Black People in the U.S from the Civil War to present
The history of black Americans can be dated back to the days of the civil war which marked the epitome of slavery in America. The first European settlers first brought Africans as slaves in a country where they would serve the white masters. The fate of the slaves in America would divide the country during the civil war. Years immediately after the civil war in America, the areas in the south faced an economic crisis. The South was primarily dominated by the slaves who would offer labor in the large plantations. The soils in the south where tobacco was grown got exhausted. Then, tobacco was the leading cash crop. Other agricultural products such as indigo and rice also failed to generate as much income as was expected. As a result, the black people in the south opted to rent the farms from the whites in exchange for a crop share leading to the rise of the sharecropping system. In this system, the landlords or the planter would allow a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share crop. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the rise of the sharecropping system. Sharecropping system led to the white supremacy over black Americans, which paved the way for racial formation but slowly faded in present America.
Sharecropping during the civil war ensured the black Americans were tied to the land and were unlikely to leave for other opportunities, a notion that slowly faded. The supremacy status of the white farmers who owned the lands could not grant the freedom to wonder and look for better job opportunities. As a result, racial formation on the aspect of sharecropping rose in the South. “One pillar of the white supremacy was the logic of slavery” (Smith, 68). This logic rendered the black Americans inherently slaveable. The sharecropping system always equated blacks to slavery, leading to the rise of the capitalist system. The type of the capitalist system exhibited by the whites in the south was such that it commoditized the black workers in the farms while profiting the whites. The white supremacy ensured the capitalist system was maintained.
However, present America accords black society freedom because of what may be termed as color-blind racism. “The color-blind racism slowly eroded the various racial formations, which existed during the times of the sharecropping in the South” (Eduardo, 198). The central frames of color-blind racism are the minimization of racism, abstract liberalism, and naturalization. These frameworks for color-blind racism have granted blacks in present America the social, political, and economic rights (Eduardo, 199). One practical example is when President Obama clinched power in one of the most historical presidential elections in the US and becoming the first African American president in the history of America.
The white supremacy in the sharecropping system resulted in economic dependency and poverty in the south before allowing freedmen a degree of freedom and autonomy. Racial formation rocked the farms after the civil war. Immediately after the civil wars, there existed black men called former slaves or the freedmen (Smith, 75). The former slaves established the subsistence farms on the land abandoned by the Union army during the wars. The racial formation became evident when the then President Andrew Johnson, a former slave owner, and a Democrat, restored the lands to their original owners. During the restoration face, the land could not be redistributed, and this led to economic dependency. Under the sharecropping system, the freedmen had a higher degree of freedom and autonomy than what they received under slavery (Omi, 1567). They began owning farms because of color-blind racism. They drove the slave cabins away from the slave quarters into their farms. “The logic of orientalism was oppressed by the quest for freedom among the blacks” (Omi, 1567). The freedmen withdrew their women and daughters from the slave farms, and they focused on the house duties, something which had not happened when they were slaves.
The white dominance over blacks during the sharecropping system was because the black Americans were eliminated from the political sphere (Omi, 64). The political disorientation of the blacks was due to the perpetual racial formations which had been so pervasive among the blacks in the South. This period was marked with dictatorship, hegemony, and lack of political democracy. The racial dictatorship could be dated back between 1607 and 1865. Most non-whites were firmly barred from participating in US politics. After the civil war, there was a brief experiment of Reconstruction, which terminated in 1877 (Omi, 65). Its wake followed a century of legally sanctioned segregation and the denial of the vote. In the mid-1960s, several black movements originated from the South such as the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. These black movements meant the political participation of the black Americans was beginning to take effect. Centuries of racial dictatorship in the US had severe consequences on its democracy (Smith, 77). US politics was then measured based on pure white identity, which was a negation of a rational society. The racial formations however faded gradually, as more black movements sprouted in the South. Today, America enjoys one of the most inclusive democratic systems where blacks whose ancestors were once victims of sharecropping can emerge to be leaders.
The sharecropping system led to the rise of movements that engulfed the true definition of racism in America. The clear definition of racism has been gradually eroding since the triumph of the civil rights movements in the mid-1960s. The concept of racism entered the lexicon of common sense as opposed to the early times during the onset of the civil wars, and this led to the rise of the slogan “the black power” (Omi, 71). The wave of riots swept the urban ghettos between 1964 and 1968 that led to the founding of the redial movements. The white society in the US and those who perceived to the political lords began to rethink of the best ways to define race and racism as a concept from the racial formation theory. This theory allows the differentiation between race and racism by not using the two interchangeably. “Race has no fixed meaning but constructed and transformed sociohistorically via the competing political projects” (Omi, 71). Consequently, racism can thus be seen characterizing some racial projects. These racial projects represent the categories of racial constructs in contemporary US society. The idea to rethink on the definition of race and racism was a blueprint for the entrance of the black community in the US’s political system. Color-blind racism took the root of the society where even the white parents could now adopt children of different colors (Eduardo, 195). Research on color blindness in the US suggested that the current system is providing equal opportunities for blacks.
In conclusion, the white dominance over blacks during the sharecropping system led to the gradual erosion of the various racial formations in America. The notion that the blacks were tied to their firms in the sharecropping system slowly faded and the blacks could earn their pieces of land after the civil war. They deployed the slave cabins to their farms reliving their women and daughters from the oppression of the white man. The white supremacy logic of slavery was put asunder by the revolutionary efforts from the blacks in the South. The Whiteman’s supremacy turned blacks in the South into demagogues who were not allowed to have divergent economic empowerment, which resulted in economic dependency and poverty. As a result, the freedmen established subsistence farms in the post-civil wars and were able to earn themselves freedom and autonomy. Nevertheless, their efforts were reverted by the political decision made by then-President Andrew Johnson who was a former slave owner. The state decided to reinstate the farms back to the original owners who were whites. The course for racial justice thus became twisted.
Nevertheless, the feeling to have a rational society again took root after the revolutionary movements which sprouted from the South. The movements sent political shockwaves which shook the political system in the US to the core. Radical movements swept the ghettos in the quest for “black power.” The fact that the blacks were eliminated from the political sphere also sparked such movements. As a result, sociologist began to rethink about defining both race and racism. Coupled with the concept the color-blind racism, America today enjoys one of the most inclusive democracies where Barrack Obama could be elected a president.
Works Cited
Eduardo, Bonilla-Silva, and David Dietrich. “The sweet enchantment of color-blind racism in Obamerica.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 634.1 (2011): 190-206.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. “Once more, with feeling: Reflections on racial formation.” PMLA 123.5 (2008): 1565-1572.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014. Pp. 53-91.
Smith, Andrea. “Indigeneity, settler colonialism, white supremacy.” Racial formation in the twenty-first century(2012): 66-90.