There is plenty of racism everywhere in the US now, and going back to before the Civil War. The North didn’t fight the Civil War over the issue of race, but slavery. In the years after the Civil War, overt racism grew in the South, but was just as present in the Northem states. Abraham Lincoln was a noted racist. Because of the extremism of racism in the South after the Civil War, the southern states were eventually subjected to legal scrutiny and corrective measures, and the level of racial antipathy dropped greatly. In Northern states, the racism continued unabated, and in many places de facto segregation still exists. Some of the worst racism in this country now occurs in the middle of the country where almost everybody would look like, and consider themselves to be a ‘white’ person. Lacking exposure to anyone different, they may be susceptible to belief in common stereotypes. It is a very complicated subject. I’ve been to Brazil, and know many Brazilians, and other South Americans. The racial issues in this country are quite unique and different from those there.
There were a few ‘blacks’ who fought for the Confederacy, though it is unlikely they did so other than as a means of survival. Sometimes serving at gunpoint, sometimes simply to get something to eat.
I think you are asking about the condition of ‘blacks’ living in the South now. Most of the extreme racism is gone. Not entirely, but mostly. Segregation has created political power for the ‘black’ population in the South. Even in times of worse racism, the ‘black vote’ was courted by politicians. ‘Blacks’ in this country have a history of lost opportunity, and a greater rate of poverty. However, poverty itself is usually the greater problem in this country now as far as opportunity goes (similar to the situation in Brazil). Educated, hard-working people of all types of backgrounds excel in this country. The poor and illiterate are often stuck in a generational cycle. Poor people in this country live quite well by global standards. Everyone can get food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and basic education. The poor often have TVs and cell phones. What they don’t have is security, the opportunity to improve their condition, and lack the protection of the political system to better their condition.
Sorry if my english is very poor, I are learning english ok?
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As usual, your English is better than the vast majority of Americans ability to speak any language other than English, and better than the English of some Americans.
There are poor people in this country who die from morbid obesity. Some way or another, every person in this country can have all their basic needs met. Those who don’t get those benefits do it by choice or by force. Compared to the average American it is a terrible life. But compared to poverty in other parts of the world it seems lavish. There seems to be a growing middle-class in Brazil that may make this problem worse there if nothing is done about poverty.
Yes, I have seen the favelas. It was distressing. It was also distressing to see how their fellow Brazilians went about their lives in full view of these conditions.
Doesn’t a distinction lie in whether or not we’re talking about enlistment? Many Confederate soldiers brought slaves with them. Some of them fought like the enlisted soldiers.
A quote attributed to Frederick Douglas says, “There are at the present moment many Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up that of the…rebels.”
There is limited assistance if you have recently lost a job, but there is no assistance for the long-term unemployed.
There is also some limited assistance available if you are living in poverty with children. Unless you are cheating the system (and I don’t want to get into that debate), you have to work to maintain any sort of reasonable lifestyle. It is not really possible to feed or house yourself without some sort of employment. While it is difficult to actually die of starvation in the US, undernourishment and malnourishment are problems we still deal with.
Social security exists after retirement when you are older. It also exists for some people with disabilities that do not allow them to work. You can’t simply choose not to work if you want to assure yourself meals, clothing, and a roof.
I am white and my ex girlfriend was black and I asked her father why he wanted to go back to Mississippi when he retired. He said there was too much racism in Chicago. When I questioned how it could be better in Greenville, Mississippi, he said something along the lines, people everywhere are racist but at least down South, you know what and who your dealing with.
So I guess that says a lot about the subtle racism that has replaced the overt stuff
It is a lasting sadness to me that I never got the chance to visit O Brasil. My Portuguese teachers were Brasileiras, but I ended up living in Lisboa. My teachers talked about the favelas (slums, to folks not familiar with the term) and showed films of those areas.
Poor people don’t always have social security, social security is for the disabled, orphans and those 62+. If you are not in those groups you don’t get SS.
People still die from starvation in Brazil? Brazil has a per capita GDP of about 11,000, putting it solidly in middle income status. But I have no idea what the discrepency is between rural and urban. In the US the income discrepency between the cities and towns is big, but not huge (people in small towns still have cars, health care, education, food, etc). In brazil that may not be the case, I don’t know.
I’m not looking to get into a debate here, but I’m going to disagree with the South still having racism being “mostly a stereotype.” Racism is certainly alive and well, maybe not as overt and direct, but it definitely not just a stereotype. Granted it depends much upon the location, perhaps being at a minimum in urban areas and rising the more rural you get…
Many people say things like this. As I understand it, it’s a big problem for Blacks in the North that the racism is somewhat hidden but very effective. In the South it is more common for Whites and Blacks to know each other personally and have frequent contact, whereas in the North it is more common for large areas to be ghettos, isolating the races from one another. This occurs through a variety of mechanisms that are not explicit enough to be illegal. Perhaps an example would be that Black and White children may play together in the South, and grow up to be Black adults working for White adults; whereas in the North, Black and White children would live in different parts of town and go to different schools and grow up to live and work in different areas, and never mingle so much.
