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Danico Lou
Professor Batty
English 113A
16 October 2014
See the Unseen
There has been a saying that the anti-black racism has been put to a stop in our current
society. But that is a false statement because National Surveys revealed that African American's
common stereotypes are still being held until today. Those common stereotypes are to be
believed that African Americans are less hardworking people and less intelligent than white
people. I come to say that these racial discrimination and negative stereotypical attitudes towards
blacks still exist all around us until today. I've encountered political cartoons that still shows and
relates to racism towards African Americans. These cartoons demonstrates multiple meanings on
how white people's perspective towards black people.
White Americans don't see the racial discrimination that African Americans live by.
From what we know, most people view African Americans as a negative influence and are
mostly judged by their skin color. A political cartoon was made by Michaelann Bewsee showing
one farmer, one white rich woman, and one white rich man. Along those 3 people, there is a
black man in another separated category. Within those 3 white Americans, a quote is being stated
them saying, "I don't see race as a real problem in the U.S", but the black man says "see the
problem?" In this cartoon, the message tells us white people don't see racial issues because
they're not experiencing the same lifestyle as African Americans do. As of today, African
Americans are mostly known for doing drugs and are physically violent. They're also assumed of

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being as criminals or killers. Lastly, people think African Americans are lazy and not
hardworking people.
African Americans are known for high percentage of crime rates in regards to the new
Jim Crow Law. The new Jim Crow Law was a book written by Michelle Alexander about the
issue of the current levels of incarceration in the United States. According to the Jim Crow Law,
5% of the world's population, the U.S incarcerates 25% of the world's prisoners, and those
prisoners are mostly African Americans. The new Jim Crow Law was a rendition of
enslavement; theory of how white people could still control African American's even though
they were sent free from slavery. Although African Americans are like any regular human
beings, people still treat them differently because of the color of their skin. Blacks were blamed
for being the main source of illnesses. They think that African Americans are dirty people and
are being compared to animals such as primates. For example, the book " The Mismeasure of
Man", by a biologist named Stephen Jay Gould, talks about how the intelligence of human
beings such as race, class, and sex are based upon on biological measurements. In the book, it
mentions that the skull of an ape and an African American are similar, therefore assuming that
the intelligence of blacks are the same as apes. Due to the belief of blacks having the same
intelligence as apes, they were always known as the lower class people. For that, they believed
that white people were more superior than African Americans.
Not only African Americans are being mistreated and being viewed as a negative
influence, their education is also being misguided towards to a vocational and industrial
education. I've encountered yet another political cartoon that shows a white man talking down to
4 black children about race in a classroom, showing that they're inferior. The image states that
white men looked down upon black race, therefore brainwashing African Americans that they're

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low class people and only limiting their education. This was a political cartoon made by blogger
name Abagond. That cartoon can relate to how black people are getting limited with their
education while attending these vocational and industrial education. African Americans who
attended vocational schools earned 17 percent less than African Americans who attended general
high school. As for Industrial Education limits the education of African Americans. Overall,
African Americans are not getting the same equal treatment of education compared to white
people.
There has been so many African Americans who have been experiencing these types of
racial discrimination. For example, an African American, Brent Staples writes a book called
"Black Men and Public Spaces", tells a story about his experiences on different individual people
fearing him due to his appearance and his race's stereotypes. In the story, people mistaken him as
a burglar or some kind of criminal. He mentions a quote stating, "I was scarcely noticeable
against a backdrops of gang warfare, street knifings, and murders. I grew up one of the good
boys had perhaps a half-dozen fistfights. In retrospect, my shyness of combat has clear sources"
(Staples 184). From this quote, he means that people assumed he was a person that went through
dangerous and violent events because of his race. But in reality he was a black man who attended
college and was trying to live a successful life. Brent's purpose on telling this story was that
people still portray black people as violent and dangerous without getting to know them. This
persuades his audience that don't judge people just by their appearance or race.
Overall, racial discrimination has still been occurring until today. African Americans in
the United States are being misjudged or being mistreated due to their own race. Unfair
education has been a part of the African American racial discrimination lifestyle and until today,
blacks are getting lower education. The Jim Crow Law teaches how white people are still

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showing that they have control over us even though after getting freed from American slavery.
Finally, we must know to the fact that not all these black stereotypes are true. These stereotypes
are heard from all over the media or from other friends and it tends to change people's
perspective towards a particular person or race. We can't judge people by its cover, therefore we
must know that all men are equal.

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Work Cited

"American Dream." : The Slave Narrative. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

"The White Racist Guide to Talking to Blacks about Race." Abagond. N.p., 04 May 2012. Web. 14
Dec. 2014.

"The New Jim Crow." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

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