Racism and discrimination against black people in america
Racism and discrimination against black people in America
- Introduction
This presentation is about racism and discrimination against black people in America. Let's have a look at few examples to think about racism and discrimination.
For example:
- Why are 75% of the young black people in prison?
- A German teacher went to an American School. He got the 3rd class with 20 black children, but only 2 children could read.
- Why can only 1 black people sit and vote in a 100 men Senate?
- Why can only 40 black people of 435 men vote in the representation house?
These are the most important examples for discrimination in public. But we know racism and discrimination is a daily topic in schools or public places.
Let's have a look in the history of the blacks, the story of Martin-Luther King JR with his independent demonstrations and the life of the blacks today. I also want to show you a few minutes of Mahatma Gandhi's life and his struggle for independence.
- History 1492 - 1899
. America was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus.
Soon the Europeans realized that Africans are very good workers in the hot sun, because of their dark skin. They imported Africans on slavery ships from Africa. However only 50% of the slaves arrived at America, because the situation on the ships was very hard.
For example the slaves had to sit in little dark rooms next to the goods. They were treated like animals and they were brought in chains into their new home - AMERICA.
. 1712 - The first revolt of slaves began in New York. 19 slaves were executed. Some other revolts followed, but they couldn't stop the slavery.
. 1790 - Nearly 700 000 slaves lived in the American nation of 3, 9 million people.
. 1808 - It was forbidden to import African slaves but smuggling continues.
. In 1822, Denmark Vesev, who was an ex-slave, thousands of slaves in a revolt in Charleston. As a consequence he was caught and hanged.
. 1838 - A censorship was made; this meant that no slave or people were allowed to do anti slavery works.
. 1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act: Setting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Congress allows these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery.
. 1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected: Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president.
. 1861-65 - United States Civil War: Four years of brutal conflict claimed 623,000 lives.
. 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation: President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory got free on January 1, 1863.
. 1865 - Slavery now forbidden.
These steps were very important to keep out the slavery but there was still slavery and the blacks were discriminated by farmers, organisations like the "Ku Klux Klan", the "With Citizens Council" and other racist organisations, who were founded to keep the black man "in his place" using threats, burnings and lynching to reach this aim.
. The "Ku Klux Klan" is a very racist organisation which was founded in the time of the "Civil War". The members of the Klan wore white robes, shirts and pointed hoods.
Members of this clan thought that all blacks didn't have the right to vote or to marry a white woman. In order to reach their extreme aims they burned crosses in front of white men's houses, terrorized blacks, beat them up, whipped (Peitschen) or even killed them. In 1871, President Grant asked the members of the Klan to give up their illegal fight against blacks and hundreds of members were arrested. In 1915, a new sub-organization called "Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku-Klux-Klan" was founded by Williams Simmons. This group, which had three million members in 1924, didn't only attack blacks, but also the Catholic Church and it was in contact with National Socialist groups of the Hitler-Regime. In 1944 this organization was broken up because of enormous debts (Schuld).
. Martin Luther King JR. struggled against these Klans and organisations. He was born in 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 6 he was witness (Zeuge) to a confrontation between blacks and whites, where 10 people were killed. He graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts degree (in Sociology) in 1948 and from Crozer Theological Seminary with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1951. He received his Doctor in Systematic theology from Boston University in 1955.
King married Coretta Scott on June 18, 1953.
They had four children:
. Yolanda Denise (November 17, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama)
. Martin Luther III (October 23, 1957, Montgomery, Alabama)
. Dexter Scott (January 30, 1961, Atlanta, Georgia)
. Bernice Albertine (March 28, 1963, Atlanta, Georgia)
Following the campaign, he founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, it was a group to organize Civil Rights activism. He lead this group until his death. King was a member of the philosophies of non-violent civil disobedience which was used successfully in India by Mahatma Gandhi. "Mahatma" means "great soul" and all his life Gandhi held to two fundamental principles: the belief in Ahimsa which means non-violence and the concept of Satya, the truth. They belong to Gandhi's concept of Satygraha which meant the non-violent resistance against the British rule in India.
Martin Luther King applied this philosophy to his protests. King's popularity increased. He was invited to hold speeches in Ghana, Geneva, Paris and London and to an audience with the Pope. He held 208 speeches, travelled 780 000 miles and organized a protest against President Eisenhower where 37 000 people joined the demonstration. The biggest demonstration of Martin Luther King was the demonstration "March on Washington" on the 28th August in 1963. Over 250 000 people walked peacefully from the Washington to the Lincoln-monument, King held his famous speech "I had a dream".
In 1964, he received the Nobel price of Peace. He arranged his last demonstration after John F. Kennedy was killed because he engaged himself too much for social justice. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 in Memphis in front of a cheap hotel, where he wanted to organize another demonstration. Martin Luther King died later in the hospital.
King's murderer, James Earl Ray, was sentenced to life imprisonment and died one year later.
King's birthday was declared to be a national holiday in the USA. It is celebrated on the third Monday of January. King Jr. wrote various books, the most famous is called "Why We Can't Wait". In this book Martin Luther King junior doesn't only write down a kind of autobiography or historical occurrences, but he also tries to interpret the events he talks about.
. Conclusion and the life today as a black people
At the end of my presentation I would like to show you my own opinion.
Everybody can make mistakes and the white settlers did mistakes against black Africans. They suppressed, discriminated and hurt them. They took them to America, because they needed cheap and good workers. But do we have the right to keep the blacks like animals? NO! Today in the USA the blacks are still a minority, only 12% of the population is black. But 80% of these blacks live in cities.
There are also more blacks in prison than in college, and homicide is the leading cause of death for African-American males between the ages of 15 and 34. The people in the ghettos think they have nothing to lose and this is why they only live for the moment and not for the future. They still believe in the "American dream" which they daily get presented on TV
All over the world there are people who think that black people belong to the lower class in the society, but this isn't true, because we are all the same and we must do everything to correct these mistakes out of the society. Today one of five black children in the USA lives in poverty. To stop America's social crisis, the American society must try to stop the segregation which is still done in the US. The people have to change their behaviour and attitude towards minorities.
Of course the US government has to change and improve its politics, because massive political, social and economic support is needed more than ever before. Everybody can help to improve these things. But first we have to look at ourselves - our behaviour and attitude towards others.
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