Racism in America
Racism
“The prejudice that members of one race are
intrinsically superior to members of other
races” [wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn]
Charles Darwin’s Thinking on Race
"I could show fight on natural selection
[evolution] having done and doing more for the
progress of civilization than you seem inclined
to admit.... The more civilized so-called
Caucasian races have beaten the Turkish
hollow in the struggle for existence. Looking to
the world at no very distant date, what an
endless number of the lower races will have
been eliminated by the higher civilized races
throughout the world."
At some future period, not very distant as
measured by centuries, the civilized races of
man will almost certainly exterminate, and
replace, the savage races throughout the
world. At the same time, the anthropomorphous
apes [man-apes] . . . will no doubt be
exterminated. The break between man and his
nearest allies will then be wider, for it will
intervene between man in a more civilized state,
as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and
some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now
between the negro [sic] or Australian and the
gorilla.
Edwin G. Conklin, Professor of Biology at
Princeton University from 1908 to 1933.
Comparison of any modern race with the
Neanderthal or Heidelberg types shows that all
have changed, but probably the negroid races
more closely resemble the original stock [apes?]
than the white or yellow races. Every
consideration should lead those who believe in
the superiority of the white race to strive to
preserve its purity and to establish and maintain
the segregation of the races, for the longer this is
maintained, the greater the preponderance of the
white race will be.
Henry Fairfield Osborn - professor of
biology and zoology at Columbia
University (1908-1933)
The Negroid stock is even more ancient than
the Caucasian and Mongolians, as may be
proved by an examination not only of the
brain, of the hair, of the bodily characteristics .
. . but of the instincts, the intelligence. The
standard of intelligence of the average adult
Negro is similar to that of the eleven-yearold-youth of the species Homo Sapiens.
Examples of Racism
[Pre-Civil War]
1. Ownership of land as a voting restriction
2. Sale and ownership of slaves
3. Tacit acceptance of slavery
4. Treatment of Native Americans
5. Lynching
Examples of Racism
[Post-Civil War]
Lynching
Used as a method of intimidation by the
politically dominant to maintain the status quo.
Nearly 5,000 African Americans were lynched in
the United States between 1860 and 1890
Between 1882 and 1968, the Tuskegee Institute
recorded 1,293 lynchings of whites. Many were
Southern Republicans who sympathized with
blacks.
Jim Crow Laws (1876-1965)
These laws were passed by state legislatures that had been
“reclaimed” by Southern Democrats. They discriminated
against African Americans (and others) with regard to
attendance in public schools and the use of facilities such
as restaurants, theaters, hotels, cinemas and public baths.
Trains and buses were also segregated and in many states
marriage between whites and African American people was
prohibited.
When legally challenged (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896) the
result was that “separate but equal” was legal.
State-sponsored school segregation was declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States
in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the
remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
City of
Birmingham,
Alabama:
1951
U. S. Military segregation
Starting with King Philip's War (1675-1676),
blacks fought and died alongside whites in an
integrated environment in the North American
colonies. They continued to fight in every
American war integrated with whites up until
the War of 1812. They would not fight in
integrated units again until the Korean War
(1950).
Job and Housing Discrimination
Segregation, particularly in public housing,
continued into the 1960’s
Professional sports segregation
•
•
•
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Against non-white players, non-white coaches
and non-white owners]
Baseball: Jackie Robinson/Brooklyn/1947
Basketball: Chuck Cooper/Celtics 1950
Hockey: Willie O’Ree (1958)
Football: The APFA (American Prof. Football
Assoc.) had black players (13 total from 19201933). It’s successor, the NFL had none until
after WWII.
Sports Names and Symbols
Redskins, Chiefs, Warriors, etc.
• Some teams have names that have (had) no
racial connotation, but by association the
name became unpopular: Frisco, Texas
“‘Coons” (Racoons)
• Some names were racist from the beginning
and have been changed: Pekin, Illinois
“Chinks”, now the “Dragons”
Chief Wahoo
(Cleveland Indians)
Pekin Chinks
Internment of Japanese during WWII
Advertising
Frito
Bandito
Hawaiian
Punch
Music: Rap
"Niggas in the church say: kill whitey all night long. . .
the white man is the devil. . . the CRIPS and Bloods are
soldiers I'm recruiting with no dispute; drive-by
shooting on this white genetic mutant. . . let's go and
kill some rednecks. . . Menace Clan ain't afraid. . . I got
the .380; the homies think I'm crazy because I shot a
white baby; I said; I said; I said: kill whitey all night long.
. . a nigga dumping on your white a__; f___ this rap
s___, nigga, I'm gonna blast. . . I beat a white boy to the
mother_____ ground";
"Kill Whitey"; --Menace Clan, Da Hood, 1995, Rap-A-Lot
Records, Noo Trybe Records, subsidiaries of what was called
Thorn EMI and now is called The EMI Group, United Kingdom.
Cartoons, etc.
“All This and Rabbit Stew”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUw9ZqD49A8
“Southern Fried Rabbit”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8D93Awa434
“Jungle Jitters”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4VySRGoJTY
Still Happening
See Also:
Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSZIzGQ
MAn8
• http://www.ferris.edu/JIMCROW/