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Racism’s existence in America is far from unique. ... But is there an American problem apart from this? ... Is our secular world the great vanquisher of discrimination or merely the newest instrument for American prejudice? ... This is the new racism, a more distinct and formidable social woe than similar campaigns of other states, Western and otherwise. ... (Baldwin 165)
This cleavage occurs with the bill of sale which shipped thousands of Africans to North American in the 17th century. ...
Slavery certainly furnished European nations well before the Americas were even involved, yet Baldwin distinguishes the American slave problem as a predicament of unique historical circumstance:
Europe’s black possessions remained – and do remain – in Europe’s colonies, at which remove they posed no threat whatever to European identity…But in America, even as a salve, (the black man) was an inescapable part of the general social fabric and no American could escape having an attitude toward him. (Baldwin170)
It is the distinction of the American racial question that begins to explain the subsequent cohabitation dynamic. ...
Of course, for the white man, American soil is only called native by way of another enormous fraud. ... In this regard, the Native American’s plight runs parallel with that of the black man. ... His American tone strikes a ringing contrast with his Indian sensibility. ... Judith Ortiz Cofer in “Silent Dancing” echoes this irrelevance of intellect, “It made no difference that it was the American phenomenon of ethnic turnover which was changing the urban core of Paterson, and that the human flood could not be held back with an accusing finger” (Cofer 39). One could argue that it was precisely that American phenomenon of ethnic turnover, and the surrounding fear, which propelled ignorance or denial of its inevitability. ... Of course that proximity is only intensified by the social strains of the American city.
While we might trace the history textbook racism to the hills of West Virginia, the new racism, which can be understood as the more subconscious border awareness established previously, now seeks much of its power in the cities. Louis Wirth tries to account for the urban extension of racism in his article, “Urbanism as a way of life. ... His focus is also narrowed to American urbanism for the most part and this is telling.
Approximate Word count = 1832
Approximate Pages = 7.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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