Lose Your Mother

In 1865 Abraham Lincoln gave a speech introducing the idea of Reconstruction, after the Civil War. The purpose of Lincoln’s Reconstruction was to smoothly reintegrate former Confederate states back into the Union, creating a formed and “re-united” United States. After Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson took over the Reconstruction plan. Under Johnson’s presidency, violence toward free black Americans was prevalent. In this article, Kidada E. Williams addresses the lack of acknowledgement of the violence toward free black individuals that occurred in the Reconstruction era and, as a result, persists today.

Although former slaves were legally free in 1865, they still faced the same acts of violence, experienced in the age of slavery, during the Reconstruction era. During Reconstruction, White Southern conservatives feared that Republicans gaining power in the government would provide blacks with some power and voice in the government. In order to prevent equality between black and whites, conservative white individuals made an effort to establish fear within minority communities. During this era, the Ku Klux Klan, along with other white supremacy groups, played a large roll in establishing fear by killing and terrifying black communities. Psychological and physical trauma persisted through the infamous ‘black codes’, which were Southern state laws restricting basic civil rights from black individuals. During this time period, the Federal government did little to nothing to prevent the violence or civil rights atrocities against black Americans.

Lincoln’s intent for Reconstruction was to bring the Nation back together. Although states may have pledged their loyalty to the Nation and abolished slavery, Southern states continued to restrict black individuals from basic human rights. In present times, there is a lack of acknowledgement for the violence that occurred during this time period. The Reconstruction era was not a peaceful transition from slavery to freedom. Arguably, violence during the Reconstruction led to the violence that persists today. Recognizing and acknowledging the violence that occurred during the Reconstruction era is important to fully understand America’s past.

History is constantly being made, especially with the  breakthroughs that have been made with diversity in our politicians. One such example is the newly elected elected mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot. Amazingly, Lori won in a landslide over her opponent for the mayoral election, Toni Preckwinkle. This victory was nothing less than absolutely one-sided, as voters showed their acceptance of Lori with the final poll difference being around fifty percent. The reason why this is significant is because as people become more accepting of others backgrounds, there are eventual breakthroughs like new representation of underrepresented peoples in places of power.

As Lori Lightfoot begins as the mayor of Chicago, could this be a sign that other such elections will follow in Chicago’s footsteps? The potential of this seems to be growing, as being a beacon of hope for the LGBT community, women’s rights, and the African American community is quite rare. On top of that, only two of the of the fifty-five mayors were of African American descent. Now, as  Lori steps up to deal with the corruption and gun violence that plagues Chicago, others in smaller cities or cities of higher diversity might have a better chance getting representation, or better yet, their demands filled. Regardless, as a result of Lori being elected as mayor, this brings an opportunity for people of different backgrounds to attempt to gain a seat in public office in order to gain representation and protection of the communities that they represent.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/02/chicago-mayors-race-history-black-woman-lori-lightfoot-toni-preckwinkle/3339248002/

if someone were to ask me, “hey, did you hear about big corporation that wants to host this event uplifting the black community through scholarships and education on entrepreneurship?” I would never guessed McDonald’s was behind it.  Yes, the burger joint that’s been serving America greasy food wants to give back to the communities that they have been serving. Now obviously, there is no doubt that this is a good thing that the McDonald’s corporation is doing. Anyone willing to help those who are struggling by providing scholarships for colleges is good in my book. However, I do get a bit of an uneasy feeling whenever large, faceless corporations try to appeal to our kindness. I think a bit of skepticism is a bit healthy considering how i’m not even sure how much “real meat” is in their food. What I will say is that even if they’re doing this nice event for the black community with the only motivation being that the company wants to better their image, I say let them. In the end, even if their motivations are flawed, doing good things is still just that. Good.

In recent years, the online lodging arrangement company Airbnb has been hit with a number of lawsuits involving certain customers being denied service from home owners for being black. To prevent something like this happening in the future, both the NAACP and Airnbnb have teamed up to come up with a plan to combat the situation and then act out said plan. One idea that hasn’t been out in motion yet is to set rules protecting anyone from being denied Airbnb service based on how their name sounds, or the color of their skin. Another thought of solution was to encourage members of the black community to open their homes for Airbnb service to open up more opportunities.

At the heart of America’s understanding of its own history is an assumed story of progress. This story of progress is often the lens through which Americans (and American historians) have viewed current and past events. The history of the Civil Rights Movement is no different. It was, and has long been, understood as an inevitable outcome of society, a confirmation of Whig history in the twentieth-century.

However, Dudziak’s work undermines this understanding by arguing that the ‘grand narrative’ of the Civil Rights Movement was actually a well crafted propaganda campaign the United States used to further international interests during the Cold War. Brown, far from being an inevitable outcome, was a purposeful ruling that allowed the United States to portray meaningful change without it actually happening. The nation HAD NOT progressed but Brown allowed Americans to declare progress none-the-less. What does this mean?

It means that The New York Times can release a podcast yesterday titled Why Did New York’s Most Selective Pubic High School Admit only 7 Black Students? (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/02/podcasts/the-daily/black-students-nyc-high-school.html) yet people will still argue that America does not have inequality in education. If people assume Brown was an inevitable outcome of progress then they can assume that the nation no longer has issues of racism or inequality in education, effectively shielding themselves from important arguments over issues that persist today. Re-framing Brown as a Cold War case helps to undermine this assumed progress and create room for a broader discussion regarding the reality of the issues that still exist today.

Exam II Review_From Reconstruction to World War II_spr 2019

You should be able to answer this series of questions:  What is the basic story of African Americans from Reconstruction to World War II?  How did white Americans respond to African Americans efforts to realize their freedom in the South and the two Great Migrations? How might you differentiate African American politics during the two wars?

 

 

I recently read an article regarding an investigation involving the FBI and the black lives matter movement. Specifically, two members of the New Black Panther Party, a peaceful and non-violent organization, were accused of plotting to plant bombs and kill the Ferguson police chief and the county prosecutor. The event took place six months into Trumps’ administration. A court case took place and the defense claimed to not have plotted any such thing. Also, the evidence towards the defense seemed to be “fiction” and “irresponsible.” I won’t get into the rest of the details of the article but would like to discuss the implications of the whole event. The problem here seems to be that the ability for (peaceful) protesting is beginning to be challenged. As we discussed in class, there were different views back in the civil rights era as to how to deal with discrimination and racism. (I think) It is now commonly believed that peaceful protesting is a viable solution. However, if claims are made against these protesters, then how can there be the freedom to stand up for injustices? Even if the case against the two men turned out to be true, it is a deviation from the actual movement and can’t automatically be associated with it. “Black identity extremism” shouldn’t describe what organizations such as the NBBP and Black Lives Matter movement. Also, law enforcement can’t be the first ones to take action, of course, unless there is good evidence. This didn’t seem to be the case, and cases like these can either silence people more or create more violence. I can’t say anything about the innocence of this case, but I believe that assuming violence with peaceful movements does create problems.

This weekend I had the opportunity to engage with a graduate student at the University of Michigan studying Information Sciences. This student’s work focused upon an area that relates to this class in unique ways. As a professional he worked in the field of robotics and A.I., trying to equip African Americans with access to new technologies. Specifically he was working with differently abled individuals who needed voice command to help them do basic tasks such as write or move.

What he found was a systematic bias in voice operated machines that could not understand the accents of some of the African American communities he was working within. This issue led him to return to school and study the systematic biases that exist in technology. He is conducting research to reveal the racial bias at work in big tech.

This is not an issue we have directly tackled in class but it relates to the broader themes of institutional racism we have discussed. Morality and ethics are important, but issues such as this one raise broader concerns regarding institutionalized racism and its pervasiveness today. What does it say about society today that some groups cannot use technologies because of their race/ethnicity?

For those interested, check back in with the post a bit later. I am going to post a link to his work once he provides me with one.

UPDATE: A link to a page displaying some people doing work and research on this topic:

Digital Sanctuary: Combatting Bias and Racism in Tech Tools and Policies

The wonderful thing about history is that while majority of it seems to be set in stone, there could be a numerous amount of documents and finding to be unearthed and some that may never be seen again.  I was intrigued with this article because it’s something I’d never heard about before.  The 1619 Landing Day, a day meant to honor the first group of Africans in the America’s.  The article does raise the point of what exactly should be factual and how rewriting history could be seen as problematic.  One is the use of the term “indentured servant.”  African Americans were slaves in the simplest forms no matter how one may want to put it, and using terms such as indentured servant only sugar coats the true sad history.

The article also makes point of keeping connected to the history at hand.  When revelations like this are revealed it is imperative to make note, yet many historians are still hesitant about changing history and tend to omit anything that has to do with Black history.  The point of the 1619 Landing day is to showcase African Americans presence in this country from the start, and while it may be a small thing, it still matters to the overall story of African American history.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2019-03-30/african-landing-assertion-reflects-changing-slavery-views

Last night I went to the Ubuntu show on campus, organized by the African Student Union. I went to learn about different African cultures. It was a celebration of African identity and unity of Africans living in the United States. I had experienced a few instances of African culture before, but I had never seen it portrayed through their own eyes of what they wanted to share about their home countries. It reminded me of when we discussed in class of how African Americans want to return home to Africa and embrace the culture of their nations. In fact, the host even brought up that Ghana has called for 2019 to be a year of return, so Africans, even those not specifically from Ghana can return home.

I thought that it was very interesting to see both Africans and African Americans come together and just celebrate life. However, it was also an educational experience for many of the caucasians in the audience. There were skits that discussed African writers and activists, as well as poems that brought to light the effect of colonialism on African lives. There was even a poem about love, which demonstrated that we all face the same human struggles and that we are not all that different deep down. I thought that each segment was special in its own way and was educational for me. It was special to see Black celebrated in a time when all we hear about is how Black is bad.