Preview

Struggles African Americans Face in the United States

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
895 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Struggles African Americans Face in the United States
African Americans are among many groups that immigrated to the United States. According to The American Journey (2005), conditions were sometimes a problem in Africa and some natives of the area wanted to start a new life in the newly settled world. To pay for passage to the New World, they signed agreements to work for a set number of years and to be free individuals afterwards called indentured servitude. Things went smoothly at first. However, after a while, rulers of Africa began capturing and trading slaves with white colonists of Newfoundland. From 1654 to 1865 it was legal to own slaves permanently in North America, the majority of slaves being African Americans. Thousands of captured slaves came by large ships where they were traded in the southern colonies for agricultural farming on large plantations with no pay. African Americans faced prejudice, segregation, and racism. In today’s society African Americans still deal with prejudice people. There are many white Americans that mistreat blacks or treat them unequally based on their race. African Americans are still treated poorly in many parts of the world, including the United States. Many African Americans believe they do not receive the same job opportunities, pay rate, or educational opportunities. African Americans seem to think the reason for this unequal treatment is due to the color of their skin. African American women tend to be paid less money than that of a man despite the color of his skin. African American men and women are stereotyped by the color of their skin, where they live, or the jobs they possess, just to name a few. Many people especially whites believe that blacks are ignorant. That is one of the biggest stereotypes we face as black people. It is perceived that blacks are not intelligent enough to co-mingle with the dominant race, the dominant race being whites. African Americans are viewed as being incapable of doing the same job as a white person, or carrying on an

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “First, the Portuguese themselves kidnapped some Africans. But the bulk of the supply came from the Nigerians. These Nigerian middlemen moved to the interior where they captured other Nigerians who belonged to other communities.” From a business point of view, although slavery was a very profitable industry to be in the startup costs were high. Investors had to provide capital, for boats and slaves. “Of the 6.5 million immigrants who survived the crossing of the Atlantic and settled in the Western Hemisphere between 1492 and 1776, only 1 million were Europeans. The remaining 5.5 million were African. An average of 80 percent of these enslaved Africans—men, women, and children—were employed, mostly as field-workers.” Slaves were viewed not as people but as goods, and sometimes those goods came in damaged. Along with the monetary costs that came along with it, there was also the moral dilemma that went with it. Slavery was morally wrong. They treated the slaves inhumanely. People were kidnapped, sold and many times bred like cattle. Many of the slaves that were captured, died before they reached their intended destination on ships, due to illness or committing suicide. Political activists and Christian groups saw what was happening and spoke out against the horrors of slavery. They helped others see the errors of their ways. Europe soon came to end slavery and their economy was eventually able to recover from the…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The African American generation of today is in extreme distress, they kill each other more and more everyday with very little remorse. They kill each other because they don’t value life and some of them are too young to realize that not only did they take someone’s life, but they also destroyed their own. The murder rates of blacks in the United States are higher now than they were 25 years ago. More young black Americans die from homicide today in America than those of whites. More young black males are being imprisoned due to the rising violence in the black community leaving their women to raise the kids on their own. Black females have been affected more in a psychoanalytic and sociocultural perspective because of how black women were treated in the past.…

    • 526 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to King what hardships do African Americans face? Give two examples from the speech.…

    • 92 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bamboozled Film Analysis

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages

    When people are not educated on the devastating struggles in which African Americans faced throughout history, they will not be able to fully understand how hurtful and serious racism is. They may instead be ignorant enough to believe that racism is no longer an issue of today and can be made light of without offending…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the past, African Americans have had to endure many hardships because of the color of their skin. One might ask, “Why did the Blacks have to sit on the back of the bus and attend different schools than Whites did? Aren’t all Americans equal?” As recently as sixty years ago, that wasn’t the case. Frustrated and fed up with the discrimination of African Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. led the Civil Rights Movement to quell the racial prejudice that encompassed America. Civil Rights activists kept rallying because they felt American citizen deserves to be treated fairly and to have as equal of an opportunity as any other person regardless of their background; The “Rights of Man.” Just as Paine advocated the “cordial unison” of America, African Americans advocated the integration of blacks and whites. Now, they finally have what they’ve been fighting for: equality for all people, whether they are white, black, brown, or yellow. In today’s world, African American history has been made with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Since George Washington, there has never been an African American president, let alone the possibility of one. American…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    African Americans are poorly treated, they are stereotyped, and they are also human beings. First of all they were poorly treated because of their color. Many people also treat African Americans poorly because of history. Second of all African Americans are also stereotyped. We as people stereotype everyone and everything, but African Americans get stereotyped a lot. When they are stereotyped they get categorized. For an example, when we see an African American we think that they are bad people; like gang members, hoodlums, and uneducated. That is what people think and that is what they believe, but it not true. That is just stereotyping and it is not right, but on some case stereotyping is a good thing if it is a positive image or thought. African Americans are also human being they breath, eat, sleep, and do all the same thing white people do. So they are no different than I am. The have a lot of similarities and…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In society African Americans have always been able to do a lot, even when subjugated. Even with this, however, there has become a gradual and continual social decline for them. It is visible, not only when put in the spotlight, but also in day to day life. People have become lackadaisical and mentally helpless in terms of how they operate in society, as a whole. The reasons behind this social decline of African Americans is because of a lowering of self standards, an unfulfilled sense of entitlement that is held, and The raising of standards held for those of color by the public.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Racial Issues In Get Out

    • 1960 Words
    • 8 Pages

    One of the main issues is the idea of white supremacy and racial relations among African Americans and whites in daily life and interactions. Simply because of skin color, many white people think that they are superior. They are quick to jump to conclusions about African Americans and stereotype them in society. Many people stereotype African Americans as dirty, uneducated, and dangerous. These stereotypes and simple hatred of others because of race contribute to a culture filled with uneasiness and racism.…

    • 1960 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial Ethnic Group Paper

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Many of the challenges facing African Americans today are more subtle and involve a struggle that is more within the African American community than without. Many of these challenges involve fighting negative stereotypes that were born from hip hop videos or the misuse of power and authority by well-known figures in the African American…

    • 2212 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With growing technology and increasing population, world’s situation is changing day by day. Those changings bring both positive and negative norms for humanity. Increasing population force people to find places which are far away from their own cultural places and combined with other cultures in a small area. People usually prefer to live in cities which they can find their needs easily and have self improvement. Because of those reasons immigration occurs and people start to go places and live in a homogenius environment with people who come from many different cultures. Being in a homogenius environment brings usually racism issue. African- American people one of ethnic group who prefer to live in homogenius society. Coming from a different cultural and historical background sometimes can create prejudism and problems for African- American people because racism is an universal problem which occurs in everywhere against to people who are different from natives. Minorities get values and labels because of racism. In US this kind of problems are usual because US is a multinational country which contains different ethnicities and minority groups in it. African-American people’s high amount of population settled down in US and try to live their life without losing own culture. In some cases people can treat to African-American groups differently because of their race. African-American people treated differently in a negative way by other people because they belong to different ethnic group so people create racism against them and this situation brings them difficulties in many areas areas such as social life and economic life.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Racism In Society Today

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When it comes down to it, racism still plays a huge part in the United States till this day. Although some may argue that it “may not be a big deal and it isn't as bad.” Either way their are still flashes of racism going on that needs to come to an abrupt end. One main example of racism that I see in society today is stereotyping. Stereotyping comes from what people here and see on tv, or what the news is showing them abour a certain race or ethnicity. African Americans seem to be the ones who get hit the hardest when it comes to stereotyping. Some examples of African American stereotypes is that they are all gangsters and killers and they all portray traits of violence. As well with being violent, they are also tricked into thinking that…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social Categories

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As we all know African Americans had a bad history. There has always been a time when we were looked down on mainly due to the color of our skin. We never got the opportunities that other races may have gotten and it was a struggle to deal with. We have been judged in so many different ways and categorized just based on experiences that people had with other African Americans. We are all human and should not be judge based on the color of our skin but because who we are as individuals and what we stand for.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Freedom and Slavery

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    With the British colonies being established in the New World, a source of cheap labor was needed. The Slave Trade was introduced into the colonies from Africa. Slaves were an important part of the success of this new economy being built. 7.7 million African Americans were estimated to be transported to the New World between 1492 to 1820. They were treated like other goods and were sold through the triangular trade route across the Atlantic. Slavery had its advantages to Englishmen. They couldn’t claim the protections the English law offered, their time of work never ended and their children were born into slavery and owned by the master as well. They also had encountered many diseases known to Europe and were less likely to capitulate to diseases.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial injustice is a reoccurring topic that happens throughout history. America has had multiple moments in history about racial segregation between white and black people. Even after the Civil War, discrimination is a element embedded into the mindset of every white American. Jim Crow laws were created in order to separate facilities from being shared between the two races, commonly referred to as “separate but equal.” World War 2 happened with Nazi Germans started taking over Europe with the mindset of ridding Jews, and with Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. With the war coming closer to US, the demand for soldiers increased and African Americans were drafted too. Although African Americans are unable to make sudden changes to society, they are able to influence…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today's society we have learn tat prejudice is wrong, at least in the more civilized parts of the world. A person's religion is now rarely referred to, and when it is, it makes no difference as to how that person is treated. While skin color is harder to ignore, most people will get used to, accept, and finally disregard the difference it makes when they learn that there's more in the book than on the cover. A certain respect and interest has now replaced what used to be fear and mistrust of other races. Many wealthy people will try and enjoy food from several origins, the rap music of famous African-American's has become very popular, and in a lot of schools children get a…

    • 565 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays