Racism is something that has been going on for a very long time, even more in the times of the civil war. Racism and discrimination has happened, is happening, and I think it always will be in our midst.
Racism and discrimination is something that has been around for a long time. There were the slave during the civil war. They were seen as not human and more like property. An example of this would be the Dred Scott case. Where a slave tried to sue for his freedom this took place in the year 1847 well at least his first attempt at it was in that year. The Supreme court had at first rejected his Case , but then a couple of years later when they decided a re-trail they made the decision of denying him his freedom, they said that because he was black, he was not a citizen and therefore he could not sue anyone. I don't think that was right because back then they did not see slaves as humans and they like basically had no rights. The thing I did not understand was, how could they not see them as human? They had all the same things that all the rest of the people had the only difference was the skin color. These slaves wanted their freedom they wanted to be like all of the other human, they wanted to be Free.
In class we are learning a lot about the civil war and slavery was a big thing going on during that time, I got this very valuable resource from my teacher. It is a book called Letters of a Nation, in this book there are many actual letters that people have written to others, I was able to find some letters that were written by slaves. In these letters the authors are writing mostly to their loved ones. I would like to share with you some excerpts from the text. The following letter is from Louisa Alexander to her husband Archer.
"My dear husband, I received your letter yesterday and lost no time in asking Mr. Jim if he would sell me, and what he would take for me. He flew at me, and said I would never let you free only at the point of Baynot, and that there was no use in my ever speaking to him any more about this...... He says that if he had a hold of Lincoln he would chop him up into mincemeat"
In this letter she is telling her husband that there is no chance of her getting her freedom, and how her master does not like Lincoln because he was trying to free the slaves. Her master must have despised Lincoln to want to harm him in that way. There were families that were being separated from each other by their owners selling one of them to someone else. I know that I would not like to be separated from my family now for a short amount of time, let alone not being able to know whether I will see my family again, this is something that many of the slave went through. Another thing that We read in class was Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom. In that text I found that the people who wanted slavery had a system in place that supported slavery and that nothing could entrench the system unless it was a huge war or a big slave rebellion, the system was as follows.
" A system harried by slave rebellions and conspiracies developed a network of controls in the southern states, backed by laws, courts, armed forces, and other race prejudice of the nation's political leaders."
In that part of the text it is saying that because the slaves were rebelling they had to take stronger measures to keep it the way they wanted it, with there being slaves. So they started using militia and many other means of power to stop the slaves from being free.
These slaves did not have natural rights, or human rights, I think they only had one which was life but they were missing the other two as seen in the Declaration of Independence, they were missing Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Since they were not seen as humans they did not get any of these things until they were free.
I thought it was weird because they fought for their freedom and everything, and when they finally got it they thought they would be free from everything. That is not the case there are still many people that are racist or they like to discriminate. All victims of racism want to escape all of that but it still goes on now even after all of those laws of equality. Some people will never see that equality, they don't see that we are all created equal.
Dying for Dixie, is a very good example of this this story is about a man that was shot by black teenagers because he had a confederate flag posted up in the back of his truck. I this story it showed how people were not over that fact that blacks were no longer enslaved, they were still very racist and they did not care for the integration of races, even though it was already happening. They had The KKK and other groups who did not like the blacks, and they weren't afraid to show it. The whites felt that if the blacks got m,ore things that they requested that soon they would take over everything.
There was a part in the text where this lady is talking the the reporter in Kentucky about the whole situation and how blacks should " get over slavery". I don't think that anyone could really get over that especially when they are still being treated as lower beings. In this she says, "Slavery was not that bad, A lot of people were quit happy to be living on a large plantation" And then she starts talking about how blacks would take over everything if they got some of the things that they wanted, this made her mad and she said "Don't put us where they used to be." If she felt that slavery was not that bad why was she so enraged by the fact that she might be put in the same situation the blacks were in? That is very contradictory, but that is how some people feel they don't want anything tho happen to them, and they don't care about others.
Something that is a more recent case of racism is the Jena 6 case in Louisiana. Where six black high school students were arrested for beating up a white student. They felt that they had a reason to do it because they were just minding there own business and they sat down under a tree in their high schools courtyard, and this spot was somewhere that usually some of the white students would sit. The next day when these black students went to sit there they found that there nuces hung on the tree. Which was very racist and hurtful to these black students because it symbolized when slaves would get hanged.These students were really offended by this. So the black students beat up a white classmate and they were all arrested, at one point all but one of these boys were released. People felt that this was a racial act because this guys chargers were already casted out by the courts, but the judge would not set bail for this boy and that is not fair it is just like the Dred Scott case I mentioned before they were denying this boy his freedom.
People might have felt for a moment that they were free from something, but they soon found out that they were still frowned upon by some they were not seen as equal but less than the others. Racism and discrimination has been happening for a very long time and it will continue to happen I don't think there will be a time when there is no racism and discrimination. I have gone into the past to show you some examples of an issue that some people just cannot be without and I have also shown you some more current events involving the same thing, Racism and Discrimination.
CITATIONS
Carroll, Andrew. Letters of a Nation. New York City: Broadway, 1999.
"Dred Scott." PBS. 2 Oct. 2008
"Neo Nazi Group threatens Jena 6 students." Youtube. 22 Sep. 2007. 2 Oct. 2008
"The Jena 6 CNN Report." Youtube. 6 Sep. 2007. 2 Oct. 2008
Zinn, Howard. People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.). New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.
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