Randolph Harris II International

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American History Month: African American Perspective

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The people are a sovereign, and greatly despotic, but, in the main, just. Most people are not born with prejudice; they acquire them during the socialization process. All of this skin color and hair texture drama is to keep the community divided and fighting with each other, instead of focusing on bring each other up.

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African Americans were made to feel ashamed to be alive. They were made to feel less human because they had brown skin. To sociologist, race is a social construction, and races are categories of people set apart from others because of socially defined physical characteristics.

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This is true in the United States of America and globally, where groups use physical traits such as skin color, hair texture, and other incidental biological traits and transform them into significant symbols of purported racial differences. Social races may seem to be about biology, but they are in fact a pseudobiological classification system.

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For example, in the United States of American, if one parent is Black and the other White, the child is genetically 50 percent White and 50 percent Black. If the American ideas of race are indeed based on biology and science, why does the current racial classification system fail to recognize this child and millions of others as members of a distinctive racial group?

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Virtually everywhere in the World, when people encounter others, they see them as White, Black, or Yellow, despite the fact that most are various shades of brown. Or they stress some other obvious traits that set groups apart for differential and unequal treatment.

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Moreover, once racial traits become significant symbols, their biological functions are de-emphasized and skin color and other physical features become indicators of moral, intellectual, physical, emotional, and other capabilities.

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So-called yellow skin may have some unexplored biological benefits, but as a racial marker many Americans believe it enhances math and engineering skills.

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In America and many other parts of the World it matters little that black skin (melanin) protects people against the harmful effect of ultraviolet radiation; what is most important are shared stereotypic beliefs by many that black skin enhances athletic performance, improves sexual performance, induces criminal behavior, and is associated with a variety of others behaviors.

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Prejudice is very interesting. There was once a white woman, who became lost and drove through a black neighborhood. As she drove down the street, she noticed people on corners frantically waving their arms and gesturing wildly at her so she became frightened, turned up the windows, locked the door, hid her purse, and drove determinedly.

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She discovered, after several blocks, she was going the wrong way on a one way street, and they were trying to help her. This woman had misplaced fears, which are considered prejudice behavior.

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Prejudice refers to preconceived judgments about a category of people. All forms of prejudice employ rigid stereotypes that ignore the great variation in individual behavior and focus on a handful of traits that all group members supposedly possess. People tend to have good prejudices about their own group and the dominant group—whether or not they are members.

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By contrast, they tend to have negative prejudices toward minority groups, because they are different and are usually incorrectly recognized as inferior. While Sacramento, California is one of the most diverse cities in the World, it is also one of the most corrupt and racist communities in America, but not as bad as states like Texas and Mississippi.

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However, people like Mayor Kevin Johnson, of Sacramento, California has complained about being racially profiled and when he took office, the city of Sacramento tried to have him arrested for touring city hall, after hours.

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Also, basketball player, for the Sacramento King’s, DeMarcus Cousins has also complained about be racially profiled and harassed in Sacramento, California, but much like the mayor, he remains faithful.

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A lot of black men have problems achieving success in Sacramento because the police, the colleges, and employment agencies seem to really try to stop them before they reach their goals of obtaining success legally.

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Many people believe that the Ku Klux Klan is dying out because they are simply joining the police force, where they can hide and enforce their agenda, and have the law support them by just claiming that these blacks are all criminals, who are out of control and need to be incarcerated. I think the only reason so many of you like black celebrities is only because they are rich.

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We must work on two levels. In every city, we have a dual society. In every city, we have two economies. In every city, we have two housing markets. In every city, we have two school systems. This duality has brought about a great deal of injustice. Black Power, in the beneficial sense, is a psychological call to maturity and a sense of dignity. Black Power is pooling African American political resources, in order to achieve legitimate power. What is necessary now is to see integration in political terms.

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There are times when we must see segregation as a temporary way-station to the ultimate goal which we seek. A truly integrated society where there is shared power. Black Power…a call for African Americans and others, in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community, to build a sense of community to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations to reject the racist institutions and values of this society. The concept of Black Power rests on a fundamental premise: Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close the ranks.

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The civil rights movement’s victories changed African American life in particular and American culture in general. The Black Power and Black Arts movement continued the struggle for freedom in northern and western urban areas where housing and segregation, rising unemployment, and persistent police brutality sparked rebellions that resulted in many deaths and widespread destruction in Watts, Newark, Detroit, and other cities. The Black political convention movement did not create a black third party.

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However, one of the most enduring legacies of the era was the rise of Black elected officials. Black student militancy persisted despite the destruction of the Black Panther Party. Black Panther Party was an organization, which raised funds to pay for legal fees, housing, education, food and utility bills for those who were struggling.

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The Panthers advocated business development, in the Black economy, taught self-defense, and promoted social and educational objectives that made them a target of the police and FBI to suppress the Blacks and keep them from achieving success. FBI director J. Edgar hoover was determined to infiltrate, harass, destabilize and destroy all Black nationalists and their leaders.

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In Oakland, California and Chicago, Illinois, Black Panthers patrolled and monitored their neighborhoods and investigated the police. This alarmed White America because Blacks were uniting and becoming strong. They were opening businesses and becoming educated and really became a strong force.  The Panthers arranged free breakfast and health-care programs, worked to instill racial pride, lectured and wrote about Black History, and launched some of the earliest drug education programs.

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These activities launched the slogan, “Power to the People.” A noteworthy characteristic of all autonomous racial and ethnic groups is ethnocentrism—the tendency to judge the customs of others according to one’s own cultural standards. Groups that share values, norms, and beliefs with the dominant group typically are highly regarded, while those who are judged to violate important norms are scorned and rejected. As a result, artist, James Brown produced a song called “Say it Loud,” on 7 August 1968, and it was to make people know that their brown skin and tightly curled hair is also good and beautiful.

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However, a series of bloody confrontations and shootouts distracted attention from the Panthers’ broader political objectives and community service projects. The passage of civil rights legislation did not resolve the disparities or diminish inner-city alienation of African Americans. As jobs moved increasingly to suburbs to which inner-city residents could neither travel nor relocate, inner city neighborhoods sunk deeper into poverty.

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School dropout rates reached epidemic proportions, crime and drug use increased, and fragile family structure weakened. It was these conditions that led the Panthers to liken their neighborhoods to exploited colonies kept in poverty by repressive white political and economic institutions. Few white Americans understood the depths of the black despair that flared into violence each summer between 1965 and 1969, beginning with the Watts rebellion of 1965.

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In the summer of 1965, a section of Los Angeles, California called Watts exploded. Watts was 98 percent black. It residents suffered from overcrowding, unemployment, inaccessible health-care facilities, inadequate public transportation, and increasing crime and drug addiction. Almost 30 percent of the black male population was unemployed.

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The poverty, combined with anger at the often-brutal behavior of Los Angele’s police force in Watts, proved to be an incendiary combination. A riot broke out on 11 August 1965, when a young black man was racially profiled. The young man was arrested, but a crowd gathered, the police called for reinforcements, and when they arrived, the crowd pelted them with stones, bottles, and other objects. Within a few hours, Watts was in a total riot.

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Governor Pat Brown, Jerry Brown’s father,  a Democrat, sent in the National Guard to restore order, by the sixth day of the conflagration, Watts had been reduced to rubble and ashes. One reporter commented that Watts looked like Germany at the end of World War II. Thirty-four people had been killed; more than 900 injured; and 4,000 arrested. Totally property damage was more than $255,923,987.98; just imagine how many jobs could have been created with that money and lives saved.

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Stories like the Watts riots were not uncommon and were born out of the hatred of racism. You see, while blacks were trying to organize and become strong, the police and FBI flooded their neighborhoods with crack cocaine, so people would get hooked on the highly addictive substance and lose their minds, and that did destabilize the black community, but also spread to the white community, as well.  Much like today, police officers paid little attention to the complaints from black people.

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On 12 July 1967, a black cab driver was taken into police custody and beaten, protesters gathered at the police station near the Hayes Homes housing project in Newark, New Jersey. Suddenly, a fire bomb went off, and hit the wall of the station house, the police charged, clubbing the crowd.

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This triggered one of the most destructive civic rebellions of the period. During four vicious days of a street war, the police and National Guard killed twenty-five black people—most of the innocent bystanders, including two children; a white police officer and a fire department employee were also killed. Wide spreading looting and arson caused millions of dollars in property damage.

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Then days later, riots in Detroit, Michigan erupted when police raided a bar, where more than eighty people were celebrating the return of two veterans from Vietnam. As a result, fifty-nine urban rebellions occurred in Detroit, forty three black people died, most of them shot by members of the National Guard, which had been sent by Republican governor George Romney. However, even the National Guard, combined with 200 states police and 600 Detroit police, could not restore order.

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People were tried of racism and having their communities ripped apart and were sick of being turned down for jobs, due to their skin color. They did not want to hustle or clean toilets to make it. Citizens were letting feelings out that had never been let our before, that had been bottled up. It really took the bar being raided and some people being beat and killed for the World to see the reality that blacks faced in America.

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Today, many people tease blacks because many are poor and denied opportunities based on their physical features. It has gotten to the point where people beat up, steal from and harass black people, in Sacramento, California, and they are told if they speak up or alert the police, “It is YOU, who will be arrested because YOU are black and no one will believe you. And if YOU fight back, I will press charges and the police will believe me over YOU because you are nobody, just another F-ing (unspeakable word).”

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Also, because of how many African American parents and grandparents were denied opportunities, they were not able to build wealth like white families and pass it down to their children. It is 2015, and blacks are still not truly accepted by mainstream America, but yet, the country opens up to illegal immigrants and welcomes them with open arms, and even changes the laws to accommodate them. And people still look down at blacks because they have to struggle.

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So Black History Month was created to adhere to the American ideal of equal opportunity for all and to end prejudice and discrimination against each other. It is also to highlight the struggles and accomplishment of blacks like Mayor Kevin Johnson, President Barak Obama, Beyonce, Jay Z, Aaliyah, and people like DeMarcus Cousins. So many people like black contributions to society, but totally disrespect average black people.

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Cities like Sacramento, California are attempting an ethnic cleansing—which encourages people to kill blacks, Jews, and Hispanics, as they run through gritty ghettos and subway environments.  African Americans are essentially a Third World people. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and their interest and concerns have dominated the mass media. I feel like a broken record, no matter how much I type, nor how much research I do, I keep telling you the same things over and over, in different ways, and I am tired, as there is no incentive and no real benefit for me.

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Minorities have been underrepresented, or only presented in terms of the social problems they create for the majority. To understand why whites have a disproportionate share of wealth and power, consider the current climate in America, the history and views shared by your friends, family and co—workers, and that should illuminate why it is so hard to be black in America.

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Currently, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants constitute less than 25 percent of the U.S. population. White males, however, constitute 90 percent of newspaper editors and 77 percent of television news directors. Further, white Anglo-Saxon men own, finance, produce, and write scripts for 80 percent of what viewers see daily on television and in featured films. Moreover, white men are disproportionately represented as lead actors and heroes, whereas minorities continue to be cast in the roles of sidekicks, villains, criminals, and losers.

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On a more personal note, this is my last entry, I know all of this, it is getting me nowhere and is more of a task, not a joy, and it does not pay, but comes with a lot of responsibility. To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.

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I have been doing this for years, and have written thousands of articles, many of which were destroyed because of comments and harassment from bigots. No representative government can long be much better or much worse than the society it represents. Purify society if you purify the government. However, try to purify the government artificially and you only aggravate failure.

MARSAI MARTIN, MARCUS SCRIBNER, YARA SHAHIDI, ANTHONY ANDERSON, MILES BROWN, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS


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