Essay Sample about Racism in America: Discrimination and Prejudice

Since the late 1860s' African Americans have been protected equally under the law.  The addition of the 14th and 15th amendments guaranteed this.  These amendments were added to ensure the rights and citizenships of everyone born in the United States.  Although the American people were treated equally on paper that does not mean it was enforced.  A century later black Americans were still fighting for equal treatment and desegregation within society.  The acceptance of racism in society led to a fear that with equality there would be a loss of power and a disruption to their corrupt system.  Doing their best to resist racism African Americans would protest through marches, writing, songs, etc. as an attempt to combat the hurdles society presented them with.  Mother to Son by Langston Hughes and Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King Jr. both examine the obstacles African Americans had to overcome in order to achieve equality.  This suggests that society not only normalized racism but portrayed it as positive for both parties although it only assisted one of them.  Although these racist practices discouraged many African Americans and caused them to give up it caused others to resist segregation and work harder to achieve their goals even if it was a difficult decision to make.

At this point racism was accepted and encouraged for centuries.  If someone stepped out of these lines there were repercussions.  Many people colored inside the lines and kept different colors separate to prevent chaos and to keep the system in place.  Some enforced it, some followed it, some did not agree with it but did not want to object, and finally the last group not only colored outside of the lines, they used paints and crayons and markers all to change the original picture that had been created and continuously retraced.  Because of these circumstances if change was going to be made black Americans had to dream big and work hard to strategically enforce change.  Hughes presents this idea in Mother to Son by using the metaphor that life is a staircase even if it isn’t crystal it’s still a step up from where they were before.  As revealed by the quote, “Don’t you set down on the steps/ ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard./ Don’t you fall now—/ For I’se still goin’, honey,/ I’se still climbin’,/ And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Hughes 15-20).  Racist practices caused most African Americans to keep their heads down out of fear for their lives.  Similarly, white Americans did the same thing although it was not as dangerous for them.  However, both parties had some people that saw these societal normalities as a way to fuel themselves.  Both nonviolent and violent parties erupted to combat this problem.  Not speaking up against the issue or giving up entirely only provides the oppressors with an increased sense of power over the oppressed.  In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor.  Noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good…So acquiescence—while often the easier way—is not the moral way.  It is the way of the coward”(King).  Mother to Son addresses the same idea in a similar way.  In Mother to Son the mother says to the son that he should not sit down and give up because it is difficult.  She has made it this far and her life was far from glamorous so he can work hard to get somewhere too even if other people have it better.  King more directly states, “The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor’s arrogance and contempt.  Acquiescence is interpreted as proof of the Negro’s inferiority.  The Negro cannot win the respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety”.  As illustrated by King, If everyone sits around and waits, nothing can change even if it is a necessary change.  Accepting the fate of the country before the conflict has been resolved automatically sets society up for failure.  Persistence is essential to spark change.  Without aspiration and persistence society can not be remodeled.  Even a small resistance here and there can build up to create a movement.  Although there are many risks involved, the difference between having a dream and working to achieve it are astronomical.  

If a society continuously illustrates racism and segregation as something that benefits everyone slowly people will agree.  Many people in society are sheep; they follow what they are told whether they agree with it or not.  At this time black people did not have a choice in the matter as their choices were to either speak up or die.  White people had a similar choice but it was not as brutal.  The American society has devoted their efforts to enforcing an illustration that portrayed black Americans as lesser than.  They did this simply because of the color of their skin, for power, and someone comes along and smudges their idea of art.  In the mind of the oppressor it isn’t as powerful as it smudges the lines society that has been established for centuries.  In the 1960s plenty of African Americans had decided they had enough so they decided to draw a new picture even though it meant many people would be silenced, hurt, or killed.  Although the old picture of society has been erased, some of the outlines still remain because something that took centuries to make the first time is going to take just as long to restart and modify.  Mother to Son by Langston Hughes and Stride Toward Freedom by Martin Luther King Jr. both present the challenges African Americans had to overcome in order to achieve equality.  They reveal just how difficult it was to succeed as a black American in this time period especially when it involved initiating societal change.  These two works brought light to these difficulties although they were not always direct, suggesting that society not only normalized racism but portrayed it as positive for both parties involved.  The sheer ignorance of society becomes so much more transparent when it is looked at through the works of the actively oppressed who risked their lives to fight this battle.