My opinion on racism
Ayhesia Cadogan
Kevin Lambert/ENC 101/5541
March 16, 2006
DOES THE COLOR- LINE EXIST?
W.E.B De Bois said in (“The Souls of Black Folks”) that the problem of the twentieth
century is the problem of the color-line .The
color-line represents an invisible line of racism that separates African Americans,
Europeans, and other nationalities in everyday life...
Although the color-line is not as bad as it was in the twentieth century in the twenty first
century the color- line still exists. Because of the
discrimination laws the color-line is very must hidden. African Americans and people of
color struggle harder to prove they are just as
equal as the average white man. People of color are discriminated on everyday and they
are not treated as equals.
One example of discrimination is that schools in the south are still struggling with
segregation, on a television network called lifetime a movie called “For One Night” is
based on a true story of a segregated high school called “Taylor Country” in the town of
Butler Georgia. The high school held separate proms for white and black students for
over thirty-one years. One African American student by the name of Garcia McCray
decide to make history in the year of 2002 that she would bring all her black and white
peers along with other high school students together for the night of there high school
prom. According to De Bois he says, “How does it feel to be a problem?”(10). He
express that non colored people don’t know what it is to be black and to be looked a pond
in different way. With the help of a local reporter Garcia McCray was able to make
history by bringing all segregated high schools in the state of Georgia to integrate proms
after thirty-one years.
Another way in which people of color are affected by discrimination is at the work place.
They work long shifts for low pay with no or very little health benefits .One African
American woman named is Judy works for a prestige medical doctor for fourteen years as
a lab technician .In those fourteen years she work she is very much under paid and has
very little heath insurance. She is very educated and is the best in her field.Judy is
amazed how a Jewish Receptionist whose work at the job least than two years who is
very incompetent gets a higher salary and is entitled to all of her Jewish holidays off.
Although Judy is also very religious she is not entitled to her religious holidays.
“In the Souls of Black Folks” Du Bois says I long for, and all their dazzling
opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said;some,
all I would wrest from them (10). De Bois argues that he is entitled to the same
opportunities as the white man and he was going to get what he deserved.
Without a doubt Segregation and discrimination still exists in the twenty-first century.
From state to state country to county people of color are still fighting for equalrights,
fighting for equal opportunities. No matter how hard blacks fight they are never going to
have a world free of racism. People of color are judged by the color of there skin and live
have to live with it for centuries to come. Human beings are not born prejudice they are
thought to be prejudice which will go from generation to generation for the color-line will
forever exists.