The African-American Odyssey Essay Example for Free

The African-American Odyssey Essay The emancipation of the African slave who was now disconnected from their traditions and way of life after nearly 300 years, is seemingly a great gush from the dam to the ebbs and flows of the struggle. The end of slavery as we know it, presented a ball of mixed emotions among the nation; North and SOUTH. Some slaves were grossly ecstatic to be free. For example, when a slave girl named Caddy, from Goodman, Mississippi found she was free, went to her mistress, flipped up her dress and told her Kiss my ass! On the contrary, some slaves were apprehensive of being free. For example, one elderly slave woman reportedly said, I ain no free nigger! I is got a marster and mistiss! Dee right dar in de great house. Ef you don believe me, you go dar an see. Though most slaves were detached from their families, many managed to regroup and find their love ones after their emancipation and constructed close knit families. Land was an viable means of survival in the minds of newly freedmen and the government was eager to deem lands to the ex-slaves . On January 16, 1865, General William T. Sherman told the freedmen that they will receive the land they were in search of. They were granted the head of each family would receive possessory title to forty acres of land. Sherman also gave the use of Army mules, thus giving rise to the slogan, Forty acres and a mule. Similarly in 1862 the Union military set aside land in Port Royal, South Carolina, which became known as the Port Royal experiment. The freedmen bureau was created to aid newly freed slaves in the transition from bondage to freedom in 1865. After Lincolns assassination the succession of his Vice president, Andrew Johnson, to the presidency meant that the white owners of the lands, that were given to the freedmen, would be returned. Sharecropping became a sort of ebb in the river of the African-American progression as far as freedom was concerned. Presented as labor contracts by white land owners, the institution of slavery was extended under a cloud of debt. In which, the black family, oft times became debtors due to the lack of honesty on the account of their white lender. Aside from family, among African-Americans, the black church became the most important institution. Not only did it fill deep spiritual and inspirational needs, it offered enriching music, provided charity and compassion to those in need, developed community and political leaders, and was free of white supervision. With the end of slavery, blacks who then had to attend services with white parishioners who treated them as second class Christians, could now organize and attend their own churches. The advent of the black church definitely brought about a flow in the river of struggle for African-Americans. Education was another flow in the river of struggle and a critical means of survival amongst people of color. It coincided alongside freedom. All who were versed in education of all sorts were summoned to teach the freedmen and their children. Teachers from all walks showed. Classes were held in churches, old slave markets, stables, taverns, homes, and former slave cabins. Funding came from various religious and political organizations and the Freedmens Bureau. Although white teachers helped a bit, black teachers were praised throughout the negro community because, as Rev. Richard H. Cain said , We must take into our own hands the education of our race Honest, dignified whites may teach ever so well, but it has not the effect to exalt the black mans opinion of his own race, because they have always been in the habit of seeing white men in honored positions, and respected. Most colleges and universities for blacks taught elementary and secondary level curriculum. The introduction of the historically black colleges and universities was formed from the idea of a higher education for people of color. In the midst of the newfound freedom, religious organization, and education of Negroes which was an obvious flow, a reoccurring ebb presented itself in the form of violence. Justice for the black man was never considered in those times. Thousands of innocent African-Americans were heinously murdered without a single conviction of a white perpetrator whom committed the acts. Atop the murders, black towns, businesses, churches, and schools were destroyed at the hands of the angry white southerners. The Failure of Reconstruction For the first time ever in history, a group of black men had concurrently became politicians. They were joined by the carpetbaggers of the north and the scalawags of the south in the Republican constituency. Of the 1,000 men elected as delegates to the ten state conventions, 265 were black. Collectively, they drafted new, striking constitutions that, unlike the previous constitutions, allowed all men to vote; even the ex-Confederates. Although, the Republicans displayed compassion upon their dealings with their opponents, the unruly Southern ego rose once more against the ratification of the new constitutions. In due course, the majority did manage to ratify and in each state, black men were elected to offices. As time progressed, nearly 1,500 black men were in office around the throughout the south. Among those were the likes of Blanche K. Bruce, Hiram R. Revels, Joseph Rainey, Jonathan J. Wright, Francis L. Cardozo, Robert Smalls, and Ferdinand Havis. This was a flow that led to inevitable ebb in the river of fight for African-Americans. That ebb presented itself in the form of the gradual failure of reconstruction. Issues such as education, social welfare, civil rights, land, and businesses plagued the Republican frame of thought daily. The black leaders efforts to facilitate education throughout the black and poor white communities failed overall. Lack of funds is the greatest blame for the inconsistency. At the time, there were no segregation laws, but whites refused to let their children go to school with blacks. Though a valid effort amongst African-Americans was given toward civil rights, they did not receive the respect that every other law abiding citizen received. For example, they were not accommodated at hotels and on public transportation, nor were they served as paying customers at various businesses. The blacks who worked for the white landowners were being cheated daily as if they were still in captivity. White employers would either fire the worker before the harvest or make up outlandish fees and debts. Some just didnt pay at all! Black leaders grew tired of the robbery and made laws to eliminate such happenings. The distribution of land amongst landless, yeomen, farmers didnt happen in any other state but South Carolina. Over fourteen thousand black families and a few white families, received land. Black businesses, unfortunately, did not and could not flourish due to the lack of funds during the expanding of the railroad. Other businesses made handsome amounts of profit but the African-American business owners could not cash in. Black politicians laid the foundation for public assistance, education, criminal justice reform but, could not do anything that directly dealt with their people. Reason being, was that they were the minority in the Republican party and in fact, were not allowed to ratify their own agenda. Besides, they couldnt agree on most things because they came from different walks of life. Bickering throughout the Republican party sparked a high turnover in political leadership and the loss of that very economic security? This made for inexperienced leadership and added to Republican woes. Opposition came to the party in various ways; Such as, the conservative Democrats who continued to heckle blacks who in any way participated in the political process and the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866, by ex-confederate soldiers who were hell-bent on eradicating and/ or terrorizing anyone who didnt submit to southern culture. They used any means necessary to remove blacks from politics. The Enforcement Act of 1870 was passed to prohibit Klansmen from wearing their regalia in public and protected the civil rights of black citizens. The following year the Ku Klux Klan Act was passed and it made the interference of a persons right to vote, hold office, jury duty and equal protection a federal offense. The fifteenth amendment was passed in 1869, and later ratified in 1870. It clearly expressed the right to vote to all citizens but failed to address the literacy tests, property possession rule, or the poll tax that continued to plague voters. Radical Republicans and northern whites alike grew exhausted with the dependency of blacks, (as they saw it) and looked upon them as unfit to be involved in the political system. They thought that reconstruction had been a mistake. The Freedmens Bank was founded in 1865 and done well until the white board of directors foolishly invested in Washington, D. C. real estate. The Panic of 1873 brought about a significant loss in unsecured railroad loans. As a result, the bank closed in 1874. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was an act of good intentions, yet it was ruled unconstitutional by U. S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Bradley who, wrote that the Fourteenth Amendment protected black people from discrimination by states but not by private businesses. The end of Reconstruction was as brutal and contentious as the beginning. Blacks refused to vote in response to the terrorism inflicted upon them by the southern Democrats. The withdrawal of the federal troops that were to protect the rights of colored people left the black citizens with no means of defense and they therefore had to bow down to the numerous massacres that were to occur. The compromise of 1877, in which, Samuel J. Tilden and Rutherford B. Haynes, ran for the presidency, brought about more violence towards blacks and grew worse as time passed.

The Usefulness of Functionalism for an Understanding of the Family Essa

The Usefulness of Functionalism for an Understanding of the Family Functionalists focus on the roles of the family as an institution and its interaction with other institutions, such as the ratio of functions the family has to perform compared to those that other institutions such as schools and the NHS perform. Functionalism sees the use of the family in society and how it can take pressure from the government by becoming an almost dependent institution that will help support its own members. George Murdock analysed 250 societies and studied the purpose of the family, he came up with a final definition; that the family performs several main functions. These functions help the individuals within the family; Murdock believed the functions are sexual, educational, economic and reproductive. However, Murdock did not consider that the family may have a detrimental affect on members of the family as he seemed to assume that all families are harmonious and do not have any arguments or problems. He also overlooked alterna...

How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor Essay

How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor By Erik S. Reinert The book How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor is written by Erik S. Reinert and it is published in 2007. Reinert is a 62-year-old Norwegian economist who specializes in development economics and economic history (Wikipedia). Reinert attended the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland (where he studied economics), Harvard University for MBA, and Cornell University for Ph.D.(Wikipedia). In addition to How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, Reinert has written six books which focus around the theory of uneven development and the history of economic thought and policy (Wikipedia). Reinert is not only an eminent scholar in his field, but also a distinguished entrepreneur. In 1972 he founded a small industrial firm that did color sampling to the paint and automotive industries. Later he developed the firm and added production plants in Norway and Finland, and by the time he sold it in 1991, the company had become the largest of its kind in Eu rope (Wikipedia). Reinert is influenced by Friedrich List and it shows in his piece. Reinert suggests that â€Å"globalization would have been a positive-sum game for all countries if the world has taken Friedrich List’s path to economic integration† (Reinert, 161.). Friedrich has developed his own theory about the timing of tariffs and free trade, and the sequence basically goes like this: (1) a period of free trade for all nations (2) a period when small states protect and build their own industries (4) a period when all countries establish their own competitive industrial sectors (Reinert, 161.).After going through all the above steps, it’s time to open for global free trade and globalization will benefit the poor nations as well as the rich ones. Based on Reinert’s education level, the amount of research and publication he has done in the field of uneven development and his work experience, it can be concluded that Reinert is both qualified educationally and by experience to write this book. How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor is Reinert’s most recent English-language book and his purpose of writing this book is to find out the causes of poverty and to explain the mechanisms that produce the huge gap between the rich and the poor. He looks through the economic history of the past 500 hundred years and concludes the economic structure that most rich countries follow faithfully and eventually make them rich: industrialization policies first, free trade second. Once the rich countries become rich (e.g. the European countries), the type of economic understanding employed by them during their transition from poor to rich dies and they comes up with the completely different standard economics (abstract â€Å"high† theories) for export to poor countries. As a consequence, the standard economics, such as the Washington Consensus, proves to be damaging to poor countries and makes them even poorer. It can be observed that the rich countries were those who emulated the leading industrial nations, such as the United Kingdom, into â€Å"the Age of Industry† (Reinert, 123.) Industrialization is the very first step towards success. With the effect of increasing returns and specialization, the benefit of industrialization goes much further. Industrialized countries take all the jobs that require high skills and technology, while the jobs industrialized countries can no longer mechanize or innovate further, such as straightening of the wire, are farmed out to the non-industrialized countries (Reinert, 39.) Rich countries produce mechanizable products while poor countries can only produce non-mechanizable ones and it explains why no country is able to get rich by only producing raw materials (Reinert, 134.). An industrial sector is essential for a country to become rich. As time zips by, technology and increasing returns, which are main sources of economic power, create economic barriers to entry and make it even more difficult for poor countries to catch up (Reinert, 40.). Rich countries specialize in the right economic activities also develop economic scale and as a consequence, more labor is needed to perform the tasks and the cost of each unit of product falls (Reinert, 40.). Workers are paid more and the things they buy cost less. Both outcomes reflect the two ways to raise the standard of  living: to receive higher wages or to lower the prices of goods (Reinert, 131.). On the other side, rich countries force the conclusions of standard economic policies which they would not apply at home, upon the poor nations that are under their wings, such as keeping the colonies as pure suppliers of raw materials (Reinert, 39.). The rhetoric-reality gap plays an important role in keeping poor countries poor. Another factor that is crucial to the poor nations is the timing of opening up of an economy because free trade tends to destroy the most efficient industries in the least efficient countries (Reinert, 251.). Most rich countries are industrialized before the free trade, so that when they enter the market, they are capable to compete with other countries and get the maximum benefits from globalization but for poor nations, the free trade is like adding frost to snow. In conclusion, Reinert sees the wealth as a result of industrialization, together with other factors such as increasing returns, synergies and he blames poverty for deindustrialization, and the wrong timing of free trade. In general, I agree with Reinert’s opinion that industrialization and the timely free trade policy are the keys to wealth. The development path of China can be a perfect example for this. China was very prosperous during the Tang dynasty, and many western countries sent scholars all the way to China to learn from its success. But during the Qing dynasty, the government chose the policy of isolation and it destroyed the economic development of China. The Qing government restricted the external transport and foreign trade. Imported goods were heavily taxed. The variety and quantity of exported goods were limited as well. China isolated itself from others while many western competitors were in the process of industrialization. Many industrialized western nations were seeking new territories and the deindustrialized China without any advanced arms naturally became their target. Effortlessly, their machine guns bombed the â€Å"locked† country. After that, China learned lessons and started to choose economic structure carefully. Instead of following the immediate economic integration, China followed the Marshall Plan whose goal is to reindustrialize. Fortunately, China chose the right economic structure this time and it was used as proof of the excellence of globalization while Russia, a country faithfully followed the advice given by the World Bank and IMF, experienced disastrous  consequences (Reinert, 118.). Although China has gone back to the right track, but the fact that China is a developing country instead of a developed country demonstrates that the scar caused by the mistaken choice of economic policy and deindustrialization hasn’t healed. The story of China shows the consequences of failing to recognize the importance of industrialization and timely free trade. The failure explains why poor countries are poor and the presently weal thy countries are those who embrace the industrialization and capitalism. Generally speaking, the book is well written. Reinert organizes the book by using sub headings to separate the content and drawing examples from the economic history to support his theories, which make the book more understandable and reliable. There are only a few graphics, a bibliography and a very long appendix at the end, suggesting there are a lot of facts and in-depth research behind the book. The only problem that I have with this book is the repetitiveness of theories. Reinert is very focused on his theme but sometimes he tends to overemphasize it by repeating the similar theories in different chapters. I would recommend the book to readers who have a particular interest in the topic of equalization, or the gap between the rich and the poor. Reinert discusses a lot of highly controversial subjects and people would want to find out the answers. Bibliography S. Reinert, Erik, How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, London: Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_S._Reinert

Educational Implications for Heideggers Views On Poetry...

Educational Implications for Heideggers Views On Poetry And Thinking ABSTRACT: I discuss some of the educational implications emerging from Heideggers views on poetry, thinking, and language. Specifically, Heideggers views on the neighborhood between poetry and thinking suggest that most accepted methods of teaching poetry are in error, because they ignore this neighboring relation. The importance of this relation is presented and clarified. I then discuss the implications of Heideggers view for teaching poetry. Heideggers series of three lectures, later published as The Nature of Language has some very significant implications for education. (1) In this paper I focus on the second lecture. In opening his second lecture,†¦show more content†¦Thinking about language means entering a region where method does not reign. It means following a specific path in that region. But in thinking about the nature of language we encounter specific problems. When we speak of the nature of language, we are already using language to discuss its nature. Further more, we are already acquainted with the nature of language as people who use it, even if we cannot clearly articulate and define this nature. In short, we are entangled in a lagging behind the topic of our inquiry. There is a way out of our predicament. If we look around the region of thought, without taking the entanglement lightly, we will note that what Heidegger calls the country of thinking is open in all directions to the neighborhood of poetry. Thus, today, when scientific method tends to suffocate thinking, we can return to thinking through reading and listening to poetry. To be specific, the fact that the country of thinking is open in all directions to the neighborhood of poetry, can often help a person follow those paths of thinking that concern him or her. How? Quite often if you read and listen to great poetry -- with an openness to the language and to the thoughts and experiences expressed in the poem, and with a comportment to think about what you heard, with care for the world, and