Race and Color
Race and color are symbolized to superiority and high status in the American society. People with black color from African American race are considered to be inferior and are still treated as second grade citizens in America while people with light skins symbolize as superior and get privileged handling.
African American black people face a number of problems and incidents of discrimination in the society. They are often made to realize that they are not as competent as light skin people and the irony is that in many cases black people are aware of it but compelled to live with this paradoxical thought.
The situation has been improved in the last few decades and color factor is getting less important in the American society. People with light skin have started recognizing the caliber of African American blacks and blacks also have gained the confidence to claim their rights. They have achieved some remarkable goals, proved themselves and acquired a position in the society.
These are not the eyes that see anything and classify it as good or bad but this is the accepted wisdom of a person and if all the people of any society are blind this is not going to provide any solution unless people change their way of thinking. Thinking of society is the most important ingredient which is required to be changed.
Slavery
Slavery started in America when twenty Africans were brought in the English colony, Virginia in North America by the white people. Local movements played a vital role in abolition of slavery from northern states which ended the import of slaves in 1770 and in the year 1820 several northern states made laws against slavery and this why slavery was disappeared from the northern states of America. The slavery in South America is different from the slavery of North America. The slavery was at bigger level and existed longer in the southern parts as compare to northern America, almost 14 million blacks were enslaved in the southern America in contrast to the figure of half a million of north America.
Racism is a product of slavery and long history of slavery leveled the blacks as an inferior race. Blacks were brought from their native place to a new place, their affiliation with their own people and family members was very strong and their owners took the benefit of this behavior of slaves. They controlled them by showing the fear of separate them with their family members. Slaves were at the sole mercy of their owners and lived in horrible conditions.
Reconstruction
The end of Slavery was a gradual process which was finally achieved in the year 1865, when the congress through thirteenth amendment ratified the abolition of slavery. There were many factors that contributed in the abolition of the slavery. Blacks started demanding their rights and were ready to revolt, once they became aware of their rights and now it was difficult for their masters to keep them enslaved.
Though slavery was abolished officially but the mentality of the society was remained the same and in some context it is visible in the society of America. In the new system, African Americans are very often face discrimination in their daily life and their share in government and private jobs is not as the whites have. The approach of whites towards the black needs to be corrected and it should be willfully.
Works Cited
Buell, By Tonya. Slavery in America: A Primary Source History of the Intolerable Practice of Slavery. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2004.
Dorothy Schneider and Carl J. Schneider. Slavery in America. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007.
Fields, Barbara Jeanne. "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America." solidarity-us. 16 November 2011 <http://www.solidarity-us.org/pdfs/cadreschool/fields.pdf>.
