shamble. The South had to find a way to make money again and they did it through by criminalizing African Americans. This force them to work for the state under convict leasing which put them back to work in the field. They even started lynching African Americans just for walking down the wrong street. Jim Crow Laws was established to keep African Americans separate from Whites. With the police knowing African Americans as criminals, politicians used the war on drugs to incarcerate people of color at a higher rate than other races. She explored how the prison industrial is making money off incarcerations.
Underground (tv series) and Roots talks about how slaves resist slavery through running away from their owners. It talks about African American treatment during slavery and how the owners treated them as property and not as humans. It shows Africa in a state where it is not primitive like history has told us. It showed Africans not being just dumb and wanting to go with the Europeans instead it showed many Africans resisting the Europeans and other Africans who did sell their people to get guns from the Europeans. This shows Africans were not like what history has told us about especially when it came to slavery. The Underground (tv series) and Roots showed how Whites tried to strip us from our ancestor by changing our names. This is still happening because many Whites do not like the way we name our children because it doesn’t fit the standard mode of what they considered acceptable in society. Our naming practices is something special to us and it celebrate our African American heritages. When they change Kunta Kinte name to Toby was to get rid of his African heritage and he resist it by keep saying his name that his father named him. They had to beat him until he finally gave in, but was told to never let go of his name, keep it in his heart and mind. Whites must recognize and say our name properly that means they have to respect us and recognize us human beings and not just those people or criminals. Underground (tv series) showed the separation of class between the slaves based on their skin color. The light-skin Africans Americans were house slaves while the darker-skin slaves were field slaves. That cause tension among the slaves because the lighter skin slaves were often treated better than the darker skin slaves. There is still a separation of among the African American community based on skin color and it has cause Black self-hatred. This showed the brutal violence against the slaves. This is still happening today to African Americans through police brutality. When it comes to 13th it talks about the injustice that African Americans are received after the slavery. We are still dealing with a racism a society that using the law as a loophole to continue to exploit African American to their advantage. It is to their advantage because it keeps the jails and prisons making money and keep African Americans inferior to Whites. Innocent African Americans being killed by the police which has been happening since the beginning of slavery. The laws are still protecting the police who are killing those innocent African American. Black Lives Matter movement was created to stop injustice African Americans were receiving when it came to the dealing the police. It was also created to fight against the police brutality especially towards African American. Underground (tv series) and Roots is based on the functional and categorical paradigm.
Underground (tv series) shows how African Americans were treated during slavery. It showed the separation in class when it came to light-skin African Americans and dark-skin African Americans. It exposed the brutality African Americans received at the hands of their masters. In the Underground (tv series), Rosalee was a house slave which means she live with the slave owner and his family. Rosalee’s mother Ernestine had children with Tom Macon who was the owner of the slaves. She used her sexual relationship with him to keep her children protect from working in the field. The slaves in the field showed that they did not like Rosalee because she worked in the house and she was pretty. They did by when she walked in the room they would become quiet and walk out and act like she not there. In Roots, it showed Kunta Kinta as man who came from a nurturing home, where Africa was not in a primitive, but with people who know how to write, read, and even making things. Kunta Kinta was smart and wanted to go to college. Africans were not dumb like Europeans had said in their history about them. It showed that many Africans did not sell their people for guns like Europeans tried to blame them for the reason slavery happen. It talks about how some Africans did have slaves, but they could earn their freedom and some even married into those families. Both series showed the resistance that slaves had for slavery. This is same resistance that African Americans having when it comes to police brutality that we are experiencing today. The movie 13th is a functional paradigm. The reason its functional paradigm because it starts with slavery and bring up to present day time of the injustice that we are still receiving. Society has associated African American as criminals especially since the 13th Amendment had set us free. The south had to find another way to help their economy, so using crimes was
the way to get African Americans back into slavery. There was also lynching of innocent African Americans to established that being free was not free and that they would be on edge where they went. The movie “Birth of a Nation” describe and portrayed African Americans as rapist and need to be stop and killed. This is how society still feel that we are. It showed how the police brutality did not just start in 2017, African Americans have been dealing with this since slavery. It showed that racism is still here and the laws have change to satisfy the racist system and the Whites agenda. Whites knew they could not go back to slavery, so they used the Jim Crow Laws and even lynching to control African Americans. They movie shows us that African Americans matter and that law enforcement is killing us off based on a systematic racist system that still do not want to recognize us as free human beings. It showed us how major corporations have a hand in our political system which is controlling the different laws that being made and even to how many jails or prison being build. 13th want us to see that African Americans are still dealing with a racist society and that society is trying to control us through the laws and the police.
I learned that our society is still racist and that things have been done to continue for it to be racist. We are continuing to fight for right to freedom and justice even though we have been freed sine the 13th Amendment. It shows that our society is very corrupted and it all about making a dollar off someone. It was very surprising to know that stores that I shopped at was a part of making laws that hurt me and other. It showed how police had became protection for Whites after slavery. It shows the ongoing “white fear discourse” has created Negrophobia that has manufactured Black crisis in our society. They used Black crisis as a reason why we need to be controlled and that it is okay to kill us. The brainwash of white supremacy used to be through word of mouth, but now since media is very present in today, you can see the destruction white supremacy has had on African Americans. It showed that throughout history beginning with slavery, African American have resisted and even in today society we still resisting the brutality that has come from the hands of Whites and laws that accepted it to be okay.
Underground (tv …show more content…
series) is about the Macon 7 who plan and escape Tom Macon plantation to freedom. The main character Noah has the map to freedom and he needs help to get there. He recruited Rosalee, Cato, Henry, Moses, Zeke, Pearly Mae, Boo. Underground (tv series) showed the emotional, physical, and mental abuse that the Macon 7 and others received on Macon plantation. It showed what would happen when slaves run away from their owners. It even showed Ernestine who was head house slave having sexual relationship with Tom Macon to protect her children that he fathers with her. Underground (tv series) allows us to see the resistance that many slaves have chosen instead of spending the rest of their lives as a slave.
Roots is a miniseries and remake of the 1997 Roots which was based on Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an America Family. Roots is about Kunta Kinte who is a Mandinka warrior from Juffure in The Gambia, in West Africa. His family is loyal to the Mandinka King and resistance to the Europeans, but the rival Koro family was trading African slaves for English guns. Kunta wanted to go to a university, but his father disagreed. He ran away to jungle to meet up with Gina who he was in loved with. While talking to her, the Koros surrounded them and wanted to hold Kunta for ransom. When he fought back and killed one of the Koros, they captured him and Gina and decided to sell them to the English. On the Lord Ligonier slave ship, they tried to upraise against the Europeans, but they failed. He was sold to John Weller an owner of a tobacco plantation in Virginia. They remained his Toby, but he continued to resist by trying to escape. He was capture and whipped until he said his name was Toby. Throughout the series Kunta Kinte never forgot where he came from and always fought for his freedom.
13th (Thirteenth) by Ava DuVernay is an American documentary that explored how the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration affects Blacks in the United States. The movie is title 13th which represent the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime). The movie talks about how slavery is still in America through the loophole that was put in the 13th Amendment. Since the end of the American Civil War freed all slaves it put the South economy in shamble. The South had to find a way to make money again and they did it through by criminalizing African Americans. This force them to work for the state under convict leasing which put them back to work in the field. They even started lynching African Americans just for walking down the wrong street. Jim Crow Laws was established to keep African Americans separate from Whites. With the police knowing African Americans as criminals, politicians used the war on drugs to incarcerate people of color at a higher rate than other races. She explored how the prison industrial is making money off incarcerations.
Underground (tv series) and Roots talks about how slaves resist slavery through running away from their owners. It talks about African American treatment during slavery and how the owners treated them as property and not as humans. It shows Africa in a state where it is not primitive like history has told us. It showed Africans not being just dumb and wanting to go with the Europeans instead it showed many Africans resisting the Europeans and other Africans who did sell their people to get guns from the Europeans. This shows Africans were not like what history has told us about especially when it came to slavery. The Underground (tv series) and Roots showed how Whites tried to strip us from our ancestor by changing our names. This is still happening because many Whites do not like the way we name our children because it doesn’t fit the standard mode of what they considered acceptable in society. Our naming practices is something special to us and it celebrate our African American heritages. When they change Kunta Kinte name to Toby was to get rid of his African heritage and he resist it by keep saying his name that his father named him. They had to beat him until he finally gave in, but was told to never let go of his name, keep it in his heart and mind. Whites must recognize and say our name properly that means they have to respect us and recognize us human beings and not just those people or criminals. Underground (tv series) showed the separation of class between the slaves based on their skin color. The light-skin Africans Americans were house slaves while the darker-skin slaves were field slaves. That cause tension among the slaves because the lighter skin slaves were often treated better than the darker skin slaves. There is still a separation of among the African American community based on skin color and it has cause Black self-hatred. This showed the brutal violence against the slaves. This is still happening today to African Americans through police brutality. When it comes to 13th it talks about the injustice that African Americans are received after the slavery. We are still dealing with a racism a society that using the law as a loophole to continue to exploit African American to their advantage. It is to their advantage because it keeps the jails and prisons making money and keep African Americans inferior to Whites. Innocent African Americans being killed by the police which has been happening since the beginning of slavery. The laws are still protecting the police who are killing those innocent African American. Black Lives Matter movement was created to stop injustice African Americans were receiving when it came to the dealing the police. It was also created to fight against the police brutality especially towards African American. Underground (tv series) and Roots is based on the functional and categorical paradigm.
Underground (tv series) shows how African Americans were treated during slavery. It showed the separation in class when it came to light-skin African Americans and dark-skin African Americans. It exposed the brutality African Americans received at the hands of their masters. In the Underground (tv series), Rosalee was a house slave which means she live with the slave owner and his family. Rosalee’s mother Ernestine had children with Tom Macon who was the owner of the slaves. She used her sexual relationship with him to keep her children protect from working in the field. The slaves in the field showed that they did not like Rosalee because she worked in the house and she was pretty. They did by when she walked in the room they would become quiet and walk out and act like she not there. In Roots, it showed Kunta Kinta as man who came from a nurturing home, where Africa was not in a primitive, but with people who know how to write, read, and even making things. Kunta Kinta was smart and wanted to go to college. Africans were not dumb like Europeans had said in their history about them. It showed that many Africans did not sell their people for guns like Europeans tried to blame them for the reason slavery happen. It talks about how some Africans did have slaves, but they could earn their freedom and some even married into those families. Both series showed the resistance that slaves had for slavery. This is same resistance that African Americans having when it comes to police brutality that we are experiencing today. The movie 13th is a functional paradigm. The reason its functional paradigm because it starts with slavery and bring up to present day time of the injustice that we are still receiving. Society has associated African American as criminals especially since the 13th Amendment had set us free. The south had to find another way to help their economy, so using crimes was
the way to get African Americans back into slavery. There was also lynching of innocent African Americans to established that being free was not free and that they would be on edge where they went. The movie “Birth of a Nation” describe and portrayed African Americans as rapist and need to be stop and killed. This is how society still feel that we are. It showed how the police brutality did not just start in 2017, African Americans have been dealing with this since slavery. It showed that racism is still here and the laws have change to satisfy the racist system and the Whites agenda. Whites knew they could not go back to slavery, so they used the Jim Crow Laws and even lynching to control African Americans. They movie shows us that African Americans matter and that law enforcement is killing us off based on a systematic racist system that still do not want to recognize us as free human beings. It showed us how major corporations have a hand in our political system which is controlling the different laws that being made and even to how many jails or prison being build. 13th want us to see that African Americans are still dealing with a racist society and that society is trying to control us through the laws and the police.
I learned that our society is still racist and that things have been done to continue for it to be racist. We are continuing to fight for right to freedom and justice even though we have been freed sine the 13th Amendment. It shows that our society is very corrupted and it all about making a dollar off someone. It was very surprising to know that stores that I shopped at was a part of making laws that hurt me and other. It showed how police had became protection for Whites after slavery. It shows the ongoing “white fear discourse” has created Negrophobia that has manufactured Black crisis in our society. They used Black crisis as a reason why we need to be controlled and that it is okay to kill us. The brainwash of white supremacy used to be through word of mouth, but now since media is very present in today, you can see the destruction white supremacy has had on African Americans. It showed that throughout history beginning with slavery, African American have resisted and even in today society we still resisting the brutality that has come from the hands of Whites and laws that accepted it to be okay.