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Jasmine S. Dawson

Professor Brett Snipes

English 1201 online

March 10, 2019

Proclaim and Remind

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europeans desperately sought to obtain just as

much wealth and power as other nations. Nations like Spain and Portugal. In an attempt

to find a shorter trade route to Asia and India; European settlers entered Africa. They

started trading gold. Based on the abundance and quality of gold, the Portuguese became

attracted to West Africa ("Brazil: Five Centuries of Change"). Next, colonies were

established to help goods travel from Africa to Asia. Sugar was valuable and pricey in

Europe consequently Spain and Portugal began constructing sugar trades within these

colonies. In the beginning, convicted European criminals who owed debts worked at

these sugar farms. There were not enough of these European workers to maintain each

farm. Therefore, sugar farm owners the New World"). Founded on major events, turned

to Africa for enslaved labor. The attraction of African gold ended and European

colonizers realized that the purchasing and trading of enslaved people was more

profitable and significant to sustaining their wealthiness ("The Spread of Sugarcane in

generational trauma(s) and global capitalism; African American people in the United

States presently are controversial.

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Europeans established an expansive trading system between the centuries of 1400 to the 1700s.

This was known as the triangular trading system. Goods such as alcohol or firearms were

traded in exchange for enslaved Africans. The majority of the Africans lived in small

agricultural communities. They were skilled farmers and knew how to grow crops well.

Wherefore, they were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas where they were traded

for items such as sugar or cotton ("Slavery in Iberia before the Transatlantic Trade"). By

1711, there were thousands of enslaved African people building the foundation of what

has become America. Wall Street was a Dutch settlement that presently resides in New

York city where the Stock Exchange and financial businesses are located. In 1627, the

Dutch utilized the labor of enslaved Africans whereas they built the wall that gives Wall

Street its' name. In addition, they cleared forests, built roads, buildings, and turned up soil

for farming (Amadeo, Kimberly). In 1921, Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood district, known

as Black Wall Street, was one of the most prosperous African-American communities in

the United States. In Spite of Jim Crow laws and segregation this town was "modern,

majestic, sophisticated, and unapologetically black." This community boasted of "banks,

hotels, cafes, clothiers, movie theatres, contemporary homes…[and] a remarkable school

system that thoroughly educated black children" ("We lived like We Were Wall Street").

Based on an alleged offense of a black man, corrupt white police officers and locals

mobbed black businesses, homes, and individuals. They dropped bombs, killed, and

unjustly imprisoned thousands of black persons. Finally, burning down thirty-five blocks

of black prosperity into smoldering violent fumes. During the 1950s and 1960s, the civil

rights movement officially began. A social justice movement for African American

people to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. Jim Crow laws and
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segregation were still alive and intact which ceased the rights given to black people by

the constitution ("Tulsa Race Riot of 1921"). On March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama. Six

hundred peaceful black demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery March

protesting the killing of a black civil rights activist by a corrupt white police officer and

to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment. These demonstrators were

blocked by Alabama state and local police officers. Refusing to retreat, protestors were

viciously beaten and teargassed. This incident was known as "Bloody Sunday" (Kindig,

Jessie). In 2018, over 2.3 million people were incarcerated in the United States. Based on

thousands of reports, studies, and work groups, it is found that about 1 in 3 black men

will spend time behind bars during their lifetime whereas about 1 in 17 white men will

spend time behind bars during their lifetime. Furthermore, black men spend an average of

20 percent longer behind bars in federal prisons than a white peer who committed the

same crime. According to the "Color of Corporate Corrections," racial disparities in

private prisons housing state inmates are greater than in publicly run prisons. Private

facilities house higher percentages of people of color than public facilities do. These

private facilities deliberately exclude people with high medical care costs from their

contracts (City Lab and University of Toronto). Younger and healthier inmates who have

come into the system during the "war on drugs" phenomenon are disproportionality

people of color. People of color account for 37% of the United States population, yet they

represent 67% of the prison population. As of October 2015, there was 48,043 youth

being held in juvenile facilities and 44% of these were African American (Knafo, Saki).

In the 1990s, as lawmakers campaigned to "get tough on crime," America built a new

prison every two weeks but were unable to meet the demand for prison beds. Violent
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crime has fallen by more than 51% since 1991 and property crime has decreased by more

than 43%. Although, the crime rate has been dropping steadily spending on jails and

prisons reached 81 billion dollars in 2010. Today, nearly 7 million people are

incarcerated, on probation, or on parole (City Lab and University of Toronto).

The conversation about slavery and authentic American history, in general, is a tough discussion

for some people to have. Particularly white people have said things like "...You've never

been a slave and I've never been a slave owner. Let's just forget about it…" Although that

may be true it was barely half of a century ago that Jim Crow laws and segregation

vividly existed. Transatlantic slavery that turned into Chattel Slavery took place for about

400 years prior. Horrific and distorting events took place daily such as lynchings,

beatings, rape, and even black babies being used as crocodile bait ("Why America Can't

get over Slavery. Its Greatest Shame."). In contrast, white people beat, raped, lynched,

and enslaved people. Based on the quantitative and qualitative research of Dr. Joy

DeGruy Leary: Multigenerational trauma and continued oppression (to present) with the

absence of opportunity to heal leads to an inherent/genetic behavior, mindset, and system

in which none involved are able to wholeheartedly operate on what America has been

deemed as (Leary, Joy DeGruy). Which is a divine democracy that "ensures the life,

liberty, and pursuit of happiness" for all of its people? Therefore, still in 2019, these

generational traumas, adaptive behaviors, and this systematic racist country have yet to

properly deal with the true events that America was founded on. All white people are not

able to perceive by experience what it is like to be black in America. Something as

simple as being referred to as and referring to yourself as a "black woman" or a "black

man." In contrast, white woman and men are referred to as and refer to themselves as just
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"American" ("Our Evolving Black Naming Traditions"). Which probably does seem

simple and a petty thing to make a fuss over but this shows that apparently there is a

distinct difference between black Americans and plain Americans. This is just one of the

"simple" things that aid in making black people outcasts in America. On a more complex

scale, the majority of European people are able to trace back to their specific

genealogies/pathologies. The majority of African American people are not able to trace

back to their roots. What makes people is customs, language, and culture. These things

were stripped from African people who descended into present day black people

(Smallwood, Stephanie). These African American people cultivated, again, a new culture

and custom(s). First, white people have appropriated black features, social competence,

and black culture on themselves while misappropriating these things on black people.

Previously, white people beat, made fun of, and even killed African people stripping

them from their ways of life. These African people cultivated new ways of life that

flourished into the present day. Now, the stealing and stripping of what African American

people have cultivated are being done, again ("The Reasons Why Blackface is so

Offensive"). Second, we have to understand as the inhabitants of this Earth that our

history has been diminished into something that suits a certain minute group of people.

Consequently, leaving us unprepared and misguided in the things pertaining to the future

(Smallwood, Stephanie). The various traumas that we as human beings have been

directly/indirectly and genetically/inherently burdened with have to be efficiently handled

so that we may be able to live prosperous lives in a divine democracy that is founded in

liberty, freedom, and equality (Leary, Joy Degruy). This is not a black people problem. It

is a global problem. Rejecting the conversation and acknowledgment of authentic

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American history rejects the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" for all of Americas'

citizens (Baltzell, George W.). Furthermore, it is to change as a country aspiring itself

towards the ideals in which America claims to have originated; bettering the lives of all

its' inhabitants (Smallwood, Stephanie).

The beginning of systematic racism started with the transatlantic slave trade which furthered into

American chattel slavery. Within the triangular trading system, African people were

treated as property which had no rights. Chattel slavery led to the utmost cruel and

inhumane treatment ever documented ("Transatlantic Slave Trade"). It was the very core

of debasement of Africans that ultimately accompanied the massive transfer of people

against their will from one continent to another. The help of European banks aided with

finances which allowed slavery to transpire. Europeans discovering the Americas and

sugar and cotton plantations rapidly being developed by enslaved Africans allowed

slavery to prosper. The transatlantic slave trade sustained the institution of chattel slavery

for hundreds of years. It was a labor that fed financial accumulation, economic

expansion, and the base for industrial acquisition ("Transatlantic Slave Trade").

According to Eric Williams, these things are the foundation of capitalism. The Europeans

knew the supply of Africans as enslaved labor would ensure the prosperity of the colonies

and create more wealth for the hundreds of European traders and investors who were

involved (Williams, Eric Eustace). Wall Street is a highly influential financial district; to

understand the system of global capitalism, it is important to know the history of Wall

Street. In 1664, a Dutch settlement renamed to "New York" by the British after they

gained control over it. The British maintained the system of slavery and created a series

of laws to protect it. In 1665, slavery was legalized. In 1682, slave masters were given the
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power of life-and-death over their slaves (Amadeo, Kimberly). In 1702, New York

adopted its first comprehensive slave code and it equated slave status with being African.

The entire system of slavery was justified by an ideology of white supremacy that

considers black Africans inferior and white Europeans superior ("Lectures"). Slavery

became the backbone of New York's economic prosperity in the 1700s. To normalize this

vast trade of human beings, New York officials established a slave market on Wall Street.

Slave auctions were held at Wall Street selling African people as property to traders

wanting to buy them (Amadeo, Kimberly). Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries, New York had the largest urban trade slave population in mainland North

America. Therefore, New York was a crucial location in the triangular slave trade, which

established it as the world's financial capital ("Slavery in America"). The transatlantic

slave trade built the foundation for modern global capitalism. Twelve to thirty million

Africans were ripped away from their homes to work as slaves in European colonies, in

North and South America and the Caribbean ("Transatlantic Slave Trade"). The slaves

along with performing many other services were used to produce commodities that were

sold in international markets for profit (a characteristic of modern capitalism). The

benefits of things such as these are the result of current wealth inequalities between

whites and blacks (Williams, Eric Eustace). This ensured that blacks would remain

socioeconomically subordinate to whites for generations to come. From the sixteenth

century to the mid-nineteenth century Britain, America and other countries participated in

abolishing slavery. Even after it was ended, the foundation of modern capitalism and

racial inequality was already built. Despite the end of slavery and advancements of the

civil rights movement, African people remain "languished in American society" ("I Have
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a Dream"). Black people disproportionately suffer more poverty, unemployment, and

socioeconomic misery compared to white people. During the 1920s, many black

communities were flourishing. One of the major factors that made Black Wall Street

distinct from these other communities is the net worth of these black persons due to high

homeownership rates. As of December 2011, racial segregation in housing existed to

keep African American living in separate, poorer neighborhoods away from white

people. In the 1930s, redlining: the practice of denying or increasing the price of

insurance and other financial services to certain neighborhoods based on race (Home).

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) which sent loans to homeowners at risk of

foreclosure, created a risk rating system for communities to be used as mortgage lenders.

This was to protect the long term value of the property, which was undermined by the

introduction of the "undesirables" (usually blacks, but also Latinos and Asians). The

HOLC used real estate maps to classify various systems for different communities. Type

D areas, coded red, were low homeownership rates, poor housing conditions in inner-city

neighborhoods heavily populated by black people. These areas were considered

undesirable and too risky for investment. Consequently, HOLC did not provide any loans

for black people at risk of foreclosure ("Home Owners' Loan Corporation Law and Legal

Definition"). This created a system, perpetuated by the Federal Housing Administration

(FHA), leading insinuations, and insurance companies who made it difficult for African

American people to own homes and accumulate wealth in their communities. Although,

redlining was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and Community Reinvestment

of 1977. Similar racial discriminatory practices continued. One of which is called

steering. Real estate agents steered people to neighborhoods predominantly populated by

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people of similar ethnic background. White people steered to "better", white

neighborhoods whereas Blacks and Latinos are steered toward neighborhoods with more

black and Latinos, which tended to be poorer. Next, a practice which led to the financial

crash's is predatory lending. Rather than denying financial services, financial institutions

target black communities to sell them high priced subprime mortgage loans. Subprime

loans are typically exposed to people with poor credit histories and come with higher

interests rates (Urban Development). According to the 2009 NAACP "Discrimination and

Mortgage Lending in America" report, "even when income and credit risk are equal,

African Americans are up thirty-four percent more likely to receive higher-rate and

subprime loans" than white people. In 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated

from investment banking. This made it easier for subprime mortgage loans to bundle into

securities which were sold on Wall Street for massive profits. Being founded as a slave

market: Wall Street continues to play a substantial role in suppressing African American

and other working-class people (Economic Opportunity).

Black people are controversial in America because they are boundless. African American people

have been resilient in pushing past the restrictions of society. Founded on the

dehumanization and genocide of a people; America has suppressed the authentic truths

and events that realistically have shaped America. During these events of disgusting

consistent events, people on a psychological level are exposed to serious deprivation of

healthy human connectivity leading to various unhealed traumas that are currently seen in

today's society (Gates, Henry Louis). A lot of white Americans and other groups of

people don't "feel the need to talk about slavery" and how it has established and sustained

America. This is because it either doesn't affect them or because it is an uncomfortable

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discussion. When black Americans peel back their history for the wellbeing and healing

of themselves, the things that were done in the darkness by nations globally including

America will be brought to light. When certain important persons and corporations are

exposed it will be uncomfortable; leading to reparations and healing of America. Almost

all private enterprises and persons who have and are growing more wealthy were

established by Wall Street. Not only will land and money be taken from these private

companies but psychologically, based on Rene Descartes "I think therefore I am." White

and black people were susceptible to different levels of superiority and inferiority which

has had a grand impact on how each race lives their lives. For black Americans, knowing

the truth of American history in relation to them means that black advancement will

exponentially flourish. Based on Black Wall Street and other cases in which black people

cultivated and prospered, black advancement will bring about savage competition

("Lectures"). In black advancement, black people will homeschool or start new education

enterprises, own homes, businesses, facilitating private owned land and buildings, also

investing in black communities. In this, the net worth of black Americans will be

unmatched in the supply and demand for black products and/or services. Similar to Black

Wall Street, Black Americans will vigorously thrive. Based, realistically, on

multigenerational traumas and a horrific global history America has painted over these

with such things: liberty and justice. Black Americans are controversial in America

because they are a reminder of what America wanted to forget and they proclaim what

America wanted to hide.

Work Cited
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Amadeo, Kimberly. "The Secrets of Wall Street: How It Works, Its

History, and Its Crashes." The Balance Small Business, The Balance,

www.thebalance.com/wall-street-how-it-works-history-and-crashes-3306252.

Baltzell, George W. "Constitution of the United States - We the People."

Constitution for the United States - We the People, constitutionus.com/.

"Brazil: Five Centuries of Change." Modern Latin America,

library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-1/gold-

discovered/.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Tulsa Race Riot of 1921."

Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 5 Feb. 2019,

www.britannica.com/event/Tulsa-race-riot-of-1921.

CityLab, and University of Toronto's School of Cities and Rotman School

of Management. "Why the Urban Revival Depends on Falling Crime Rates-and

Vice Versa." CityLab, 22 Jan. 2018, www.citylab.com/life/2018/01/the-great-

crime-decline-and-the-comeback-of-cities/549998/.

"Column: Why America Can't Get over Slavery, Its Greatest Shame."

Google Search, Google,

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1000524001.

"Economic Opportunity." NAACP, www.naacp.org/issues/economic-

opportunity/.

"Home." NAACP, www.naacp.org/.

HUD.gov / U.S. Department of Housing and

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Gates, Henry Louis, director. Many Rivers to Cross.

Urban Development (HUD),

www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/fhahistory.

"I Have a Dream--" the Life of Martin Luther King."

Kindig, Jessie. "Selma Alabama (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965) •

BlackPast." Redlining (1937- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, 7

Mar. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/bloody-sunday-selma-

alabama-march-7-1965/.

Knafo, Saki, and Saki Knafo. "1 In 3 Black Males Will Go To Prison In

Their Lifetime, Report Warns." HuffPost, HuffPost, 4 Oct. 2013,

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4045144.

Leary, Joy DeGruy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Americas Legacy of

Enduring Injury and Healing. Joy DeGruy Publications, 2017.

"Lectures." Jane Elliott, janeelliott.com/lectures.

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www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/black-history/slavery.

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name/201503/our-evolving-black-american-naming-traditions?amp.

"Slavery in Iberia before the Trans-Atlantic Trade · African Laborers for a

New Empire: Iberia, Slavery, and the Atlantic World · Lowcountry Digital

History Initiative." Lowcountry Digital History Initiative,

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ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/african_laborers_for_a_new_emp/slavery_in_i

beria_before_the_t.

Stephanie Smallwood | The Future of the African American Past

Conference, futureafampast.si.edu/blog/african-american-history-american-

history.

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slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0002.

US Legal, Inc. "Home Owners' Loan Corporation Law and Legal

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definitions.uslegal.com/h/home-owners-loan-corporation/.

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Press, 2010.