Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Slavery still exist?
Society is forever changing. Constantly expanding, introducing new practices, developing new concepts. Even in this growing society, the age old saying "History repeats itself" can be still be applied to our world today. In Slave and Citizen, Tannenbaum states the idea that slavery still existed after the Emancipation was passed, and it still continues today. "Their professional standing must overcome their racial origin"(Tannenbaum 114). He believes that slavery will be over, and races won't exist once the Negro conforms to white culture. According to this belief, slavery is still going on in 2013, and will continue to exist, until African-Americans only follow the guidelines of a white/American lifestyle. In order to advance in US society, the African-American today must act in a manner that is acceptable to the norms set by the settlers who participated in the slave trade. The fact that this statement may be slightly true, is uneasy. Essentially, there aren't instances of people working on plantations for severe hours with no pay in today's world, but the middle and lower classes still produce hard work on difficult tasks but don't receive the proper reimbursement for their duties. In my eyes, America is viewed as a country giving all it's citizens a chance to succeed, but after deciphering Tannenbaum's statements and looking at our society now through a different lens, it's pretty evident that America was built upon a stratified vision. This makes me wonder, will slavery truly end?
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History is complex, for sure. The trick to answering your question will be to define enslavement in forms other than plantation work without pay. And to be sure one distinguishes what exactly HAS changed - because if one doesn't, one removes all that's been gained. People changed the system: that's why it's different. And that's important to remember, too.
ReplyDeletereading your text is quiet interesting to get an idea of that slavery still exist but one thing i want to know about which you mentioned above in the passage is that racism will be vanished once the colored people accept the norms of white culture ???
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, racism would still exist even if colored people conformed to white culture because the ideology of racism would continue to thrive while embedded in our minds. Also, there are our cultures and ethnicities that face racism and discrimination greatly in today's world.
ReplyDeletewell you are absolutely right, and yes that is true even if colored people accept the white cultures and traditions, still for white people these colored people will be considered as slave not physically but mentally.
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