Barriers to Rebuilding the African American Community. Tywan Ajani
dishonorable culture was present in America’s military forces.
African Americans have fought in nearly every war and/or conflict in American history since their arrival to North America. The greatest of these conflicts were the Civil War and World War I and II. Up to World War II, African Americans were forced to fight in racially separate units. Unfortunately, even after fighting bravely in most of these great wars, black soldiers came home to face repulsive treatments from white American citizens, for whom they had just served in combat to protect.
Former University of California Los Angeles professor and historian Dr. Karen Brodkin reported that “during and after the war, there was an upsurge in white ←26 | 27→racist violence against black servicemen, in public schools, and by the Ku Klux Klan. It spread to California and New York. The number of lynchings rose during the war, and in 1943 there were anti-Black race riots in several large northern cities (2).”
Despite the dire circumstances related to the last epic world war, African Americans faced subsequent post-war challenges related to racism. Not only did they have to engage in dangerous combat situations, but they also faced them with less supplies and leadership support due to racial prejudice and intense discrimination. African Americans fought in combat arms against both the Germans and Japanese forces while also fighting for freedom in their own nation of birth. “Black GIs who served in the thoroughly segregated armed forces during World War II served under white officers. African American soldiers were given a disproportionate share of dishonorable discharges, which denied them veterans’ rights under the GI Bill (2).”
In addition, other minority groups such as Native American and Hispanic soldiers were permitted to serve in white units but not African Americans. In retrospect, one could clearly see that it was units of color that made inevitable contributions toward allied success and America’s ultimate victory. Many argue that without the aid of the Navajo language message encryption service in regard to communication lines, along with the aggressive and effective fighting of black units, victory would not have been attained so quickly. German forces were able to decode American messages of every language except the Navajo language. Likewise, African American units such as the Tuskegee Airmen, fought valiantly contributing to major air combat victories, including the thwarting of a close defeat of British forces by the Germans.
Despite the African Americans’ aid in America’s victory, they were still treated unfairly after the war. Naturally, social and economic adjustments occurred in post-war America as hundreds of thousands of service men returned home from combat and started to seek to reenter the labor force. Jobs once held by women and minorities were now being demanded back by the dominate white male majority. “Although there was a wartime labor shortage, black people were discriminated against when it came to well-paid defense industry jobs and housing. In 1946, white riots against African Americans occurred across the South and in Chicago and Philadelphia (2).”
President Roosevelt initiated several legislative acts to boost the U.S. economy during this transition. One of the more notable acts was the Service Members Reenlistment and Readjustment Act, which became known as the G.I. Bill. In recent years, after the 9-11 attacks, this act was changed to the Post 9-11 G.I. Bill.
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The G.I. Bill, initiated by President Roosevelt, provided low interest rates, zero-down home loans, tuition subsidies for higher education, vocational training and more, for active-duty personnel and veterans. These opportunities are often the necessary ingredients needed for upward economic advancement. Hundreds of thousands of Caucasian veterans took advantage of the program, which was unavailable for African Americans. It was this bill that African Americans needed to advance their communities out of poverty after decades of brutal oppression, as expressed in the following statements:
“Employment has the potential to improve health by providing income, increasing access to insurance, providing contact with coworkers that could increase social support, and providing opportunities for feeling a sense of accomplishment or control (5),” says social worker Dr. Flavio Marsiglia and sociologist Dr. Stephen Kulis. Unfortunately, African Americans were denied the riches of the G.I. Bill and their communities suffered greatly from it, still to this day. Anthropologist Dr. Karen Brodkin, stated that “theoretically they (G.I. Bill benefits), were available to all veterans; in practice women and black veterans did not get anywhere near their share (2).”
Altogether, both the economic and social implications of the above discriminations were repulsive. One can only imagine the difficulty faced by African American veterans returning from war with service-connected injuries, attempting to regain their social lives and to move their families upward economically. The very nation they just served in war violently opposed them and robbed them of opportunities to advance in society.
It was these insurmountable barriers, built and enforced by the dominant majority, that led to impoverished communities also known as “black ghettos.” To this day, black communities are struggling to recover from the combination of much-needed government assistance along with the denial of higher paying jobs that only Caucasians were permitted to occupy. These systemic, racist acts wreaked havoc in black neighborhoods. Many of them went from poor to poorer resulting in higher crime rates, increased violence, and even greater dependency on government aid for basic living conditions, which remains visible today.
At the present, black neighborhoods have some of the highest social welfare utilization rates. Abortion clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, have the highest concentration of activity in black neighborhoods, and as mentioned earlier, incarceration rates for African Americans also remain disproportionally high.
Interestingly, some scholars argue that black people living abroad, in predominantly white nations, receive better treatment than those living in the United ←28 | 29→States. Dr. Brodkin’s research revealed that “native-born black Americans experience levels of urban neighborhood segregation nearly three times higher than native-born black British citizens (2).”
In any case, one can clearly see that the objective to dismantle the vigor and vitality of the black community post the World War II era was largely was successful. The denial of GI benefits and educational opportunities combined with biased employment and labor practices resulted in dismal neighborhood conditions for African Americans and also to greater disparity and tension between the white and black communities. Drs. Marsiglia and Kulis reported that “the legacy of slavery and oppression of African Americans can still be seen in persisting racial disparities in education, economic advancement, and in health care (5).”
It is not difficult to take a conscious or unconscious position of superiority for any racial group that dominates and controls the majority of a nation’s social and economic enterprises. Caucasians are the majority race in the United States. Still today, they dominate and control the country’s greatest industries from ownership of professional sports teams, to telecom companies , accounting firms, technology, shipping and manufacturing enterprises, and all major financial firms. The nation’s largest banking and financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America are largely controlled and governed by white leaders. The majority of America’s local, state, and federal governments positions are overwhelmingly filled by middle aged, white American, conservative males.
Caucasians dominate higher education in terms of holding the majority of senior level and the highest paid, salaried academic positions as well as representing the majority of the student body. They make up the majority of student bodies, and well-paid leadership positions such as university presidents, deans, and provosts. White Americans even rule the Internet, the world’s communication superhighway. The majority of commerce websites world-wide are U.S. based. Caucasian Americans also own the majority of small and large businesses