The Sunday, April 1st New York Times' Opinion Section includes a Trayvon Martin-related article titled "In Florida, A Death Foretold" (see link below) in which the authors states that "caste is alive and well in this country." After reading the article, write in the blog an explanation of the above statement by the author and state your opinion. Be ready to talk about your views in class for extra credit points.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/a-native-caste-society.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=In%20Florida,%20A%20Death%20Foretold&st=cse
Sunday, April 1, 2012
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I feel that we are part of the human race and blacks are lagging behind. We need to change our image and take pride in education. What the other cultures are saying is that we have dropped the baton as far as progress and we need to catch up or get lapped.
ReplyDeleteThere has always been a caste system. But now I believe it has taken its toll. The blacks are perceived to be automatically on the bottom and the whites are always on top. Sadly, I believe it will always be like this. 70 percent of the hate crimes in 2010 were towards the blacks;in an era where racism is supposed to be a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteThe death in Florida has become predicted, where the the fastest growing Latino population tend to join the white caste to survive. They would prefer to identify themselves as "other" as not white, but never black. Latinos have overtaken African-Americans as the dominant group, Eastern and Southern European immigrants tend to have same attitude towards blacks as white caste and blacks are the target of highest number of hate crimes in the US. Unfortunately, practically all over the world , blacks are perceived to be seen on the bottom, and whites are always recognized at the top, no matter where they are.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Wilkerson did a great job by resurrecting the epic story of America's great migration at this time. Everyone knows that blacks are the target of the highest number of hate crimes in the U.S.A. It’s all about caste if Trayvon Martin was blonde hair blue eyed with a hoody on just the same he would be treated with respect and still be alive today. According to the article Just last year in California 51 people mostly Latinos were indicted after 15 years of assaults and fire bombings of African-American residents who they were trying to force out of their neighborhood. When will it all ends if we don’t be careful America is going to see one of the greatest civil wars ever. Every race wants to take advantage of the Blacks for no reason at all. If you put a white man blood in a tube and a black man blood in a separate tube you can never tell the difference because they are the same red. We are all the same human race its time to grow up and put an end to racial segregation once and for all. It’s time to be one nation under God and let the Black man live. We need equal justice for one and all.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the topic I thought I was going to be reading about India's caste system. After reading from the authors POV I do agree that in the US and maybe other countries people stick to their own if either by economic or social status and other interest. I agree Latinos do have this feeling of black being dangerous because in our countries black are always portrayed and the lowest of the chain and in order to be ok you're should should stay out of their way. When I moved here I certainly felt that way but then began to realize blacks should not be generally judged. As other groups have their rebels and shining stars. If blacks do something wrong it will always be a big deal but when they do something good it hard for others to recognize their good job. Us Latinos do consider ourselves as other but if it weren't for the black we will not be living in this country freely as we do. If Treyvon Martin was judged by the color of his skin by Jorge Zimmerman it will eventually come up after investigations because if Treyvon Martin did not do anything there is no other explanation as to why Zimmerman felt threatened other than Treyvon being of colored skin.
ReplyDeleteDianelis Lazo
ReplyDeleteI believe that there’s still discrimination in this country. Although not widely seen, many white Americans, and people of other races believe they are superior to others of different race. The case of Trayvon Martin is a vivid illustration of this. The young African American was killed by a man of Peruvian mother and “white” father, as the article says (as if there were no white Peruvians.) In addition, I agree with the author of the article when he says that Hispanics and African Americans don’t get well along with each other, given the countless fights between both ethnic group. Moreover, we can still see discrimination in the work place, where white Americans are the ones who get the best jobs, followed by African Americans who threat with lawsuits because of discrimination, and ended with Hispanics, who held the worst jobs in the country. As a result, with Caucasian whites discriminating Hispanics and African Americans, and African Americans and Hispanics discriminating each other, I believe that this country is still “all about caste”.
The author, Isabel Wilkerson, presents some violent events agaisnt black people and also mentions the recent murder of Trayvon Martin to show how caste is still important in today's society. Caste has been prevalent in the U.S, especially between blacks and whites, and now even Latinos give importance to caste. As the author mentions; latinos consider blacks as an inferior race and "they rather be anything" but blacks. Such shows how racism and prejudice is still an issue in society and even minorities like, Latinos, are being racist as well.In my opinion, caste is always going to be part of society the lack of open-mindness and acceptance does not help respect our values; I agree with the author's opinion "caste is alive and well in this country".
ReplyDeleteAbril Mariaca
Every side hows their own views and beliefs. My opinion as a white/hispanic born and raised in america is that their is always going to be tension between races. Not just because of color but because people constantly discriminating against each other. As the article said the increasing numbers in the latino race in this are leads to more discrimination against blacks in general. This Trayvon Martin case shows that people are still not willing to except one another as equals. Yet the tension is not just between two different races you still have to look at black on black crime. If a black man killed trayvon martin because he looked suspicious, would it have become such a big deal?
ReplyDelete