Inequality

If someone said racism to you, what would you first think of? Would one think of black and white people straight away? If so, you need to understand that racism isn’t just about skin colour it’s about where you’re from, what religion you are and often different parts of a country are split due to racial discrimination. The idea of racism has been around for hundreds of years, it’s because human’s natural instinct is to put others down to make themselves look better. When Africans were taken across the Atlantic for the slave trade, they were demoralized so much so that they would rather take their own life than commit to a life of slavery.

In southern America in 1619 White farmers and landowners needed cheap labour to work on their plantations; this is why the slaves were first brought to America. The Americans regarded the black people as animals; they didn’t agree that they were even the same species. However this all changed when slavery was banned around America in 1807, and every man was free. Eventually black men begin to gain land of there own and work for themselves, but this did not go unnoticed.

Even after the civil war the black people in the southern states of America were still discriminated against and treated awfully. Groups of men used to go around at night and just burn, torture and kill any black people that they think have stepped out of line. Racial discrimination is still a very big part of our world today, racism is not just black and white, in Zimbabwe white farmers are being pushed out of their land; where their families have lived and farmed for hundreds of years, whilst their own land is being distributed as the black farmers believe it is there land.

Nevertheless the white families are left penniless. In England today Muslims very often feel discriminated against, as English people are scared of them, English people think of them as terrorists after a lot of bad press, but this is not the case. If the cloud of doubt were lifted just a little, millions of people would have better lives. I find it hard to understand how people accept the status that they are given; they should surely be able to choose how to live their life and what to do.

In “Roll Of Thunder, Hear my Cry” one line really stuck out for me, “Comical objects to cruel eyes that gave no thought our misery” this shows how the black people recognize their place in society and even if they don’t believe in it they accept it. Martin Luther King gave an inspiring speech, which changed the views of millions of people around the world “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. “”

Equality is a hard concept to grasp for many people around the world due to the fact that lack of education is still a big problems lots of different countries especially L. E. D’s, this is mostly due to class. However this year in America, a country renowned for their vicious racists, have elected a black president. Barack Obama, the aforementioned president, is a pinnacle of light to such a diverse nation. Seeing as a mere thirty years ago black people were still fighting for entirely equal rights. Barack Obama is now thought of as the most powerful man in the world.

Never the less this does not discount racism in America as there is evidence to suggest that the poor black people and ethnic minorities do not still receive the opportunities given to white people. Class prejudice happens all around the world, in England today this is a big issue, but the homeless often sell ‘big issues’ around the streets so they can scrap a living from the tower of success. Every class in Britain is stereotyped, it is almost as if the country is divided into, people your allowed to talk to and people your not. These are often referred to as classes.

People get stereotyped on their class all the time, then it often falls into smaller categories such as race, or where you live. Stereotyping is a habit that we all need to get out of. Racism and Class prejudice is a growing problem in England today, if we do not take action it may get out of control. Infect some would argue it already is with the steady growth of gang crime and people getting hurt just because of where they are from. We don’t want to have people beaten on the streets or worse killed just because of their background. Everyone deserves a chance in life without being pre judged by other people.

The meaning or definition of what America is, was, or could become is the main subject that the two opposing voices relate in Langston Hughes’ poem . Both voices acknowledge America is not the America that was envisioned by its founders/architects – i.e. a state built on the principles of freedom and equality, a land of opportunity for all.

However, while the first voice simply calls for a recovery of the ideal America, the second voice, through articulations of the reality of social inequalities in America, argues for a reexamination of the said ideal, with the desired effect of making America   “The land that never has been yet–/And yet must be–the land where every man is free.” (lines 19-20) “Let America be America again” (line 1) , the first speaker begins. To him, America was a dream of dreamers, a “great strong land of love” (line 7), where “opportunity is real, and life is free/equality is in the air we breathe”. (line 13) He assertively states his notions of what America ought to be. However, he fails to identify what America has become instead. He also does not specify who the dreamers that dreamed America are, nor does he clarify who the “we” for whom equality. The choice of word “again” and the first speaker’s constant use of it suggest that to put America to its right direction, one needs to reacquaint the state to the glories it once had.

However the assertion of the second speaker of America as the “never was” contrasts the difference of position of the two speakers. The second speaker contests the possibility that America had been the place where equality once reigned as he mumbles back to the first speaker that  “(There’s never been equality for me/Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free.’) (lines 15-16) The disillusionment or discontentment in the second speaker who claims he is one of “the people” who built America challenges the first speaker’s idealization of America’s past.

The first speaker talks of freedom, equality for all but he/she could not even realize that there could be an opposition or challenge to his/her claims so he/she asks “Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? /And who are you that draws your veil across the ?” (lines 17-18) when he/she hears mumbles as he/she spoke. The first speaker addresses the person as if their existence were hardly thought of as he/she talked about America’s past and future.

The second voice introduces himself: “I am” as the first voice is unable to recognize the second voice, who represents disenfranchised classes in America, the very reason America is not his ideal America, shows the first speaker’s position in the society he seeks altered: he is an observer, not immersed in the reality of inequality and selective granting of rights, which the second voice knows first-hand.   Further on, he states that he (they) originated the dream of America. He briefly details America’s founders – immigrants all, seeking escape from serfdom in the Old World, desiring a “home of the free’.

According to the second voice, as America was founded by immigrants, and its industries and agriculture were built and maintained by laborers, these members of American society have a historically-supported claim to the freedom and equality deprived of them. The second speaker calls for a collective action of the people to rebuild America to be a place for the people, the dreamers who could call it “the land of the free” and not just for the few privileged people.

The contesting ideas of the two voices/speakers about America that America as a country, as a word and even as a symbol for freedom and equality is a space of struggle between those who have the luxury to contemplate an abstract America and those who are immersed with the reality of how oppressive America is to the working classes and the ones with racial distinctions.

To one, America is the dream of vague dreamers meant for an unspecified mass. To the other, America is a state built by people wishing to escape oppression in their nations of origin. America could not just be painted in the perspective of one person and that discussion of freedom and equality could not be easily hoped for a country until one recognizes the problems faced by all sectors of the society.

The city of Birmingham was founded in 1871, and lies within Jefferson County and Shelby County. It is known by various names, “The Magic city,” “Pittsburg of the South” and the “Tragic City” being few of them. Birmingham had witnessed brisk industrialization and also witnessed periods of social, political, and economic inequality. In the 1960s, the local government strategies to sustain racial segregation had disastrous effects. The church bombing attack on September 15, 1963, brought about world criticism.

The death of the four African girls was enough proof of the racial discrimination that Birmingham was facing. The unleash of terror and violence in Birmingham added yet another name to the list, “Bombingham”. This brutal attack was condemned by people throughout the world and led to many developments which in fact played a major role in its prosperity. That was the time when Birmingham was reeling under social and racial discrimination. Though late by almost four decades, the guilty verdict in 2002 brought hope. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 which followed gave equal access to civil participation in Birmingham.

The electing of Richard Arrington, an African American educator, as the Mayor of Birmingham in 1979 ushered in an epoch of racial harmony and prosperity. When he retired in 1999, Birmingham was deeply pitched on the road to success. Thus Birmingham did suffer great social and racial inequalities but it distanced itself from the past and stepped into a bright future under the leadership of many a capable hands, thus crossing the barriers of social inequalities. Today Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama and an international center for health care.

Though Birmingham has done extremely well in various spheres, the efforts to set right a history of pervasive radical inequality persist even today throughout Birmingham. But the social conditions have greatly changed, and definitely, for the better. To quote Martin Luther King Jr. ,”I like to believe the negative extremes of Birmingham’s past will resolve into the positive and utopian extremes of her future; that the sins of a dark yesterday will be redeemed in the achievements of a bright tomorrow. ” REFERENCE www. africanaonline. com