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ENGLISH
PORTUGUESE LINGUISTICS & CULTURE |
Autor: | Miguel Vieira |
E-mail: | não-disponível |
Data: | 12/FEV/2003 4:37 PM |
Assunto: | Re: Miguel |
Mensagem: | Dear Jose Roberto, When the American slaves were freed they faced the same hardships as the Brazilian ones. The only exception is that at first the Union of the United States thought about giving every former slave 40 acres of land for them to establish themselves as free citizens. The problem is that southern plantation owners lobbied against such legislation. As a result, the freed slaves found themselves "Re-slaved", that is, since they had nothing, they were forced to go back to work in the plantations of their former owners. Thus, a sort of an "economic slavery" began from that point on and to a certain extent it has lasted to this day. However, not as bad as Brazil. There is a huge Black middle class in America. Furthermore, as time went by and generations after generations of African-Americans continued to see their drastically unequal status, they began to DEMAND better conditions for themselves and their children. These demands began to take place in the late 50's. And then when the 60's came, the game changed dramatically. From that point on, Federal civil-rights(Anti-Racist and Sexist) laws began to be written. Thus, as you put it, racial discrination were "censored". Institutions could no longer, openly exclude African-Americans and women. Still, African-Americans were kept out, in a more subtle manner. Consequently, the United States supreme court upheld a legislation termed AFIRMATIVE ACTION. This law required that government institutions and State Colleges reserve a certain percentage to minories in their yearly admission classes. This way, the student and government staff body would be more hereogeneous. This law has been around since late 70's. Ironically, a huge amount of college age African-Americans no longer seem to resort to this law. They are becoming more and more Afro-Centric. One can draw this conclusion by the increasingly amount of young African-Americans who are now more likely to choose to go to an HBCU College rather than go to a "Traditional" college. |