Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay Example for Free

Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay Blacks in the USA in 1945 were not considered as equal; the treatment of people was based on their skin colour, a practice that had been going on for many years before, even after the Reconstruction of society after the Civil War in which the blacks were liberated from slavery. In theory, blacks were free to work and live where they wanted, but the figures at the time told a different story: by 1960, around 17% of the workforce of white-collar workers, i.e. professional, technical, administration, etc., were blacks, while the whites remained the majority at 47%. The blue-collar work, such as craftsmen, manual labourers, etc. jobs that are renowned for needing less skill and education had 40% of the workforce as blacks, and 36% were whites. Blacks just werent provided the education and qualifications to do the professional types of work due to separation of black and white facilities. Not only were they held back at getting the higher-class jobs, they were paid less for the same wor k that whites did; in 1950, blacks earned about 53% of a whites wage. This figure remained the same over the next 20 years, with it rising 11% to blacks earning 64% of a whites wage. All over the USA, blacks were discriminated against in almost all areas of life, whether it is the law of the state, or just by the custom of the local society. After the abolishment of slavery, slaves had the choice of moving away from their former homes and having their own lives; unfortunately, many blacks didnt have any money to move halfway across the USA to the northern states that had fought to free them. Those who did have the finance to travel rarely had enough money afterwards to sustain a good quality of life after they had moved. The custom of de facto came into play in some of the Northern states; ghettos and places where the majority of the population were black sprung up in towns and cities. Segregation by custom in the North was contrasted with segregation by law, or de jure, in the South- Jim Crow laws forbade blacks, for example, to enter white facilities, or sit on buses with whites, etc. Places where de facto was in force came up with other ways to separate blacks from whites to keep the Southern order of things; red lining was when banks were not allowed to give money for mortgages if they suspected it would be a risky investment- if a black family moved into a certain area, it would lower the prices of the surrounding houses. This  meant that places such as ghettos were built up, when the majority of the population were black. This type of segregation wasnt by law, but by custom, blacks werent forced to live in black areas, but they felt pressured to live in certain places because of the practises such as red lining in effect. Although it is in the Constitution that everyone is equal and has the same civil rights, it is beliefs like red lining that push a wedge between races; it may not seem constitutional, but it is up to the Supreme Court in the USA to decide what is constitutional. They decided that slavery was lawful mainly due the fact that the Southern states economy was based on slavery; they were needed to produce cotton, the main export in the 19th century. Without them, the economy would have fallen apart. After the 13th amendment to the Constitution, slavery was no longer legal, but the Supreme Court still remained to overlook state laws that continued discrimination and practices that could be seen as worse then slavery- for example, the Ku Klux Klan were allowed to terrorise and lynch blacks, yet lynching was not made illegal. The Supreme Court declared that the 14th amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating (1) Separate facilities for blacks and whites were considered as the solution to the discrimination problem; the Supreme Court believed that the blacks were separate but equal when they were forced to use different buildings, transport, schools and hospitals then the whites. Since the Supreme Court approved laws and could declare them unconstitutional if they wanted to, they were the ones who the blacks has to convince if they wanted to change anything; in legal cases, the trial had to be taken to the Supreme Court to have any impact, since the State Courts were always going to be in favour of the Jim Crow laws. The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) case was when Homer Plessy refused to sit in the coloured car of a train and sat in the white section instead. The case went to Supreme Court, and they ruled that Plessy was guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine or go to jail. This was considered the most shameful ruling of the Supreme Court in history; it shows the extent of the discrimination against blacks, even after slavery was abolished- even though Plessy was 1/8 black and 7/8 white, he was still considered as black in the eyes of the Louisiana law. Although many people thought that this ruling was  shocking, there wasnt much that could be done, since they did not have a definite leader to show them what the do; everything that the movement did was relatively unorganised, with maybe one person leading the others. People such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington tried to unite blacks under one leadership, but it did not work, because everyone has different opinion on what should be done about the discrimination problem. Dr Martin King Jr. was a black leader that advocated peaceful resistance; because of this, many whites accepted him because they knew that he would not cause violence, but blacks did not like this as peaceful protest could only take them so far- they felt that King was weaker then some of the other extremist black leaders, such as Malcolm X. Kings approach to fighting against their oppression wasnt enough to keep the blacks following him; they preferred people who were willing to do more for the benefit of all blacks. Another leader who was thought as weak by fellow blacks was Booker T. Washington; he was accused of being an accommodationist to the whites, as he wasnt campaigning for equal civil rights, he was concentrating on equal job opportunities- this wasnt what the blacks were fighting for; they wanted to be free to do what the whites could do, not only in jobs but in other aspects of life too. The leaders of the movement were not united, therefore they were not strong- many leaders were critical of others, for example, W.E.B DuBois criticised Washington, saying that blacks cannot get social equality if they do not get political equality first. The New Deal is a phrase used to explain the actions taken after Black Tuesday when the US Stock market crashed to stop the effects of the Depression disturbing the lives of the public. Laws were passed to help stop the consequences of the Depression becoming a long-term problem; within the first hundred days, President Roosevelt passed a law that lowered workers salaries and pensions by up to 15%- a move that people did not like, yet it saved a lot of money for the government. Another act was passed that stated that the government could inspect banks before letting them open again so they could see if the bank was eligible to lend and hold money. This prevented banks lending out money that they did not have, therefore they did not losing money for their customers and wouldnt have to close, as they  would have to have done if they did lend out money they didnt have. The New Deal was produced so the government could help all of those that were affected by the Depression; this helped the blacks because they were some of the poorest people in the USA at the time, and as many as 8% of blacks were unemployed in 1955. For the blacks, the New Deal slightly improved their way of living as it was designed to help everyone without discrimination. Soon after New Deal was set up, the situation for blacks was improved socially by the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Americans were brought into the war, they needed as many men as they could to fight; blacks had regiments where they could join and be equal to whites, but they still were not allowed to belong to the same regiment as the whites- there were some who did, but they were rare, they normally belonged to an all-black regiment. At the end of the war, the blacks got more ambitious; they were allowed to fight for their country, but America wasnt even grateful enough of them to let them be equal. This would have enraged African Americans since they had fought so hard to be a part of America, so the Civil Rights movement activity increased, which put pressure on the government to do something. The Nazi ideology also pushed the government into action, because what the Americans were doing to the blacks could be compared to the Germans discriminating against the Jews in Germany; the blacks realised this, so demanded equality, as they didnt want the same to happen to them. In conclusion, the position of blacks in 1945 was not equal to whites: even after a century of supposed freedom from slavery, blacks were still treated as inferiors to whites. Laws and acts were in effect that encouraged the discrimination of blacks. Amendments such as the rights for blacks to vote and the rights for them to be equal were passed, but there were so many other laws that cancelled them out. Jim Crow laws in the South and practises such as red lining in the North made it impossible for blacks to be seen as equal politically, whilst rebellions by extremist whites and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan stopped blacks gaining any social standing or equality. Blacks were supposed to be equal, but by 1945, some may comment that the position of them was worse then slavery, as the blacks were on their own in  there poverty and discrimination; before, they had their slave owners who would clothe and feed them to keep productive workers- they would never be out on the streets as slaves, but as free people, they received basically no help. Things that whites took for granted, such as clean and good-quality facilities, and jobs that are fair and just are things that blacks counted themselves lucky if they managed to get any equality. People like Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois tried to get equality, both through violence and peaceful means, but it didnt have much effect to the political and social standing of blacks. The discrimination of blacks continued right into the 20th century, even up into the 21st century. It was slow going for the blacks right to equality, but actions by both blacks and whites changed things for the better. H owever, in 1945, blacks were not considered as equal, but as 3/5s of a human being. Bibliography: (1) http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Reparations-Slavery.html Field, Ron; Civil Rights in America 1865-1980; Cambridge University Press http://www.lawbuzz.com/can_you/plessy/plessy.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

Fanon and de Beauvoir: Opposing Discrimination Essay example -- Psycho

Fanon and de Beauvoir: Opposing Discrimination All modern (i.e. post-paleolithic) religions contain the "Gnostic trace" of distrust or even outright hostility to the body and the "created" world. Contemporary "primitive" tribes and even peasant-pagans have a concept of immortality and of going-outside-the-body (ec-stasy) without necessarily exhibiting any excessive body-hatred. The Gnostic Trace accumulates very gradually (like mercury poisoning) till eventually it turns pathological. Gnostic dualism exemplifies the extreme position of this disgust by shifting all value from body to "spirit". This idea characterizes what we call "civilization". -Hakim Bey, â€Å"Information War†, c-theory a022 Struggles against ‘injustice’ in the 20th century tend to take a drearily similar form. First the advocate recognizes that not all people are equal, next demands that some irrelevant differences are ignored, and finally tries to make all people people again. This method has become so popular it has been applied â€Å"all the way down† the ladder of inferiority, to declare politically-irrelevant unequal treatment on ‘every possible’ basis. The effort is, in a sense, a drive to move from the â€Å"created† world outside the ‘body’ to a cheery world of equality in the mind. This hostility to the body and exoneration of a universal subject, unfortunately, is also precisely the basic cause of the discrimination one must condemn in step one of struggles for equality. The subject is a problem for many reasons, but the explicit proclamation of the inferiority of some to others relies purely on an ability to say what a person is or sho uld be, and what not. If some are treated as less than human, it may well be because of the category of human itself.... ...attempt to initiate some oppressed groups into the class of oppressors. What may well be needed instead of trading places in the system of constructed identities centered around one ideal subject is a rethinking of the subject itself, a problematization of the role of self that Fanon and de Beauvoir are so anxious to expand just enough to allow in their chosen group. The analogy to Moses is apt, the Gnostic impulse here can be seen in both thinkers as they rescue their people from the servitude in one land, take them through a long initiation process to the promised land, which is disappointing, and then allow them free reign as stable subjects to wage war against their own enemies and dominate the Canaanites as they had been dominated. There is a perverse specter of the golden rule being obeyed: discriminate against others as you were once discriminated against.

John Forbes Nash Jr.

John Forbes Nash Jr. is a math prodigy and one of the recipients of the prestigious Carnegie Prize for Mathematics at Princeton University.   While taking his graduate studies, he met his roommate Charles Herman, a literature student who became his best friend.   His eccentric behavior made it difficult for other people to understand and relate to him.   Nash’s obsession in searching for an original idea for his thesis and a place in the student social hierarchy led him to skip classes which nearly cost his failure.Fortunately, he was saved by his original research study where he was able to formulate a theory in mathematical economics known as the concept of governing dynamics.   After his graduate studies, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and selected his friends Sol and Bender to work with him.While teaching a class on Calculus, he met Alicia, a student who later became his wife.   While at Princeton, Nash behaved erratically and became paranoid.   This compelled Alicia to call a psychiatrist who forcibly took him to a psychiatric facility.   While confined in the facility, Alicia showed Nash the unopened classified documents that he delivered in a drop box.   This convinced Nash that he has been hallucinating and his classified work to decode Soviet messages was a delusion.William Parcher, a mysterious Department of Defense agent, Charles and Charles’ niece, Marcee were products of his mind.   Nash was diagnosed to have paranoid schizophrenia and was treated with a series of insulin shock therapy for ten weeks.   He was given daily antipsychotic medications that affected his intellect and his relationship with Alicia.   Nash became frustrated and secretly discontinued his medications. This triggered a relapse but he came to realize his psychosis when he saw that Marcee remained at the same age for many years.Nash learned to live with his schizophrenia and ignored his hallucinations.   With th e permission of Martin Hansen, his old friend and intellectual rival who became the head of mathematics department in Princeton, Nash was given a space in the library to talk to students and audit classes.   Eventually, he was able to teach again and was honored in a pen ceremony by his colleagues for his achievement and contribution in the field of Mathematics.   He was also awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in Stockholm for his work on game theory.1. Why did you pick this film?I chose the film â€Å"A Beautiful Mind† not on the basis of knowing anyone who has a similar problem or on my capacity to relate to the psychological issues on a personal experience.   I chose this movie because there are some scenes in the film which I find very intriguing and influential.   First, there was no family involvement and presence in his wedding, academic achievements and illness of John Nash.   Second, persons with mental disorder endure a stigma during the early y ears but John Nash’s struggle to be reintegrated in Princeton and in his community was remarkable.   Third, his superior achievement despite his mental illness is inspiring.   Lastly, the movie was powerful enough to awaken the consciousness of people towards understanding the plight of people living schizophrenia.2. What psychological issues are portrayed in this film?The story showed the eccentric behavior of John Nash.   He was unconcern by society’s disapproval of his awkward habits and behavior.   His manner of walking and his constant habit of touching his forehead became the focus of attention by some students in Princeton.Nash was obsessed with his research work and his standing in the student social hierarchy.   He brings his books and paper work while he was at a local bar with his friends.   Although he has few friends at Princeton, he has a strong preference to be alone and often preoccupied with his own thoughts which is a personality trait of an introvert.   Nash also exhibited a type A personality pattern by being achievement oriented, over involved with work, having a sense of time urgency, being impatient and angry when confronted with delays or with people whom they view as incompetent.In the movie, Nash manifested visual and auditory hallucinations and paranoia which frightened his wife and affected his function at work.   He thinks that he is working for the US National Defense Department and there are Russian spies following him.   He interacts with people who only exist in his mind such as his roommate and best friend Charles Herman, US Department of Defense agent William Parcher and Charles young niece Marcee.3. What diagnosis (if any) does the main character portray?Dr. Rosen diagnosed John Nash to be afflicted with paranoid schizophrenia due to his visual and auditory hallucinations, delusion and paranoia.   The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-TR defined schizophrenia as a diso rder that last for at least 6 months and includes at least 1 month of active-phase symptoms, i.e. two or more of the following: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and negative symptoms (American Psychological Association, 2000).Only one symptom in Criterion A is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of two or more voices conversing with one another or voices maintaining a running commentary on the person’s behavior or thoughts (ibid.).   The continuous signs of his disturbance persisted since he took his Masters degree and it continued until he worked at MIT.4. What psychological theory best explains the behavior of the major characters in the film?Incentives are environmental factors such as external stimuli or rewards which motivate our behavior (Skinner, 1953).   The theory of motivation, specifically the incentive theory best describe the behavior of John Nash (Westmont College, 2008).   Nash was highly motivated by the incentive of occupying a place in the student social hierarchy in Princeton University.   He was intellectually competitive and the academic incentive pulled him to write an original research paper that would defeat his rival Martin Hansen.   His achievements and recognition also led to the satisfaction of his need for self esteem.   His career growth and advancement is a realization of his need for self actualization.   These needs partly comprise Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1954)Alicia Nash has an extrovert personality trait.   In the movie, she was able to talk to the construction workers to work in another area so they could have good ventilation and a noise-free classroom environment.   This indicates that she interacts well with people and she has the tendency to direct her personality outward the self.Her determination to uncover the truth and help her husband John prove that he is working for the National Defense D epartment shows that she is a woman of action, whose motives are conditioned by external events.   Accepting John’s situation and guiding him towards reintegration manifest that she accommodates readily to new situations.   Alicia’s extrovert personality trait is part of the personality type theory developed by Carl Jung (Jung, 1933).5. Based on what you have learned from the movie would you say the film portrays the psychological issue accurately or not? Why?The movie did not portray the psychological issues accurately.   Although John Nash manifested two of the characteristic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations as indicated in Criterion A of DSM IV-TR, his hallucinations were not limited to auditory.   He has both the visual and auditory hallucinations which are uncommon for schizophrenia.The film showed that the onset of his mental disorder started during his graduate studies, a period wherein Nash had a high level of academic and occupational achi evement.   He may not be sociable but his interpersonal skill is acceptable; otherwise, he would have difficulties in developing friendships with some students at Princeton and would not have a relationship with Alicia.   Therefore, he has not also met the symptoms for schizophrenia such as social and occupational dysfunction as indicated in Criterion B.Two thoughts came to mind when John Nash said that he is taking a new medication.   First, does this mean that he was on continuous medication since his relapse or has he discontinued taking his medication for many years and decided to try the newly discovered pill?   Second, Nash daily antipsychotic medication affected his intellectual ability and his relationship with Alicia.   He was not also able to engage in any occupation.   One can only come up with a conjecture that since Nash was able to teach at Princeton University means that he discontinued his medication and learned to live with his hallucinations.ReferencesA merican Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental   Ã‚  Ã‚   disorders DSM-IV-TR (Text Revision).   American Psychiatric Association:     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Washington, DC.Jung, C. G. (1933).   Psychological types. New York: Harcourt Brace and World.Maslow, A.H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York:Harper and Row.Skinner, B.F. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: Macmillan.Westmont College (2008).   Motivation.   Retrieved February 1, 2008 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.westmont.edu/_academics/pages/departments/psychology/pages/smith/ge  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   neral/lectureoutlines/11motivation/theoriesmotivation.html#

Essay about The Puritans - Creating the Perfect God...

The Puritans - Creating the Perfect God Fearing Society The Puritans dream was to create a model society for the rest of Christendom. Their goal was to make a society in every way connected to god. Every aspect of their lives, from political status and employment to even recreation and dress, was taken into account in order to live a more pious life. But to really understand what the aspirations of the puritans were, we must first understand their beliefs. â€Å"Their goal was absolute purity; to live with out sin in a sinful world was to them the supreme challenge in life. They were derisively called Puritans because they sought to purify the Church of England of the popish and antichristian stuff with which they believed the†¦show more content†¦Second they believed in working hard, and if one acquired wealth by working hard, saving, and staying sober, than that was evidence of God favoring that person. â€Å"Eating well, drinking well, sexual indulgence within the bounds of matrimony, and enjoying the comforts of life were not proscribed by the Puritans. In actuality, the Puritans were waging war upon certain human propensities that they regarded as evils: covetousness, materialism, the love of ostentation, and concern with the externals of religion rather than with the things of the spirit.† When a puritan felt that he had failed to meet the requirements set for him by God, he â€Å"flagellated himself remorselessly with introspective cross-examinations that usually took the form of thoughts of eternal reprobation and torment.† The puritan was in constant internal conflict, whether it was restraining his human desires, or if he failed in that, than scolding himself for faltering in his efforts. The Puritans believed that they were God’s select few that could carry out his original orders the way he had intended. Now that we have made clear the beliefs that the Puritans held so dear, we can better observe their aspirations when they arrived in Massachusetts. They came to the New World to erect a â€Å"City Upon a Hill† that would serve as a model for the rest of the Christian world. â€Å"Thus, in the eyes of the Puritan leaders, the settlement of New England appeared to be the most significant act in human historyShow MoreRelatedEssay about puritanism1242 Words   |  5 Pages The Puritans dream was to create a model society for the rest of the Christians.. Their goal was to make a society in every way connected to god. Every aspect of their lives, from political views and employment to recreation and dress, was taken into account in order to live a more pious life. But to really understand what the aspirations of the puritans were, we must first understand their beliefs. 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