Saturday, October 30, 2010

Racism Throughout the Years

     Racism:the hatred of one person by another. Or the belief that another is less than human because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that reveals the basic nature of that person.
     Most people believe that that definition is only about the racism between White's and Black's, but the truth is racism is all over the world and has happened all throughout history. In the past 500-1000 years, racism has been evolving from one side of the world to the other. Whether its between Whites and Blacks, Pure Germans and Jews, etc., racism is a term for every person on every continent in the world.

White's and Black's: Racism between whites and black's started when the first English colony in North America-Virginia- started to import Africans in 1619. Most slaves were held by white's even though some were held by Native Americans and free blacks. Slavery was most often seen in the South where there was good soil to grow cash crops. The farms were called Plantations. It was said that the slaves work more hard and efficiently when they had an overseer, which were usually white males. By the 18th century, the colonial courts and legislatures created a Caste System, which established if you were exclusively Black Africans or were from African decent you were considered a slave. From the 16th century to the 19th century it was estimated that about 12 million slaves were shipped to the Americas and an estimated 645,000 was brought to the U.S. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution finally made slavery illegal.
     In the 1950s, a new type of white's versus black's racism started to occur. The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. was aimed to outlaw racial dicrimination against African Americans. Many Boycotts, for civil disobedience were occuring as forms of protest. The most known boycott that was very successful was the Montgomery bus Boycott in Amabama. There were "sit-ins" and "marches". Many acts os government came out of this. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned dicrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accomodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights. The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, which opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups. And also the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

Pure Germans and Jews:The racism between the Pure Germans and the Jews is more commonly known as the Holocaust, which is the systematic persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews. The Holocaust started around the 1930's, when the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. The Nazi's believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews were a threat to the German community.Many other groups were targeted, but most of them were Jews. In 1933, almost 9 million Jews lived in Europe. By 1945, only about two out of every three Jews were killed as part of the "Final Solution".

     There are many Court Cases for Slavery and The Civil Rights Movement, but since the Holocaust was in Europe there werent any that had to do with the U.S.
      In Dred Scott v. Sanford, Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri, who was trying to win his freedom from his master. He lived in Illinois, which was a free state, and in an area of the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise. He unsuccessfully sued in the Missouri Courts for his freedom. He then took a new case to the federal court, where his master maintained that no pure-blooded Negro of African decent and the descendent of slaves could be a citizen in the sense of Article III of the Constitution. The decision was that Dred Scott was a slave under Article III and Article IV od the U.S. Constitution.
     In Brown v. Board of Education, black children were denied admission to public schools attened by white children under the laws requiring or permitting segregation to the races. This Case was decided together with Briggs v. Elliott and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County. The decision of this case was that unequal does not pertain to the context of public education.

     In June of this year a group of artists were asked to make a giant public mural outside of Miller Valley Elementary School. The mural was to represent a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation.  Many complaints came in saying that the faces on the mural needed to be lightened up because of the childrens ethnicities. While painting the mural many people drove by shouting racial slurs. So, the painters lightened up the mural just to stop the controversey towards it.

     I believe that racism is just like burning the flag. Its disrespectful to our nation. Our nation is made up of many different cultures. Its 2010. Why should there be discrimination to other races.

     Why is there still racism? Why do people waste there breath just to hurt others or bring them down? Why do we do this to a country that is supposed to be free?


         
    
    






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaCdKwFcHnw
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%931968)
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143

American Flag Burning is Legal?

Our Freedom Symbol
     How can the symbol to our Nations existance, be treated so poorly by other citizens of our nation??
     The burning of our nations flag has been going on for years. We have learned that burning the flag has become legal. Many people have burned the American flag to represent their disagreements with American politics. In 1862, when the Union army's occupation of New Orleans in the American Civil War, the military governor, Benjamin Franklin Butler, gave William B. Mumford the death penalty because he removed the American Flag. In 1864, John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem called, "Barbara Frietchie". It told of "maybe" fictional incident where Confederate soldiers were deterred from defacing an American Flag. The American Flag was sometimes burned during anit-war demonstrations around the time of the Vietnam War. A pornographer wore an American Flag as a diaper in court and got sentence of 6 years in jail. Today, though, defacing the American Flag is protected under the First Amendments: Freedom of Speech.
    
     Court Cases that decided the decision of defacing the flag legal are: Texas v, Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 and U.S. v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310.
     In 1984, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American Flag in front of the Dalla City Hall because he was protesting against Reagan's administration policies. He was tried and sentenced one year in jail and had a fine of $2,000's in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Then the Supreme Court took over. They ruled that Johnson's burning of the Flag was protected under the First Amendment. They found that his actions were just a way of speech and just because people thought it was wrong doesnt mean it breaks the speech protection.
     In 1989, Congress had passed the Flag Protection Act, which made it a crime to destroy an American Flag or any likeness of an American Flag which may be "commonly displayed." You could wear or soil a flag. One day, Eichman set a flag on fire on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, while he was protesting the governments domestic and foreign policy. He was brought to court and in a 5-to-4 decision, the Court struck down the law made in Texas v. Johnson. The burning of a flag was allowed though to be done in a ceremony but is prohibited by protestors.

     In June 2005, a flag burning amendment was passed by the House with a needed two-thirds majority. However in June 2006, the more recent flag burning, was rejected by the Senate in a 66 in favor vote to a 34 opposed vote. It was a short one vote that would have reached the two-thirds majority needed to send the amendment to be voted by the states.

     I dont believe that our nations symbol should be able to be treated in such a harsh way. Its what represents our freedom as a whole. It represents what a four fathers went throguh. I believe that allowing people to do this is just a way of showing how much we really care about our country. Men and Women are fighting for all of our lives over in different countries, and this is how people want to pay them back by not only disrespecting our country, but by disrespecting the Men and Women over seas?

     Why should freedom of speech go this far? Why should we be able to disrespect our country like that? What if something like this went further? What would happen?


Duffy: When is it appropriate to burn a flag? Benson: Only you can

prevent free speechwag: How dare anyone use our sacred national emblem for cheap ideological theatrics?



http://www.esquilax.com/flag/cartoons.shtml
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Flag_burning_amendment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_desecration#United_States
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZswrhzCPc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGAzfZR6gUg&feature=related