Author: Anura

This year Miss USA, Miss America, and Miss teen USA were all African American women. This is considered a breakthrough because this is the first time in history that all three titles have been held by black women. I believe that this is such an important accomplishment because growing up as a person of color most of the time the only models or beauty icons that we see in the media are white. One of the winners, Cheslie Kryst, wore her natural hair in the competition as a way to send a message to women of color to accept their natural beauty and to break away from the common stereotypes that have been put on women of color.

As well as being the winner of Miss USA, Kryst is also a certified lawyer who went to Wake Forest for her law degree. She uses her degree to do pro bono work for those who have been unjustly sentenced. Kryst is making her own way in the world and defying social ideologies that have placed on women of color for so long. There has been a history of black culture not being accepted in America, and as we grow as a country so do our views and I believe that this a step in the right direction for America.

Source: https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/this-year-americas-pageant-winners-are-all-black-women.html

I found it very interesting that WWII was so significant in African American history because I didn’t know that it significantly impacted the rights of African Americans and how the Democratic Party became so significant to minorities and women as well. I thought that it was interesting to understand the political realignment that was changed over time. This improved the expansion of black political strategies,  even though there was still improvement there was resistance from many white Americans. Although from what we learned it is clear that the black media also expanded at this time, which helped shape, form, and persuade the community. This in itself really helped start the Civil Rights movement because it allowed for African Americans to have a voice in American society, and it was being heard.

In this passage it explains the economic values of slavery, and how slaves were considered commodities to the slave owners. This was due to their involvement in the tobacco, sugar, and cotton trade. This idea of people being property was no question to many slave owners, traders, and just people in the US. Part of the passage that really struck me was when the amount of money that was spent to purchase a slave. An example price for a male could be $610 which is an equivalent to $19,447 in today’s currency. Even though there shouldn’t be a price on a human life, it was a considerable amount of money that was being spent. This means that the slave trade must have been essential to the US economy during this time period because slave owners were making thousands of dollars, and they knew that using slave labor put money in their pockets more than what they spent. A human life that could be traded over and over again for more or less, and could be put to use on a plantation. This idea of commodification was carried throughout most of the US, and it’s terrible to base economic wealth on the lives of innocents, which is something that I found terrible but also interesting.

-Anura Andrea Namachchivaya