Reaction Paper.
While I agreed with many of the points presented in the initial paper, especially regarding the subject of lynching and effects of The New Deal as it related to African Americans, there are many areas in which my interpretations of the reading differed slightly. This reaction paper will address each of the three arguments separately, highlighting the areas in which I both agreed and disagreed with the conclusions reached in the primary paper.
The first of the three arguments presented addressed the ways in which African Americans were systematically immobilized in their quest to become a part of the American economic and labor market. Factually, this is absolutely correct. The laws governing share cropping and labor as related to African Americans were often deeply unfair and designed to keep them from benefiting from the full privileges of American citizenship. However, my only criticism about the first argument was that it was largely emotional, as opposed to simply factual. Even today, there are heartbreaking disparities for African Americans and their access to fair labor. Just this year, in our nations capital, The Washington Post reported that rates of unemployment for African Americans was triple that of their white counterparts (6.1 for Whites and almost 18.1 for Blacks). However, just saying this is wrong is insufficient. Racism is a multilayered and complex beast (including race, sex, class, access to education and healthcare, etc.) and, in order to combat it, it much be addressed with equally complex arguments which address some of the associated causal effects.
The second point presented in the primary text concerned the issue of whether legal lynching still exists in todays environment. I very much liked the example presented about the Jena Six Boys, and think it shows the way that racial violence is still encouraged and sometimes tolerated by todays legal system. We often hold our court system up as the bastion of fairness and justice, forgetting that it is only as fair and just as those who are making the decisions. The example of police racial profiling (proven in study after study) and the inexplicable disparities that exist in sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine versus other drugs, demonstrates that we still have a long way to go. And, while unjustly putting someone in jail for a longer term based on hisher ethnic background doesnt immediately lynch them, it is doubtless that many lives are cut much shorter (via suicide, prison violence, depression). I believe that legal disparities can and do still contribute to the loss of life.
The third and final point presented in the arguments concerned The New Deal. Here, I agree overwhelmingly with the arguments listed and felt they did a great job in summing up the key points. The New Deal definitely was not a good deal for African Americans. In addition to the arguments presented, there were many other ways in which most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. For example, during The New Deal, the Social Security Act intentionally excluded many of the positions that were typically held and performed by blacks. While some small steps for civil rights were made during, considering the pressure that Roosevelt was under to appease Conservative Southern Democrats, it is no wonder that many of the laws enacted were openly unfair to blacks.
The first of the three arguments presented addressed the ways in which African Americans were systematically immobilized in their quest to become a part of the American economic and labor market. Factually, this is absolutely correct. The laws governing share cropping and labor as related to African Americans were often deeply unfair and designed to keep them from benefiting from the full privileges of American citizenship. However, my only criticism about the first argument was that it was largely emotional, as opposed to simply factual. Even today, there are heartbreaking disparities for African Americans and their access to fair labor. Just this year, in our nations capital, The Washington Post reported that rates of unemployment for African Americans was triple that of their white counterparts (6.1 for Whites and almost 18.1 for Blacks). However, just saying this is wrong is insufficient. Racism is a multilayered and complex beast (including race, sex, class, access to education and healthcare, etc.) and, in order to combat it, it much be addressed with equally complex arguments which address some of the associated causal effects.
The second point presented in the primary text concerned the issue of whether legal lynching still exists in todays environment. I very much liked the example presented about the Jena Six Boys, and think it shows the way that racial violence is still encouraged and sometimes tolerated by todays legal system. We often hold our court system up as the bastion of fairness and justice, forgetting that it is only as fair and just as those who are making the decisions. The example of police racial profiling (proven in study after study) and the inexplicable disparities that exist in sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine versus other drugs, demonstrates that we still have a long way to go. And, while unjustly putting someone in jail for a longer term based on hisher ethnic background doesnt immediately lynch them, it is doubtless that many lives are cut much shorter (via suicide, prison violence, depression). I believe that legal disparities can and do still contribute to the loss of life.
The third and final point presented in the arguments concerned The New Deal. Here, I agree overwhelmingly with the arguments listed and felt they did a great job in summing up the key points. The New Deal definitely was not a good deal for African Americans. In addition to the arguments presented, there were many other ways in which most New Deal programs discriminated against blacks. For example, during The New Deal, the Social Security Act intentionally excluded many of the positions that were typically held and performed by blacks. While some small steps for civil rights were made during, considering the pressure that Roosevelt was under to appease Conservative Southern Democrats, it is no wonder that many of the laws enacted were openly unfair to blacks.
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