There is not a country in world history in which racism has been ore important, for so long a time as the United States
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- Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Max’s Argument: *Drawing the Color Line: Howard Zinn says, “There is not a country in world history in which racism has been ore important, for so long a time as the United States.” (A People’s History of the United States, p. 29) He refers to the institution of slavery when he asks “This unequal treatment, this developing combination of contempt and oppression, feeling and action, which we call “racism” – was this the result of a “natural” antipathy of white against black?” His answer is that in America as in Europe, “…darkness and blackness, associated with night and unknown, would take on those meanings.” By “those meanings,” he refers to the definitions white people have of the concept of “black.” *Pedagogy of the Oppressed: In his essay titled Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paolo Freire talks about the vicious cycle of oppression that many societies fall into. Simply put, Freire states that those who have been oppressed will, when the opportunity arises, turn around and oppress their oppressors. While this was not entirely the case for the African American slaves when they emancipated, Freire makes the point that “Because it [slavery, oppression] is a distortion of being more fully human, sooner or later being less human leads the oppressed to struggle against those who made them so.” *Culture of Fear: In his book The Culture of Fear Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, Barry Glassner claims that white Americans react to black people out of fear; a fear that is based mostly on false media reporting. “These [fears] are perpetuated by the excessive attention paid to dangers that a small percentage of African-American men create for other people, and by a relative lack of attention to dangers that a majority of black men face themselves.” (109) The Race Beat: Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff add to this argument by saying, “Left to their own devices, white people would want to keep it that way. They’d prefer to be able to accept the stereotype that Negroes ‘are criminal and of disgustingly, but somewhat enticingly, loose sexual morals…” (p. 6) In this climate, it is no wonder that most whites are raised to believe that black people, and black men in particular, pose a great threat to them and their way of life. Strange Fruit: In the documentary “Strange Fruit,” it was made clear that when whites in the South perceived any deviation from their concept of white supremacy, they felt it was their obligation or duty to remove the conflict. Most often it meant the horrific lynching of accused black men (as in the Monroe lynching), women, and boys (as in the case of Emmett Till). Bigger Thomas came from this particular environment. There is strong evidence to suggest that Bigger’s father was the victim of a lynching. *Black and White: Robert Jensen, in his essay Black and White, represents a white point of view when he writes, “…I can feel the lingering traces of racism in my own body… I feel…a certain kind of fear next to a black body [more] than I feel next to another white body.” This feeling of fear is the result of four hundred years of oppressing African Americans. La Amistad: How can a few years of ‘freedom’ erase the hundreds of years of enslavement, torture, terror, and dehumanization? In the film La Amistad, the middle passage of the evil slave trade triangle is dramatized with heart wrenching clarity to the point that it would bring tears to all but the most hard of heart. Bloom’s Analysis: Bigger Thomas will die. But before he does, this court and this city and this country will understand that we are accomplices in his crimes. As Harold Bloom states in his introduction to Bloom’s Analysis: Native Son, “We do not ‘sympathize’ with Bigger. We feel with him perhaps, but we do it in a special way… Criminal rebellion can be approved as rebellion, when the historical injustices are overwhelming, as they have been and still are for many African Americans.” I say that Bigger Thomas deserves to die, but we must also hold ourselves accountable because we have failed to understand how OUR historical injustices have created Bigger Thomas.
Max’s Argument: *Drawing the Color Line: Zinn states on page 28 of his book A People’s History of the United States that slavery was “…lifelong, morally crippling, destructive of family ties, without hope of any future. [It was]…the most cruel form of slavery in history: the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture; the reduction of the slave to less than human status by the use of racial hatred, with that relentless clarity based on color, where white was master, black was slave.” *Pedagogy of the Oppressed: In his essay Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire says, “The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves.” (p. 26) *Culture of Fear: Glassner, in his book Culture of Fear, states that “To suggest that all Americans have a realistic chance of being a victim of homicide is to heighten already elevated anxieties among people who face little risk.” [historical wrong: white Americans fear black people and therefore overreact to anything remotely criminal that involves black people and under react to the crimes of white people…] *Black and White: Jensen talks about the responsibility of white people in this way: “…it is not enough for white people to denounce overt discrimination, renounce the overt forms of racism in their own lives, and call it a day.” In quoting Lipsitz, he says that “…white people must begin to see the way in which a history of both overt and legal, and covert and social, discrimination has resulted in institutionalized racism in housing, employment, education, and social life.” (147-148) Bloom’s Analysis: In his analysis, Bloom quotes John M. Reilly to point out that “’the description of Mary’s Murder makes clear that the white world is the cause of the violent desires and reactions’ that motivated Bigger Thomas to murder…” The Race Beat: Roberts and Klibanoff describe Swedish author Gunnar Myrdal as being mystified that “the South’s certifiable, pathological inhumanity toward Negroes [had] been allowed to exist for so long into the twentieth century.” (p.5) Strange Fruit: The documentary Strange Fruit highlights the idea that the historical oppression of blacks in the South is a matter of record. Lynching were the white society’s way of oppressing blacks, keeping them ‘in line,’ and securing whatever resources were available for themselves and their kind. La Amistad: Historical wrongs were depicted in the scenes of the capture, torture, transportation, and delivery of Africans into American slavery.
Max’s Argument: *Drawing the Color Line: “We see now a complex web of historical threads to ensnare blacks for slavery in America: the desperation of starving settlers, the special helplessness of the displaced African, the powerful incentive of profit for slave trader and planter, the temptation of superior status for poor whites, the elaborate controls against escape and rebellion, the legal and social punishment of black and white collaboration.” (37) *Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “Any attempt to ‘soften’ the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their ‘generosity,’ the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. (26) *Culture of Fear: “A host of studies indicate that by downplaying the suffering of victims and their families the media do a disservice to minority neighborhoods where those victims live…. Underreporting of black victims also has the effect of making white victims appear more ubiquitous than they are, thereby fueling whites’ fears of black criminals, something that benefits neither race.” (112-113) *Black and White: “I was raised to a racist. I rebelled, ever so slightly. But I couldn’t break with the training completely. I was stuck, and I knew it. But because I had no serious friendships with non-whites at that point, because I still lived in an almost all-white world, nothing propelled me to change. There were no structures of accountability in my life.” (150) Bloom’s Analysis: Abdul R. Jan Mohamed, writing on what he calls the “psychopolitical function of death” in Richard Wright’s work, asks us to see that violent death, particularly in Native Son, serves as a means of escape from ‘social death,’ the death-in-life of the slave, or ex-slave, or descendant of a slave still not emancipated by a repressive society.” (8) The Race Beat: “A great many Northerners, perhaps the majority, get shocked and shaken in their conscience when they learn the facts,” Myrdal wrote. “The average Northerner does not understand the reality and the effects of such discriminations as those in which he himself is taking part in his routine of life.” (6)
Max’s Argument: *Drawing the Color Line: *Pedagogy of the Oppressed: *Culture of Fear: *Black and White: Bloom’s Analysis: The Race Beat: Strange Fruit: La Amistad: Max’s Argument: *Drawing the Color Line: *Pedagogy of the Oppressed: *Culture of Fear: *Black and White: Bloom’s Analysis: The Race Beat: Strange Fruit: La Amistad Download 18.68 Kb. Share with your friends:
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