A Tribe of the Middle Passage

Reading the Civil Disobedience article made me think about how normalized white southern violence was during these times. It seemed like basically the author was saying if the black community acted out in civil disobedience, then they know what’s coming to them. The author seems to say “We all know how the south can be”. This enables white southern violence instead of condemning it. Instead, it appears that the black community is being condemned for trying to stick up for themselves in the face of white violence.

White violence was pushed under the rug while the black community was criticized for wanting to do something to fight it.

While reading “Brown as a Cold War Case”, I noticed that the value of context in relation to historical events is great. In high school when I learned about the Brown Case nothing beyond what it was and what it did was taught or discussed. Through reading this article, it relates the case to what was going on in the world at the time and emphasizes the importance of considering context when studying history.

Since the Brown case was an international story and America was under a microscope because of their leader role in the Cold War, I wonder if the result would have been different had there been less publicity and attention. Is the public attention what swayed the case?

Context is so important because it influences events so strongly. Merely studying the event itself isn’t deep enough because there’s so much happening around it that shapes it.

Implicit bias is the idea that people create certain judgements on a person’s character based off of their race, gender or physical appearance. It has been generally accepted that all people have implicit bias, however research from a Yale University Child Study Center has found evidence of implicit bias among preschool teachers. This could possibly help explain why young black students are expelled or suspended from school far more often than white students. The study also showed that black teachers recommended longer suspensions regardless of the child’s race or gender.

In the research, 132 teachers were asked to watch video clips of preschool children and to note instances of challenging behavior. The videos were filmed using actors and didn’t include any signs of trouble. However, eye tracking software showed that the teachers spent more time looking at black children than white children. In particular, they spent considerably more time watching black boys. This study suggests that some preschool teachers expect trouble from certain students based on their race and gender, and if this is the case, additional training for these teachers would be needed to rectify these assumptions.

The study also found that white and black teachers evaluated a child’s behavior differently depending on their race. When asked to read about an instance of misbehavior from a child with a stereotypically black name, white teachers were less likely to say that the child’s misbehavior had been severe. This could suggest that white teachers hold black preschoolers to a lower standard; they expect misbehavior from black children and so acting out is not as much of an issue for them.

It’s unlikely that preschool teachers are intentionally prejudiced against certain students. However, with black preschoolers almost 3.6 times more likely to be suspended than white children, it seems implicit bias could be shaping teachers’ attitudes towards young children.

When reading “The Negro Artist and The Racial Mountain” I began to think about my high school experience. Some of the  Black students would say that another Black student is “talking white” or “sounds white”, when that person spoke with proper grammar rather than slang and/or cursing. They would also comment on how certain white people were “acting Black”.  When one student was considered to be “acting Black” they would be goofing off, disruptive, disobedient, and talking inappropriately. These statements make blackness sound  less than, and uneducated, while white is “unconsciously a symbol of all the virtues” (Racial Mountain). This is similar to the “Negro poet” wanting “to be  white” (Racial Mountain).

White is considered to be the standard and what Blacks must strive to be. The” white man does things”(Racial Mountain) well and  Black people are supposed to follow his example.

The internalization of negative stereotypes is very prevalent in the Black community. Some people actually believe that, “talking white” is better and means that you are educated, while in actuality they are speaking like how any person speaks their language. Some people in the Black community hold on to these  stereotypes about themselves which just perpetuates the negativity. They may believe that since they can never be white they will never be good enough. These views can effect them in different aspects of their lives i.e. school, and jobs. They may give up because they know that they cannot reach the white standard, which can cause other problems in their life as well.

 

In 1915,  Dubois asks an important question pertaining to race and class conflict. He wonders why lower; working class Whites are not helping the exploited Asians, and Blacks. Since, all of them are in the working class he analyzes why the working class Whites side with the upper class Whites. DuBois thinks that it would make more sense for the working class to work together because they are all exploited as a whole. However, this does not happen because the working class Whites,  identify more with their race rather than their socioeconomic standing.

I found myself asking a similar question when president Trump was elected.   The media showed White people of all backgrounds supporting Trump. Many, lower class Whites were especially prone to voting for him. I thought about why this was.  After reading “African Roots of War”,  I now have a clearer answer.

I would never have thought someone would say Trump is relatable or like the common man. I would think that him being apart of the upper class would produce the opposite effect. That he would not have the lower class best interest at heart and would not be relatable to the average American. I have heard these statements however, not because of class, but because of his race. The shared race makes him relatable to a working class White person, just like it did in 1915. They also are not exploited as much as someone who does not share their race, even though they are not in the same class. Even after a hundred plus years, DuBois examples can still be seen in society today.