Race and Your Community

Race and Your Community

Monique Daggins

ETH125

March 21, 2010

Instructor: Natasha Evans

This autobiographical research paper will begin by highlighting the struggle of African Americans in the United States and analyze the influences of race as it relates to my community. In this paper, I will write in first-person account of how human interactions in my community have been radicalized throughout my life. For the community, I will consider relations within the workplace and service groups. I will also assess and answer core questions as it pertains to members and leaders of my community, representation of the media and minority groups, and inequities within my community. I will also expand on some of the more intricate concepts from the text as it relates to race and draw from personal experiences and opinions about cultural diversity in today’s society.

Racial issues have been plaguing the African American society for over 400 years and have been evident since the days of chattel slavery. At least 17 million Africans were captured and enslaved between 1540 and 1850 and were used as servants to the rich. Slavery in the United States began its start with the first English colonization of North America in Virginia in 1607. Many African slaves were brought to the United States to enhance the central economic institutions of the Southern states, “the plantation system, based on tobacco growing in Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky, and rice in South Carolina, expanded into lush cotton lands in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and needed more slaves.” (Wikipedia, 2009) It was not until Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 declared the end of slavery in America, and although the days of chattel slavery were over, the fight for political and human rights began. 400 years later, since the early days of slavery began; there are still traces of racial intimidation as seen in the characteristics of African American children, adolescents, and...