What evidence does LBJ offer as proof of the widening economic gap between black and white Americans? How does he explain this gap?
Lyndon B. Johnson spoke of the social and economic gaps between black and white Americans at his commencement address. He talks of the hardships they endured and the fight they fought to gain the rights everyone else had. He speaks of the hypocrisy and injustices that the American people overlooked day to day.
He uses an analogy to describe it and essentially says it would be unfair to merely free the black Americans and allow them to be thrown in the real world without any kind of help. He speaks of the knowledge one gets from growing up. That a growing individual learns from his or her environment or neighborhood and specifically the type of schools they went to, thus giving the white Americans who had better access to public facilities and education an advantage.
He goes as far as to say that the African Americans are part of ‘’another nation’’ and is completely right in doing so. The white Americans surely did not view everyone as their “equals” and used, abused, and exploited at almost any opportunity they were given. In addition the viewing of a ‘’separate society’’ made it more difficult for African Americans to find jobs in “White America” and thus led to the higher unemployment rate in comparison to the White unemployment rate.
The Cartoon illustration essentially depicts this feeling in that the White Americans came to America and used slavery to get their economy started and used them as the main source of labor to create America. Once the atrocities were realized and enough people had decided to stand up against slavery, most of the White Americans had already reaped their benefits and could live lavishly without. They ended up ending slavery but left the African Americans where they were, the White land owners and White politicians and essentially White America did nothing to help the very people who helped America achieve a strong economic start.
I think you did a great job at pulling off your point of view. You took a different angle than I did with mine, but I feel you gave enough support in your reaction to involve the reader and help them understand your points of view.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you acknowledge the separate society, yet still stress that even though the social circles are different African Americans must still try to find their place in White America. That they had to co exist in two separate societies at once.
ReplyDeleteVery good job. I like how used quotes from LBJ's commencement speech in your blog. Makes your view very credible. Good Job
ReplyDeleteGood job in showing the struggles that African Americans were facing during this time period.
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