REVISED: The Power Of Color

Jenelle Halley
    BLST 101

                                    THE POWER OF COLOR

 Racism, tends to focus on the color of your skin and not the contents of who you are. White is pure and black is boisterous, in class we suggested that race was not naturally occurring and came to be over time through the process of racialization. Racism activates from a group of people who categorize Africans that did not view themselves as being a part of one group. In the years of 1680 and 1720 the number of blacks in South Carolina rose from 17 percent to 70 percent. Samuel Dyssli in 1737 said “looks more like a Negro country than a country settled by white people.” (pg84). This to me states your color may out number us but you will never over power us.  Many believe this world was discovered by a “white man” in spite of what others believe Africans make up the evolution of American culture. Elazer Barker stated in the United States: “During this period, race was perceived primarily as a scientific concept, perception which was itself a legacy of the nineteenth century”. (pg.2) Among leading scientific circles in the United States and Britain, race typology as an element of casual cultural explanation became largely discredited , racial differentiation began to be limited to physical characteristics, and prejudicial action based on racial discrimination came to be viewed as racism ( pg.3).

            I have always viewed racism as an ongoing issue that never really ended. Prior to the lessons that were taught in class, it took me by surprise to learn that our own people (Africans) participated in the slave trade. Prior to the lessons we discussed in class, I did not have the knowledge that African Slaves were brought to Barbados and other Caribbean islands. Barbadian slave owners came to consider it their legitimate right and privilege to engage in sexual liaisons with blacks. That has always been an issue to me that one race can envy another race but yet engage in sexual acts. However, I have taken a few Black study classes where the main focus will be whites owning slaves, but they never discussed Africans being involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. It is interesting to me that the concept of racialization being brought up in in class it now gave me a different lens view of racism.

            Lastly, personally I believe the idea of racism started from Europeans who wanted power of Africans. The power of color distinguishes what race dominated the other. When you think of politics you think of a white person in charge when Obama was elected for president, the black community thought there will be a change. There will always be racism if we as the people do not speak up and stick together as a community. The African American community is infuriated with cops killing us but no one talks about the crime against our own kind. History repeats itself we now have organizations like that represent the black community like:  “Black Lives Matter” “Stay Woke” groups that are fighting to increase injustice within our community. The whites have benefited from racism back then and at this present time, they have the power and are scared of losing it.

 

Academic Sources:

Barkan, E. (1992). The retreat of scientific racism: Changing concepts of race in Britain and the United States between the world wars. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books

 

Scott, W. R., & Shade, W. G. (2000). Upon these shores: themes in the African-American experience, 1600 to the present. Psychology Press. Retrieved: https://books.google.com/books

 Image: https://goo.gl/images/EQaCqm

I found this image interesting, although we elected a Black president Whites are still in control. This image is what we are facing as country "The Power of Color"

External Source:
Video: https://youtu.be/Mp2PzpJm6KE

Short Reading: Morgan, J.L (2004) Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery