Footstools of Opportunity: A Cursory First Look at the Essay "Immigration, African Americans and Racial Discourse" by Stephen Steinberg
I'm currently writing an analysis of LeBron James' free agency event (for lack of a better term) and what it says about him, the people and agencies involved and society in general. I happen to think the whole thing is far more involved than people are willing to admit or able to see, but then deep analysis is what I do when I'm quiet. That's been taking up a major amount of my time, along with various film and tv gigs, so don't get upset that I haven't posted in a month. I keep telling my colleagues here that they should consider picking up the slack as it were, but they all have more involved lives than I do, like having real jobs and being parents and all; and I find nothing wrong with that (in other words, I don't want to tick them off >;)
In the meantime, I was perusing Google for documents my uncle says were given to immigrants at Ellis Island that included frank instructions to "ignore Negroes", as they were considered prevalent non-entities. I can't imagine anyone would have the guts to upload such a document on the web, thus proving a long-held belief in the black community that immigrants were encouraged by the United States to be racist or prejudiced towards American blacks, but I did find an interesting document from the textbook Race and Labor Matters in the New U.S Economy by Joseph Wilson, Manning Marable and Immanuel Ness.
There is also a report and article by NPR contributor Michel Martin which also looks at the issues of various ethnic minorities and their perceptions of each other.
For anyone who has said or believes that immigrants of any particular stripe consistently outperform American blacks for various reasons; among them being that American blacks undermine themselves, these are must-reads and a needed wake-up call. It is not pejorative, nor does it seek to be divisive or reassign blame. It is a call to wake up to the reality that there has been a consistent and pervasive manipulation of everyone by a class that would no more have immigrants join them in their position than they would have the class of people they denigrate to them.
As you can plainly see, I don't just reminisce about my past lives; I also seek to enlighten. Hopefully this article will put you further along in that direction. Feel free to discuss here or shoot me an email; most importantly, keep the dialogue productive. >;)
Note: I notice in many places that race discussion gets overwhelmed by ignorance of all kinds; this is the internet, but at our site, we don't abide by cowardice in the guise of anonymous expression. Not all anonymous expressions are from cowards, but it's pretty evident what constitutes cowardice, and it will not be tolerated or propageted here; racist and ignorant comments will be removed, so don't bother proving my point.
In the meantime, I was perusing Google for documents my uncle says were given to immigrants at Ellis Island that included frank instructions to "ignore Negroes", as they were considered prevalent non-entities. I can't imagine anyone would have the guts to upload such a document on the web, thus proving a long-held belief in the black community that immigrants were encouraged by the United States to be racist or prejudiced towards American blacks, but I did find an interesting document from the textbook Race and Labor Matters in the New U.S Economy by Joseph Wilson, Manning Marable and Immanuel Ness.
There is also a report and article by NPR contributor Michel Martin which also looks at the issues of various ethnic minorities and their perceptions of each other.
For anyone who has said or believes that immigrants of any particular stripe consistently outperform American blacks for various reasons; among them being that American blacks undermine themselves, these are must-reads and a needed wake-up call. It is not pejorative, nor does it seek to be divisive or reassign blame. It is a call to wake up to the reality that there has been a consistent and pervasive manipulation of everyone by a class that would no more have immigrants join them in their position than they would have the class of people they denigrate to them.
As you can plainly see, I don't just reminisce about my past lives; I also seek to enlighten. Hopefully this article will put you further along in that direction. Feel free to discuss here or shoot me an email; most importantly, keep the dialogue productive. >;)
Note: I notice in many places that race discussion gets overwhelmed by ignorance of all kinds; this is the internet, but at our site, we don't abide by cowardice in the guise of anonymous expression. Not all anonymous expressions are from cowards, but it's pretty evident what constitutes cowardice, and it will not be tolerated or propageted here; racist and ignorant comments will be removed, so don't bother proving my point.
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