Racism in the United States: Encyclopedia II - Racism in the United States - History

Racism in the United States - History

Racism in the United States - African Americans: Slavery and Emancipation

In colonial America, before slavery became completely based on racial lines, thousands of African slaves served European colonists, alongside other Europeans serving a term of indentured servitude. In some cases for African slaves, a term of service meant freedom and a land grant afterward, but these were rarely awarded, and few former slaves became landowners this way. In a precursor to the American Revolution, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt in 1676 against the Governor of Virginia and the system of exploitation he represented: exploitation of poorer colonists by the increasingly wealthy landowners where poorer people, regardless of skin color, fought side by side. However, Bacon died, probably of dysentery; hundreds of participants in the revolt were lured to disarm by a promised amnesty; and the revolt lost steam.

The central cause of concern to landowners was the unity of Bacon's populist movement. It raised the question to the landowners of how to divide the population politically in ways that would keep the poorer colonists divided enough to rule. To the Governor, the most threatening, and unexpected, aspect of Bacon's rebellion was its multi-racial aspect. Over the succeeding decades, colony parliaments which were influenced by wealthy landowners instituted formal racial divisions. Africans would be used as slaves, a category that was made lifelong and hereditary during this period. They were denied freedom of movement, gun ownership and land rights. White colonists were provided with substantial plots of land upon completion of their period of indenture, armed, and enlisted in patrols that policed black behavior and militias that fought Native Americans for land on the western border. This change began the infamously long period of the American slave society and marks for some scholars the beginning of the concept of race in North America.

Slaves were primarily used for agricultural labor, notably in the production of cotton and tobacco. Black slavery in the Northeast was less common, usually confined to involuntary domestic servitude. In both regions, only the wealthiest Americans owned slaves. In contrast, poor whites recognized that slavery devalued their own labor. The social rift along color lines soon became ingrained in every aspect of colonial American culture.

Although the Constitution had banned the importation of new African slaves in 1808, the practice of chattel slavery still existed for the next half century. All slaves in only the areas of the Confederate States of America that were not under direct control of the United States government were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. It should be noted that the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to areas loyal to, or controlled by, the Union, thus the document only freed slaves where the Union still had not regained the legitimacy to do so. Slavery was not actually abolished in the United States until the passage of the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 18, 1865. Despite this, post-emancipation America was not free from racism; discriminatory practices continued in the United States with the existence of Jim Crow laws, educational disparities and widespread criminal acts against people of color.

Racism in the United States - African Americans: Nadir of American race relations

The next century saw a hardening of institutionalized racism and legal discrimination against citizens of African descent in the United States. Although technically able to vote, poll taxes, acts of terror (often perpetuated by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in the Reconstruction South), and discriminatory laws such as grandfather clauses kept Black Americans disenfranchised particularly in the South but nationwide following the Hayes election at the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877. In response to de jure racism, protest and lobbyist groups emerged, most notably, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1909.

This time period is sometimes refereed to as the nadir of American race relations because racism in the United States was worse during this time than at any period before or since. Segregation, racial discrimination, and expressions of white supremacy all increased. So did anti-black violence, including lynchings and race riots.

In addition, racism which had been viewed primarily as a problem in the Southern states, burst onto the national consciousness following the Great Migration, the relocation of millions of African-Americans from their roots in the Southern states to the industrial centers of the North after World War I, particularly in cities such as Boston, Chicago, and New York (Harlem). In northern cities, racial tensions exploded, most violently in Chicago, and lynchings--mob-directed hangings, usually racially motivated--increased dramatically in the 1920s.

Racism in the United States - African Americans: American Civil Rights movement

Prominent African-American politicians, entertainers and activists pushed for civil rights throughout the twentieth century, quite noticeably during the 1930s and 1940s with noted allies including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who facilitated singer Marian Anderson's famous 1939 Easter concert when segregated venues would not accommodate her. Activists, particularly A. Philip Randolph agitated for civil rights throughout the Great Depression and World War II years, organizing protest marches and seeking government concessions. The efforts of civil rights activists began to bear fruit with the passage of Executive Order 9981 by President Harry S. Truman in July 1948, which banned racial segregation in the American armed forces. The 1950s and 1960s saw the peaking of the American Civil Rights Movement and the desegregation of schools under the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board and the organizing of widespread protests across the nation under a younger generation of leaders.

The pastor and activist Martin Luther King, Jr. was the catalyst for many nonviolent protests in the 1960's which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This signified a change in the social acceptance of legislative racism in America and a profound increase in the number of opportunities available for people of color in the United States.

In 2005 as 4,000 people in Detroit paid their final respects to civil rights hero Rosa Parks during the four hours of her funeral ceremony on November 2, FoxNews devoted 23 minutes of air time to live coverage,there was 108 minutes of coverage on CNN and 100 on MSNBC.

Racism in the United States - Racism Against Hispanic Americans

Hispanic peoples come from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds; however, Latin Americans have often been viewed as a monolithic group in Anglo-American society. Latinos are often portrayed as "hot-blooded," passionate, or violent in literature, films, television, and music. Furthermore, recent increases in Hispanic immigration, both legal and illegal, have spurred anti-Latino sentiment, particularly in areas of the United States that have traditionally had very few or no Hispanic residents. And in areas where Hispanic Americans have long been established, such as California and southern Florida, racial tensions between Hispanics and non-Hispanics (including African-Americans) are sometimes visible, especially as Hispanics gain economic and political clout.

Due to the diversity of backgrounds encountered in the Hispanic population of the United States, racist policies have varied widely. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo granted Mexicans in the territories acquired after the Mexican War access to United States citizenship, and legal status as "whites." Miscegenation laws were rarely applied to Mexican Americans, and intermarriage between Anglo-American men and Hispanic women has been fairly commonplace in the United States Southwest for decades. However, most Mexican-Americans were of mestizo ancestry, and in much of the United States, Hispanics - even those of European Spanish ancestry - have generally been socially excluded from "whites" of Northern European descent. However, there are exceptions; in southern Louisiana for instance, people of European Spanish descent are regarded as part of the white population. Many Cuban Americans, particularly those from the exile generation that arrived immediately after the Communist takeover of the island, are also largely integrated into white American society.

Racism in the United States - West Coast Racism

In the Pacific states, racism was primarily directed against the resident Indian and Mexican peoples, Asian immigrant, and Black populations. Several immigration laws discriminated against the Asians and at different points the ethnic Chinese or other groups were banned from entering the United States. Nonwhites were prohibited from testifying against whites, a prohibition extended to the Chinese by People v. Hall. The Chinese were generally subject to harder labor on the First Transcontinental Railroad and often performed the more dangerous tasks such as using dynamite to make pathways through the mountains. The San Francisco Vigilance Movement, although ostensibly a response to crime and corruption, also systematically victimized Irish immigrants, and later this was transformed into mob violence against Chinese immigrants. Legal discrimination of Asian minorities was furthered with the passages of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the entrance of virtually all ethnic Chinese immigrants into the United States until 1943. During World War II the United States created internment camps for Japanese-American citizens in fear that they would be used as spies for the Japanese. This was also done with the German and Italian populations, on a much smaller scale in the East.

A variety of laws were enacted to prevent African-American migration to the Pacific Northwest. While slavery was criminalized in the Oregon Territory in 1844, a so-called lash law required that all blacks (slave or free) be whipped twice annually was enacted in June of that year. An exclusion law, barring African Americans from entering the territory was passed in 1847, repealed in 1854, and added to the new Oregon state constitution in 1857. While African Americans have been present at some level since 1805, the demographic reverberations of these laws remain today.^[1]

The Zoot Suit Riots were vivid incidents of racial violence against Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles in 1943. Naval servicemen stationed in a Mexican-American neighborhood conflicted with youth in the dense neighborhood. Frequent confrontations between small groups and individuals intensified into several days of rioting. Large mobs of servicemen would enter civilian quarters looking to attack Mexian-American youths wearing zoot suits, a distinctive exaggerated fashion popular among that group. The disturbances continued unchecked by police for several days before the authorities, fearing the mob of servicemen would swell further, banned them from visiting the city on leave.

Racism in the United States - Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has also played a role in America. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, tens of thousands of Jews were escaping the pogroms of Eastern Europe. They boarded boats from ports, mainly in Northern Germany, and arrived at Ellis Island, New York.

It is thought by Leo Rosten, in his book, 'The Joys of Yiddish', that as soon as they left the boat, they were subject to racism from the port immigration authorities. The derogatory term 'kike' was adopted when referring to Jews (because they often couldn't write so they may have signed their immigration papers with circles - or kikel in Yiddish).

From the 1910s, the Southern Jewish communities were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, who objected to Jewish immigration, and often used 'The Jewish Banker' in their propaganda. In 1915, Texas Born, New York Jew Leo Frank was lynched by the newly re-formed Klan, after being convicted of rape and sentenced to death (his punishment was commuted to life imprisonment), even though there was overwhelming evidence that he was innocent.

The upper classes discriminated against their new compatriots. The prestigious universities made it difficult for academic Jews to get places. Yale university, in 1925, introduced a legacy system which favored children of alumni over Jewish students.

The goings on in Nazi Germany also attracted attention from America's racists. The Jewish Lobbying for intervention in Europe drew opposition from the isolationists, amongst whom was Father Charles Coughlin, a well known radio priest, who was known to be critical of the Jews believing that they were leading America into the war. He preached in weekly, overtly anti-semitic sermons, and from 1936, began publication of a newspaper, Social Justice, in which he printed anti-Semitic accusations such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Racism in the United States - Racism against Arab Muslim and South Asian Americans

Racism against Arab Americans has risen proportionately with tensions between the American government and the Arab World. Edward Said recalls how an Ivy League graduating class in 1973 (just weeks after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War) wore Arab dress in racist mockery. Racism spiked during the 1979 Tehran embassy hostage crisis, the 1991 Gulf War and the Oklahoma City bombing (despite the lack of an Arab connection). Following the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States, discrimination and racialized violence has markedly increased against Arab-Americans and many other religious and cultural groups. In 2001, a Sikh man was killed outside Phoenix, Arizona in a racially-motivated incident, as the victim's turban and beard - required symbols of Sikhism - invoked a perceived connection to Osama bin Laden.

In Houston, Texas, political involvement of the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian American community have resulted in the election of a Pakistani American, Masur Javed (M.J.) Khan, to a district seat on the Houston City Council. It seemed that the political climate for Arab, Muslim, and South Asian Americans was impossible; however Khan, a realtor, was commended by former mayor Lee P. Brown for his activism in the Pakistani and Muslim-American community regarding hate crimes against South Asian Americans. Although Khan is currently an incumbent in a city council district (representing 1/9th of the City of Houston since there are nine geographical districts and five at-large councilmembers), the 2005 election to fill outgoing at-large councilmember Gordon Quan led to a Desi candidate, Jay Kumar Aiyer (a Houston Community College trustee of Asian Indian descent), to campaign for Quan's vacated council seat. During the 2005 runoff election with Democratic National Committee delegate Sue Lovell, alleged race-baiting occured where a Lovell supporter was accused of making anti-Asian Indian remarks, which was denied by the individual in question. Aiyer lost to Lovell by 600 votes in the December 10, 2005 runoff election; because of the Lovell campaign increasing their grassroots base, there are a few in the grassroots community who suggest that Aiyer's endorsement from prominent Houston-area Democrats (including former mayor Lee P. Brown) was no match for grassroots politics in the City of Houston.

Racism in the United States - Minority racism

Minority racism is a controversial topic because of theories of power in society. Racialist or racist thinking among some minority groups occurs. Some racism may be towards other minority groups (such as black and Korean conflicts in various urban environments, most notably in the 1992 Los Angeles Riots), new immigrant groups (such as Latinos) or even towards whites. One common area where racism is perceived to be prevalent is in interracial dating. In the past, white racists opposed "race mixing". Today, many minority groups, especially black women and Asian men, oppose interracial dating because of alleged disparity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki