Strategies towards Mainstream Liberalism essay

After the Second World War, most black Americans in America experienced a lot of racial segregation. They had little or no freedom in the American society where power was exercised and exclusively controlled by the whites. However as time went by, most of them began to realize that it was time they began talking for themselves. They had had enough of people misrepresenting them. They came to realize that before any group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks.

This meant that the group had to have some well established solidarity which could serve as a source of strength in a pluralistic society. Matusow, Allen J. (1986). They were determined to get into the mainstream liberalism. However this was met by strong resistance as other conservative movements who opposed them were formed. These conservative movements were formed by whites only. The black Americans were not struggling to have political and economical freedom as an individual group but rather they wanted to be represented equally like other races in the political and the economy of America.

This groups that were formed, their main purpose was to ensure that the American government responded to the problems of the blacks. This group was to provide the blacks in the segregated neighborhoods with help and uplift those in dire need and poverty. The program was designed to meet this objective an in the end make the Blacks realize the greatness that lies in solidarity. This gave birth to the civil movements that were to defend these rights. Matusow, Allen J. (1986).

Even with the abolishment of the Jim Crow rules and the set up of the civil rights act and the voting rights act, Stokeley Carmichael and Hamilton believed that there needed to be greater solidarity in dealing with the problem of extreme poverty and racism towards blacks. They defined racism as “the predication of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group. The increased solidarity among the blacks led to the beginning of conservative movements among the whites.

This groups which include the infamous Ku Klux Klan (KKK) did some extreme and inhuman acts of racism towards the blacks in a bid to attack their solidarity. Some of these acts were meant to meet one objective; making blacks to submit to the whites. This acts included destruction of property, murder, physical injury (bodily harm) and other blunt forms of terrorism like burning one to death in full view of their families and even hanging them. Some of them were through the education system like children of blacks were intimidated by the white teachers at school and looked down upon.

This led to so many deaths and increased illiteracy levels among the blacks. Institutional racism also made the majority of the blacks shy away from institutions and as a result there was increased poverty. So many blacks filled the American jails as the justice system was bent in favor of the whites. There was increased crime among the blacks who were determined to live despite lacking a source of income. This institutional racism made children to believe that they were nobody right from the institutions and even to the work places. Matusow, Allen J. (1986).

These conservative groups did these acts through hidden operations and this was through respected and established people in the society like the law makers, judges and even the police themselves who could supervise such inhuman acts and do nothing. As overt racism decreased, institutional racism increased by the day. It was a form of neocolonialism. Most blacks felt that they were serving a master and the freedom era was a very big lie. Matusow, Allen J. (1986). The justice system was meant to prosecute the blacks only. The white who committed the overt acts of terrorism against blacks were often set free.

Most Africans decided to live together so that they could watch each others back. Since most institutions were being used to exercise racism, this made blacks to form black churches. This was a place where they could meet for solidarity, talk and encourage each other. The churches led to a rise of spiritual leaders whose main purpose was to conjugate the blacks and reinforce their determination. The leaders of this group evolved to become spiritual leaders. Spiritual leaders preached love, peace and tolerance and determination. Farber, David (1996)