African Americans inequalities during 19-20th century

Introduction 

African Americans were transported 400 years ago aboard slave ships to the ‘New World’ (North America) where they lived differently from other Americans including American Indians. The subject of contemporary African American families gives an explanation of the conditions they faced by addressing it from an individual and structural point. However, data provided does not support either the optimistic or the pessimistic version, but rather recasts the issues. The argument raised is that after World War II, the nature of African American inequality was altered fundamentally. The discussion revolves around the 19th and 20th century by looking at the African American history. The intense inequality among African Americans has clear and indisputable historical backgrounds. America continues to be divided even after the enactment of major civil rights legislation due to segregations that remain embedded in the country’s social fabric. This created two nations that were separated by growing inequality. This discussion relies on published articles and books to examine the controversial topic of African American inequalities. 

Discussion 

A fluctuation of standards existed among the African Americans throughout the nineteenth-century and over time, equality decreased forming a polarized class system. This created a class system with radical differences evident between the wealthy capitalists and the poor workers. As such, it illuminated the loss of equality, which was the foundation of progressive movements in the American society. Such classes saw the introduction of polygenist theory, which argued that African Americans were a separate and more primitive species. Therefore, they were not created equal and this implies, were incapable of perfections (Addison, 2009). 

In the nineteenth-century, almost half of all African Americans worked in industries. Racism and segregation suffocated them but more black women and men found work that greatly changed their lives by giving them economic stability. The dynamics of racial inequality in the nineteenth-century originated in capitalism’s need for slaves or unorganized common laborers who provided ‘cheap, docile labor’ (Ortiz, 2018, p. 58). It is this racial capitalism that drove the system of exploitation and saw many States mercilessly attack the economic well-being and rights of African Americans in North and South American. For many young African American men, they faced extraordinary rates of incarceration, which depicted the inequality present in society. Majority of these young men only had a high school education, and this made them comfortable with the aspect of serving time at a tender age. Such social inequality existed among the African Americans because it is intergenerational, cumulative, and invisible (Western & Pettit, 2010). 

Throughout history, the geographical position of African Americans has been in the nation’s most unpromising places because the features and sources of inequality have been tied to where they lived. Alterations were present in the relation of black men to the labor market, which saw the trends creating new forms of disadvantages for the group (Katz, Stern & Fader, 2005). Distribution is the other lense that saw inequality emerge from the powerful convergence of geography and work. African Americans were found to work mainly in household and agriculture service. 

For African American men and women, inequality has proceeded differently. African women are said to have fared much worse than African men at midcentury, but they vaulted ahead of African men in occupational and educational achievement. Between 1900 and 1920, many black women of all ages listed an occupation more often than their white female counterparts. As such, they managed to close the existing gap between themselves and white women than the efforts of African men. Therefore, the story of African American inequality also traces the emergence of a gender gap between men and women in their community. The rewards of African Americans changed between 1940 and 2000 as more black women were seen in the top economic quintile reaching 74 percent while black men were at 51 percent (Katz et al., 2005, p. 96). 

At the end of the twentieth-century, inequality worked differently as compared to its start and mid. At the start of the twentieth-century, the blacks were barred by pervasive, overt racial discrimination from most jobs (Feagin, 2010). Furthermore, they were disenfranchised politically and denied equal education by the courts and Congress that extended their civil and political rights. It was only through affirmative actions that new ‘welfare rights’ contributed to their extension of social citizenship. This meant that the African Americans became guaranteed of accessing food, medical care, shelter, and education. By the end of the century, as a result of formal and legal barriers, most institutions excluded African Americans, and this spilled over to the most favorable labor market positions. During this time, poverty had plummeted for this group of people and their political and economic achievements were undeniable. 

In the late nineteenth-century, land grant was an issue faced by African American families. The overall trend in the West with regard to land loss was devastating and it saw them branded as landless laborers. In mid-twentieth-century, this was interconnected to Anglo racism. This prompted the passing of numerous state laws that denied the African Americans basic rights such as public assembly, due process, and even voting rights. Furthermore, they had no equal access to employment and property ownership (Ortiz, 2018). For example, the policy of California State toward African Americans included slave labor, indentured servitude, and extermination. 

The interpretation given of the African American inequality of twentieth-century remains a controversial issue. The causes of these inequalities are as a result of poor decision making, oppression, and of structured and institutionalized racism. Hurricane Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters experienced in the United States that also exposed deep layers of inequalities based on social class and race. The inequalities of health, economics, wealth, and education have great impacts on the African American families (Lindert & Williamson, 2016). 

Conclusion 

In modern history, we learn of how differentiation mechanisms continue to reproduce inequality. The nineteenth-century African American inequality saw the formation of class system and this led to racism and segregation. The late twentieth-century form of African American inequality is examined through the lenses of geography, participation, distribution, and rewards. 

References 

Addison, K. N. (2009). “ We hold these truths to be self-evident…”: An interdisciplinary analysis 

of the roots of racism and slavery in America. New York, NY: University Press of 

America, Inc. 

Feagin, J. R. (2010). Racist America: Roots, current realities, and future reparations . New York, 

NY: Routledge. 

Katz, M. B., Stern, M. J., & Fader, J. J. (2005). The new African American Inequality. The 

Journal of American History, 92 (1), 75-108. 

Lindert, P. H., & Williamson, J. G. (2016). Unequal gains: American growth and inequality since 

1700. Juncture, 22 (4), 276-283. 

Ortiz, P. (2018). An African American and Latinx history of the United States . Boston: Beacon 

Press. 

Western, B., & Pettit, B. (2010). Incarceration & social inequality. Daedalus, 139 (3), 8-19.