How do you think slavery influenced the evolution of both Black and White America today? Explain your answer. (Schaefer, 2006, p. 207)

Answer 1

This is how I answered this Question. I hope it is helpful to someone:

Slavery and its legacy have had a lasting impression on both whites and blacks of this country. I believe that the racism that exists in this nation is different than any other nation because of this fact. I have witnessed racism elsewhere, in Britain and in the Bahamas. In Britain racism was born out of resentment because so many former colonial nations citizens came to the country looking for work in the late 50’s and early 60’s. In the Bahamas racism I believe is a copycat type due to media influence. In both Britain and the Bahamas, there is little real resentment of other races. Once a Brit or Bahamian gets to know an individual the influence of race usually disappears. I have witnessed this many times.
In the United States it is profoundly different. I don’t want to generalize too much here, as my comments do not in any way wish to offend anyone, this is just my own personal observations. What I have witnessed, especially in the South, is that whites have an innate belief that they are superior to blacks. In turn the majority of blacks do not excel as much as they have the potential to. This is either because they have bought into this white belief that they are inferior or they feel that it does not matter what they think, whites will not ever accept them as equal.
This is a direct result of the de-humanization of blacks that occurred through slavery. Like I have said, I have lived in a predominantly white country and a predominantly black country and this superiority/inferiority complex does not exist anywhere else. Blacks and whites in this country may tolerate each other but they do not consider themselves equal.