Traumatic Stories of Humiliation and Ill-Treatment in African American Biographies.

Abstract

The evolution of the racial supremacy of whites against African Americans in US history has spanned over four hundred years. It has been documented in the lives of the innumerable people who participated in the class struggle against whites. The aspect of colour of skin, fragmented the societal norms and culture, had started off when US encouraged the import of Black slaves. This led to the formation of an invisible workforce supporting the nation. Brutality in the form of racial hatred has evolved to the finer nuances of abuse and harassment at every sphere of life in US against African Americans over the years, against men and women across the ages. Incidents of torture, rape, plunder and looting, denial of economic sustenance in the ‘land of free’ was a sort of mockery. This study will try to throw light on the different perspectives of the impact on African American society, their lives and a profession that has made their lives much different as espoused by the human rights commission. This opens up the debate of group abuse and ill treatment or the wider agenda of a personalized hatred as a result of ego gratification. Different perspectives of ill treatment, torture and humiliation which are hugely race specific was reported earlier. Many forms of these were not reported in the press but documented in biographies which illuminates our knowledge on what used to happen. Biographies reported both the racial discrimination and personal experience pertaining to the issue, that are evidences of how these pactices were executed. Legal help in judiciary was formulated as a fallout of relentless revolution against the white to help the African American community. The result led to modifications in the approach of hatred towards African Americans, in a more subtle form. Harassment in different forms evolved to match up the previous records of psychological humiliation inflicted on African Americans under the disguise of civilised societal norms. As the world has evolved through the ages, so has the societal norms and laws to exercise control, but the treatments African Americans underwent was different from what it used to be earlier. The history through biographies tells us now what to expect from an African American and white fallout, so with the legal aspect controlling the outcome, freedom of speech, actions of African Americans is still considered as a cherished dream.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n11p323