The time of slavery in the United States, followed by racial segregation and profiling which exists to this very day, is among the darkest of topics the country faces. The historical and cultural significance of the Civil Rights movement in response to African Americans being disadvantaged across the country rings strong to this very day. The common theme communicated in these writings is that racism towards African Americans is driven by hate and anger and that in order to peacefully coexist with one another, the economic and social divide between African Americans and whites must be bridged. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, and modern day writers William Jacoby, Henry Louis Gates, and Henry Jay Becker provide insights as to how the racial divide is detrimental towards society and the need to shake off past attitudes towards African Americans. 


Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. concluded his speech One World House by saying “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. This may well be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos and community (King).” This quote is an excellent summarization of King’s speech, which stresses the need for a united, loving community. King’s speech warns that should communities continue to show hate towards one another, society as a whole will suffer the consequences and chaos will ensue. The source of King’s inspiration came from the hate he saw society, hate that had deep roots stretching back to the time of slavery. “We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever rising tides of hate (King).” The purpose of King’s speech was to communicate the danger that hate fueled racism poses to society. The time in which King lived included a large population of those who still clung to the ways of old, in which blacks were segregated and disadvantaged. King calls for society to break that expectation through suppressing racial hate and embracing the path towards a united community with equal opportunity for all.


William Jacoby, a modern day writer for the American Journal of Political Science analyzes how anger is the dominant emotion behind racism in today’s society. He writes that in the past several decades, the sentiment that blacks are inferior to whites has declined sharply in large part due to the social activism of the Civil Rights movement and college campus activism which followed. However, while society has taken a large step in shedding what was once culturally accepted in the past, what was once open racism fueled by hate has evolved into quiet racism driven by anger. “Our research argues that the dominant emotional substrate of racism has evolved from a feeling of disgust to one of anger (Jacoby).” Jacoby goes on to explain how this anger is driven by disgust at how African Americans are given what is perceived to be an unfair advantage through government aid and programs such as affirmative action. “In the contemporary period, racial rhetoric is characterized by claims that blacks possess an unfair advantage. This sentiment should be linked to pervasive anger toward government for giving blacks resources they do not deserve (Jacoby).” Jacoby goes on to explain that the social expectation was once to disadvantage the African American community but in today’s society, since that expectation has essentially been flipped, people who once put down African Americans now express a bitter anger towards the benefits they have been given in an attempt to balance society. Jacoby writes how the purpose of such programs is not to inversely put whites at a disadvantage, but rather to give African Americans a chance to ascend from communities stricken by poverty, and acclimate into the stability of the middle class. 


New York Times writer and award winning author Henry Louis Gates Jr. emphasizes how African Americans have a responsibility to bridge the social and economic gap in order to unite today’s society. Gates believes that it is through “the basis of a broader movement for the improvement of underfunded public school education, for the right to a job with decent wages, and for the end of residential segregation (Gates)” that change will come. He sees today’s wave of protests to be missing these key points and calls for African Americans to remain focused on ending strife within their communities and harboring positive relations with those of other races. Gates writes how he is congruent with W.E.B. Du Bois’ approach towards making this a reality through the “talented tenth” of African Americans leading the way on the path towards change. However, Gates believes the most important step in ending racism in today’s divided society is abandoning early twentieth century sentiments towards African Americans. “What is certain is that the outrage that led to Black lives Matter and its spinoffs will be with us for years to come unless these legacies of slavery and Jim Crow [Laws] become remnants of a racist past (Gates).” In Gates’ mind, progress will come at a greater pace if society can successfully move beyond the past which once troubled the African American. A society which is focused on progress rather than old hate can bring about rapid change that will positively affect all communities. 


Johns Hopkins University published writer Henry Jay Becker outlines racial employment segregation statistics from 1980 in his paper Racial Segregation Among Places of Employment. “the median black worker's work environment consists of more than four times the proportion of black workers as does the environment of the median white worker (Becker).” This statistic gives the reader an idea about how an African American may view the workplace differently than the average white worker. Therefore, blacks are more likely to be working in a heavily black environment, whereas whites are statistically less likely to be working alongside blacks. This means that blacks are likely to either be working low income jobs with a black majority, or be in a minority working higher income jobs with whites. Blacks are often put in a difficult situation regardless of occupation. They are either likely to be stuck in a low income job with other blacks or feel isolated while working higher income jobs with a white majority. Both instances can have a negative impact on the mental health of African American workers, and only deepens the divide between blacks and whites. 

“Segregation between the majority white population and the various minority ethnic groups that constitute this society is, in its broadest sense, one of the two or three most critical problems of the century. To the extent that blacks and whites in the same kind of work, by being employed in separate distinct establishments, are prevented from developing the kind of peer-like, non-hierarchical social integration that characterizes co-workers' interaction, the opportunity structure will continue to discriminate against the black and other ethnic minority worker (Becker).”

Becker explains how workplace integration is the single most important step towards creating a society without racial discrimination. He believes that interaction between races in the workplace is among the most important of issues in society at the time. The separation of races in the workplace strips each side of a daily, communal interaction with one another, interaction that Becker believes would spearhead the elimination of preexisting animosity between races.

King, Jacoby, Gates, and Becker can all agree that in order for society to prosper at every level, all must abandon the hateful sentiments of the past. The seemingly never ending drive towards bridging the social and economic gap that separates communities racially can become a reality should the right attitude be adopted by those who are committed to bringing about positive change.
