World Inequity In Black Men And Public Space Essay
Color line or color bar unfortunately was always a problem for black men in our society. It is really big and, to my mind, unfair thing. The church teaches us that God created us equal to live on the Earth and to be like brothers. Educated people are considered to be tolerant and cultural but it is not so as we can observe. So why then the world is still so cruel and wild according to this question? You will answer this question writing about the Brent Staples’ article published in 1987 in Harper’s Magazine Black men and public space essay. It is really dramatic question: why do we still differentiate people by the color of skin in the twenty-first century.
History of slavery
Race discrimination was present in the society since ancient times. Society established by people with the white color of skin always disregarded people with another color of skin: whether it was black or red. American and British people used the labor of slaves who mostly were black men. The first slaves were taken by force from their native places in Africa. In the United States having slaves was legal. Most of the families had slaves. They worked for them doing all work in the houses and in the fields. Mostly slaves worked on the plantations, growing cotton: they worked eighteen hours every day under supervision of cruel overlooker. They had to do anything their owner told them. If somebody refused to work he or she was tough punished. The punishment mostly was beating by lashes. This beating was so hard and cruel that sometimes people even died or at least treated long time at the same time made continuing working. Slaves who were taken far away from their native land didn’t have any rights; their children become slaves too, and had to work to their owners like their parents did. There was established even the special law according to slaves who tried to escape from their owners, there were special men who caught them even on the territories where having slaves was illegal. The severe punishment was applied to such brave slaves who tried to change their life and believed that they can have better fate. Fortunately having slaves was canceled in 1865 after civil war; though the last state in America which officially ratified the Thirteenth Amendment was Mississippi, it was in 2013. Of course all these awful times gone but still the attitude of white people to black men are not good.
Discrimination by the color of skin in USA
Social discrimination by color of skin was present in United States of America since 1865. There was the rule by which the first rows of seats in public transport were designed for people with white color of skin and black people could not take these seats even if they were free. And when all the seats in the bus were occupied then black people should give place to white people. Of course people with black color of skin were outraged by these rules and they arranged boycott “Walking for freedom”. They did not use public transport for 381 days. Transport companies got high losses and rules about places in the transport were canceled. It was the small win of black people.
White people in America always managed the country and society – it will be the main idea of the essay you can order at our custom writing service website and we’ll write it for you. They didn’t want to lose their authority. Struggle between white and black people started since the childhood. White children didn’t want to study in the classes with black. There were many conflicts in schools which led to fights. There was even time when government was made to pick out the men who protected black children at school. White people felt some danger of black. Even in civilized society they didn’t want to have black neighbors on the streets where they live. Partially their fair had the ground: black people who were always made to defend oneself of the unwarranted aggression of white people were severe and wary. They tried to defeat their freedom and their rights and not always their behavior was civilized and tolerant. They put up fights in the streets sometimes with the guns. People from both sides, both groups: white and black died in this silent opposition.
Life of black people in “white” society
Even those black men and women who were educated, peaceful and lived respecting laws of the country were under pressure of white race. Well-known journalist who had Ph.D. in psychology felt the society’s pressure. In 1986 he wrote an article “Just Walk on By” which later was published in well-known American magazine under the title “Black Men And Public Space” in which he described his own experience of living in society with white people. As he was a talent journalist so he could easily provide service of writing essays with strong academic background on any topic.
He described how women were afraid of him in the streets, expected only robbery or something even worse and tried to keep as far as possible away of him. People, especially in the dark part of the day tried to avoid him. When he went to the shops – proprietors were afraid of him, completely without any grounds for it. When he was in the street people in the cars closed locks! If he came into the buildings where people didn’t know him they could call the police… It was not only in his life. Such attitude in society was to all men and women with black color of skin. This situation was creepy unfair and just made black men defend their rights. In such situation in society it was very hard for black people to stay law-abiding.
Despite all facts of race discrimination there always were many organizations like “100 Black Men of America”, Inc. and others which try to make life of black people better and easier. People who had established such organizations struggle for rights of African American people in peace and legal way. They struggle for equal possibilities for white and black people in such aspects of life like: mentoring, education, medical treatment, labor laws, open housing laws etc. Such struggle is indispensable all over the world, not just in USA. We must be tolerant to each other and live in peace.