Racism caused by White People
Racism is a big problem in the world, especially in the United States of America. There have always been many authors who are writing about this issue and where it comes from. In this essay I am going to compare three different essays and filter out what each author claims as the source of racism in the United states of America. The three authors Hubert Harrison, James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates are all claiming the white people to produce racism because they benefit from it.
The article “Race Prejudice II” was written by Hubert Harrison and was published on December the 4th in the “New York Call” magazine. This article is very adversarial about racism in America and the people who have been causing it. Hubert Harrison was concerned about the theory that racism is innate and explains angrily in his article that this theory is wrong and racism is a product of savage and primitive superstition and not a product of the nature.
He claims white people, and especially the newspapers to be produce racism. These people were, according to Harrison, abusing colored people by giving them less money than white people, for the same amount of labor, land or capital. One example how they are keeping this race prejudice working is the exploiting of colored people who are in need of these jobs even if they don’t get much money for it. The government was blameworthy too, because they did not do anything against the abuse of colored people. Quite the contrary, they kept laws which made the segregation of white and colored people legal. This separation was one of the main aspects which caused, according to Hubert Harrison, racism and is meanwhile a proof that racism is not innate. Through this segregation of colored people into different schools and especially into different standards of living, thought white children that they are superior than colored children. Therefore the racism comes, according to Harrison, through the educational background and is not innate. This shows that white people are not innocent because they have been producing racism in purpose for their benefits.
Another of his main ideas says that the newspaper, for example “The New York Times”, was a big component of the producing of racism, by spreading fears about colored people. They just talked about criminal things colored people did and not about their achievements. Through this they built up the picture of Blacks as a criminal race and supported the increasing of racism in America.
The article “A Letter to My Nephew”, was written by James Baldwin and was a letter to his 15 year old nephew, called James. This letter was his replacement for a conversation with him to explain how the world works for people with color. He writes about white people who think that they are innocent, because the don’t know their own history. But he also says that colored people cannot be free until the white people accept their guilt and to see themselves honestly.
Baldwin saw the segregation of colored people and white people also as one of the main reason that produced racism in this country. This aspects connects his letter to Hubert Harrison’s article, because both are claiming the white people to produced the segregation. J.B. also claimed the government to support racism by making mixed marriage between a colored and a white person illegal. That is another connection to the article of H. Harrison.
Baldwin also talks to his nephew about the way white people treated colored people. That they didn’t even know that colored people exist. That even if they did know they exists they didn’t care about them. Through this constantly bad treatment of colored people some of them started to believe that they are inferior and that was what killed many people mentally and physically.
His letter connects to the thesis in the fact that the white people didn’t want to know that they have been destroying the lives of colored people by abusing them and exploiting them, because it has brought many economical benefits for them. Because they didn’t want to know what they did, they forgot about their history and thought that they are innocent. Baldwin says that the solution to end racism is to force white people to see themselves honestly so that they can be free and that they can give colored people the opportunity to be free.
The text “Between the World and Me” is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and is a letter to his fifteen year old son. The letter he wrote was the inspiration for James Baldwin to write his letter to his nephew and has the same building blocks and ideas. They both connect the guilt of the white people with their history. J.B. expressed in his letter more his disappointment in the white people, while Coates his son tells that he is more sad than disappointed for the country, for the families and especially for his son. But the purpose is the that, namely to warn his son about how colored people are treated in America.
One of the main ideas of Coates letter is that the “American Dream” relies on the concept of race and prevents us therefore not to solve the problem of racism. That means that the “American Dream” (a house, a good job, a family) depends on the benefits which are coming with the discrimination and the disadvantages for and against colored people.
His other big theory is that racism is created to identify one group superior to another and bring the superior group benefits. In this case the racism brought benefits to white capitalists who exploited colored people for cheaper labor. This theme connects the texts of Hubert Harrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates, because they both claim in their text white capitalist to abuse the group they wanted to see as “inferior”.
Coates says that white people and also some colored believed in the reality of race and that created the racism because it split the nation into two external groups. But the origin of this believe came, according to Coats, for the people who thought they are white and who felt superior. Before this identification in colored and not colored, the people identified themselves as e.g. Catholic, Welsh or Jewish. These identification lead to segregation and therefore, like Harrison and Baldwin said too, to racism.
He said a way to destroy racism is to stop identifying each other and meanwhile stop believing in race.
All three authors brought in different ways up, that they think racism is a product produced by white people who are benefiting from it. They are also, according to the authors, not willing to end the racism or to do something against their treatment because they don’t see themselves as guilty. The writings differ in their examples and the time in which they were written, but they are all containing the same content. Finally the authors are trying to inform their reader about how colored people are treated in America.
Racism is a big problem in the world, especially in the United States of America. There have always been many authors who are writing about this issue and where it comes from. In this essay I am going to compare three different essays and filter out what each author claims as the source of racism in the United states of America. The three authors Hubert Harrison, James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates are all claiming the white people to produce racism because they benefit from it.
The article “Race Prejudice II” was written by Hubert Harrison and was published on December the 4th in the “New York Call” magazine. This article is very adversarial about racism in America and the people who have been causing it. Hubert Harrison was concerned about the theory that racism is innate and explains angrily in his article that this theory is wrong and racism is a product of savage and primitive superstition and not a product of the nature.
He claims white people, and especially the newspapers to be produce racism. These people were, according to Harrison, abusing colored people by giving them less money than white people, for the same amount of labor, land or capital. One example how they are keeping this race prejudice working is the exploiting of colored people who are in need of these jobs even if they don’t get much money for it. The government was blameworthy too, because they did not do anything against the abuse of colored people. Quite the contrary, they kept laws which made the segregation of white and colored people legal. This separation was one of the main aspects which caused, according to Hubert Harrison, racism and is meanwhile a proof that racism is not innate. Through this segregation of colored people into different schools and especially into different standards of living, thought white children that they are superior than colored children. Therefore the racism comes, according to Harrison, through the educational background and is not innate. This shows that white people are not innocent because they have been producing racism in purpose for their benefits.
Another of his main ideas says that the newspaper, for example “The New York Times”, was a big component of the producing of racism, by spreading fears about colored people. They just talked about criminal things colored people did and not about their achievements. Through this they built up the picture of Blacks as a criminal race and supported the increasing of racism in America.
The article “A Letter to My Nephew”, was written by James Baldwin and was a letter to his 15 year old nephew, called James. This letter was his replacement for a conversation with him to explain how the world works for people with color. He writes about white people who think that they are innocent, because the don’t know their own history. But he also says that colored people cannot be free until the white people accept their guilt and to see themselves honestly.
Baldwin saw the segregation of colored people and white people also as one of the main reason that produced racism in this country. This aspects connects his letter to Hubert Harrison’s article, because both are claiming the white people to produced the segregation. J.B. also claimed the government to support racism by making mixed marriage between a colored and a white person illegal. That is another connection to the article of H. Harrison.
Baldwin also talks to his nephew about the way white people treated colored people. That they didn’t even know that colored people exist. That even if they did know they exists they didn’t care about them. Through this constantly bad treatment of colored people some of them started to believe that they are inferior and that was what killed many people mentally and physically.
His letter connects to the thesis in the fact that the white people didn’t want to know that they have been destroying the lives of colored people by abusing them and exploiting them, because it has brought many economical benefits for them. Because they didn’t want to know what they did, they forgot about their history and thought that they are innocent. Baldwin says that the solution to end racism is to force white people to see themselves honestly so that they can be free and that they can give colored people the opportunity to be free.
The text “Between the World and Me” is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and is a letter to his fifteen year old son. The letter he wrote was the inspiration for James Baldwin to write his letter to his nephew and has the same building blocks and ideas. They both connect the guilt of the white people with their history. J.B. expressed in his letter more his disappointment in the white people, while Coates his son tells that he is more sad than disappointed for the country, for the families and especially for his son. But the purpose is the that, namely to warn his son about how colored people are treated in America.
One of the main ideas of Coates letter is that the “American Dream” relies on the concept of race and prevents us therefore not to solve the problem of racism. That means that the “American Dream” (a house, a good job, a family) depends on the benefits which are coming with the discrimination and the disadvantages for and against colored people.
His other big theory is that racism is created to identify one group superior to another and bring the superior group benefits. In this case the racism brought benefits to white capitalists who exploited colored people for cheaper labor. This theme connects the texts of Hubert Harrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates, because they both claim in their text white capitalist to abuse the group they wanted to see as “inferior”.
Coates says that white people and also some colored believed in the reality of race and that created the racism because it split the nation into two external groups. But the origin of this believe came, according to Coats, for the people who thought they are white and who felt superior. Before this identification in colored and not colored, the people identified themselves as e.g. Catholic, Welsh or Jewish. These identification lead to segregation and therefore, like Harrison and Baldwin said too, to racism.
He said a way to destroy racism is to stop identifying each other and meanwhile stop believing in race.
All three authors brought in different ways up, that they think racism is a product produced by white people who are benefiting from it. They are also, according to the authors, not willing to end the racism or to do something against their treatment because they don’t see themselves as guilty. The writings differ in their examples and the time in which they were written, but they are all containing the same content. Finally the authors are trying to inform their reader about how colored people are treated in America.