If one is to listen to the rhetoric from everyone from politicians to pundits to prognosticators to civil rights leaders to everyday people, you will get the sense that the reason for the racial problems with Black Americans is our history of slavery. While this is definitely a contributing factor, it is an oversimplification that bears little relationship to the real issue of discrimination in America today.
Frankly, if a history of slavery were the only cause for racial problems we would see it everywhere against every race in the world. Therefore, that cannot be it. Even countries that ended Black slavery after the United States did generally have better race relations that America has so we have to look deeper into the problem.
It is easy to discern the problem if one takes the time to look at it. That is the simple fact of how Americans in both the North and South generally treated their fellow Black citizens both before and after the Civil War.
Before the Civil War, free Black citizens were ensconced in the mostly poor parts of cities throughout the country, including the North. Keep in mind, the White Abolitionist movement was primarily concerned with ending slavery, while the Black Abolitionist movement want equality as well. This led to a divide even then.
Even during the Civil War, there was no universal consideration of equality. One does not even need to look how the Negro troops were treated; lower pay, poor training, poor equipment, and white officers. This is not equality.
After the Civil War, and the end of formal slavery, things changed for a while with Reconstruction. This enforced equality and citizenship for Black Americans and had relative success;
- Providing education
- Providing opportunities for land purchases
- Helping in business startups
- Blacks were able to obtain many elected offices, even at the federal level.
Keep in mind; this was only done for the Southern States that had been part of the Confederacy. Blacks in the rest of the country; not so much. And, as a state was “rehabilitated” they dropped the reconstruction rules. Furthermore, they ended Reconstruction in 1877 in order to get Hayes in the Presidency. After less than twelve years, the southerners were able to treat their Black population as they saw fit. It wasn’t pretty.
Enter Jim Crow. The south used quasi-legal and economic pressure to effectively enslave their Black citizenship. They created a form of serfdom enforced by economics, society, and poor educational opportunities. In the educational front, they were able to create a “separate but equal” educational model that in reality enforced a fourth class citizenship in their society (1st class: upper class whites; 2nd class: middle class whites; 3rd class: poor whites). No matter what a Black person achieved, they were relegated to the bottom of this Southern society. It became harder and harder as the years went by to determine that the slaves were actually freed and that the South had lost.
Things were not much better “up North”. Yes, better jobs and better education. However, Blacks were still restricted to ghettos and still treated as lower class citizens. Until the 1940’s the United States government “legally” treated Blacks different. The military had all-Black units in the Army and in the Navy (this is absolutely terrible) they were only allowed to be mess boys. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that we finally have a Federal Civil Rights law in place.
This is obviously not enough. People are still being stopped every day for “Driving While Black”. Blacks still live in ghettos in far too many numbers. We still have killings like George Floyd (although as a side note: times have changed enough for his killer was convicted). Blacks are incarcerated at higher rates for the same offences as Whites.
However, it not the fault Slavery. Oh, no no no. It is what we, as a country did after slavery. We, for whatever stupid reason, decided to treat Black people as lower class citizens and place them in a form or economic and social slavery.
By the way, if you think it is only a Black problem ask Native Americans, Semites (Jews and Muslims), East Indians, Pacific Islanders, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. (I know I have missed many – I apologize but you get the picture). America is good at discriminating against anyone who looks different. Hell, a few years ago, if you had an Irish name you were in trouble.
However, as I said at the top, it is not about Slavery: it is what we did after that is the real problem.
