The Evolution of White Racism and Its Impact on Black Society in America Today
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The Evolution of White Racism and its Impact on Black Society in America Today By Michael Soares A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2018 © Michael Soares 2018 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract This thesis examines the historical evolution of racial hierarchies and white racism in American society, and in particular how these ideological frameworks have impacted Black American society. By utilizing a case study approach, in order to fully identify the pervasive nature of white racial and cultural narratives and the ways they have denied Black progress and freedom, the goal is to outline how systemic incorporations of racialized stereotypes within political rhetoric and popular culture have worked to reinforce white racial hierarchies and white cultural paradigms. The three periods examined in this case study are as follows: the Post-Civil War American South, 1960's Civil Rights Era and the modern Hip Hop Generation. Misrepresentations within music, media and sports all too often resemble neo-colonial, paternalistic and racialized myths of the past. While politicians, particularly conservatives, have consistently used racialized messages to fan white fears and gain voter support with reactionary "law and order" rhetoric and by blaming minorities for American socio-economic problems. The criminalization of Blackness in American society is based on white fears, not relative crime rates. Whites, since the collapse of Reconstruction policies in the South, attempted to force Blacks back onto the plantations, railroads and iron mines of the South. Black criminality became the excuse for reinforcing racial hierarchy in American society, convict leasing replaced slavery in the South. Conservative politicians spewed forth racialized rhetoric to disenfranchise Black voters in the South, while lynching and race riots acted as violent methods to reinforce white domination and white racialized notions of Black inferiority. By the 1960s violence became a tool of the agents of the FBI to repress Black Power groups and their attempts to challenge white racial hierarchies iii in America. However, by the late 60s racism and outright violence became unpopular and new more subtle, more systemic forms of reinforcing racial caste systems and white supremacism in American society were needed. The impacts of deindustrialization, white flight, gerrymandering, rezoning, political marginalization and the elimination of an entire generation of Black leaders needs to be discussed for someone to fully recognize the legacy of white racism. Politicians and popular culture today have come to support racial hierarchies either intentionally or unintentionally by consistently over representing Black criminality and pushing racialized images, that in many ways came eerily similar to Jim Crow representations of Blackness. From Blaxploitation Films to Gangster Rap and Hood Films, this thesis examines how white dominant cultural representations of Black Criminality have become embedded within American popular culture and politics, and how these racialized images and narratives have conditioned American society to accept white supremacist notions of race and crime. Acknowledgements The thesis is the result of years of study and reflection, I spent years attempting to discover exactly how I could make a difference and attempt to bring some love and understanding to a world that seems to get darker by the day. I hope that this thesis and my further scholarship will help to challenge dominant cultural narratives and racism in American society. History will always be my greatest passion in life and the purpose of any good historian is to challenge dominant social and cultural paradigms in order to fully separate fact from fiction. This thesis was inspired by several scholars and hip hop artists whose words and voices are seen throughout, I wish to acknowledge that their iv contributions be it in songs, books and public debates greatly aided my efforts to fully extrapolate certain sections of my thesis. This completes my requirements for Master of Arts in History, but it does not end my fight against hate and intolerance, for that it is just a beginning. First, I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Andrew Hunt for his unconditional support and for all of the kind words of encouragement that helped to push me forward. I could never have written this thesis without your guidance and wisdom, for all you have done for me over the last few years I will be forever grateful. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members -- Francis Condon and John Sbardellati. Their continuous support and guidance were greatly appreciated and I will be always indebted to them for their contributions and support. I would like to acknowledge my family and friends for all their support and words of encouragement, they always have had my back when I need them and I could not be where I am today without them. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge my girlfriend Krista for all of her love and for supporting me throughout my degree and all the struggles that comes with it. v Table of Contents Authors Declaration............................................................................................ii Abstract................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................iv Table of Contents................................................................................................vi Introduction...........................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Reconstruction Era and The Guise of Progress......................5 White Fear And The Suppression of Post-Civil War Black Suffrage and Society...........................................................................................................8 Racial Hierarchy, Social Darwinism and Southern Paternalism.....................12 Toms, Coons and the Development of Racialized Popular Culture...............19 The Racialized Criminalization of Blackness in Post-Slavery America................................................................................................................23 Chapter 2: The Counter-subversion of the Black Power Movement and Civil Rights...................................................................................................................28 Civil Rights and The Black Power Movements................................................32 Kerner Commission Conclusions and the Causes of Urban Unrest.......................................................................................................34 Police Brutality and the Rise of the Black Power Movement.........................41 COINTELPRO And The Counter-subversion of Black Power.........................46 Chapter 3: The Effects of Racialized Popular Culture in America and The Criminalization of Black Society.......................................................................63 vi State of Black Society in America following the Suppression of Black Power.................................................................................................................68 American Society in the Post-Civil Rights Era ..............................................74 Blaxploitation Films and the Evolution of Racialized Pop-Culture..............75 Hood Films to Gangster Rap and the Victimization of Urban Minority Communities .....................................................................................87 Prison Industrial Complex, Crime and Police Brutality................................119 Conclusion........................................................................................................135 Bibliography.....................................................................................................139 vii Introduction In 1492, you came upon these shores; Seven hundred years educated by the Moors, 17th century-- genocide and the gun--, Middle Passage blessed to market the Africans, in the so called ‘land of god”, my kind were treated hard, from back then until now, I see and you agree, we have been a misrepresented people. -Stevie Wonder, “Misrepresented People”, Bamboozled, 2000. In the book America’s Original Sin, author Jim Wallis explains that, “racism (not slavery), is America’s original sin and must be named as such.. [he identifies that] racism lingers far more pervasively in implicit and covert ways in American institutions and culture, in often unconscious attitudes, and in the very structures of our society”.1 Wallis published this book in 2016 just after the Charleston massacre, where a white supremacist opened fire in a predominantly Black church and murdered nine Black congregants. His hope was that this atrocity would open American eyes to the blatant white supremacist beliefs and attitudes, that still pervades throughout American society more than a century and a half later. Racism has been used throughout American history as a political tool to maintain social control and racial hierarchy, this will be the primary focus