The most racist places in America

The article “The most racist places in America, according to Google” was published on April 28 by Christopher Ingraham a journalist writing for the Washington post. He is a reporter specialized in data and politic. He also published a similar article during Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. It targeted Republican’s racism.  The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper. He uses the world known “google” search engine to base his researches. The fact that he is using new technologies instead of asking people directly is more representative. According to him, it’s a better way to get good results because if you ask directly some people, you cannot know if they are going to answer you honestly. For example, most people even if they are racist won’t admit it in front of the pollster. They can be ashamed, or feel racist inside and act this way and keep lying to the others. The difference with an online poll is that there is nobody in front of you; nobody can judge you can feel free to tell what you think deep inside.

Thanks to this new method, the pollster helped by google filtered websites and searches that most of racist people were looking for. Even if that is not always a really sure method it gives a representative idea of where are concentrated the majority of racist people in the United States of America. The journalist shows that even if it is unexpected, the majority of racist search are not concentrated in the southern states. It is more concentrated along the spine of the Appalachians running from Georgia and also around New York and southern Vermont. As we can see on the map the phenomena has a bigger impact on the east part of the country.  In my opinion the fact that this geographical area was the one of the first original colonies could explain that a lot of people can be conservative and for some of them, also racist. The journalist also adds that “Three quarters of whites don't have any non-white friends”, this shows that most of white American people are kind of sectarian.

Another surprising fact is about Texas results! In people’s mind, this state is one of the most racist of the all country. The truth is that Texas poll’s results are average. Christopher study also revealed that most of these racist searched were related to higher mortality rates for blacks. In my way of think, it is not just about racism but people want to stay in touch with the actuality and what happens in the country. So, on the one hand it is not just racism but, on the other hand, in these areas there is a higher mortality of black people. 

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/28/the-most-racist-places-in-america-according-to-google/ 

Society : Black americans fashion clothes

When they arrived in the Virginia colony in 1619, black americans couldn't choose their clothes because they were slaves. Their clothes had to protect their body against environment, they defined their social role and expressed their personality.
Later, women started to demand a certain form of dress, more "correct" to go out out or for important occasions. After the slavery period, African-american dress became more and more colorful and black women adopted a very different style from the white people.

In 1979, Lois K. Alexander Lane opened the first "Black fashion museum". At first, it was considered as an anomaly because people thought that African American people's contributions to design were very recent and so insignificant but they rapidly changed their mind.

Today, there are many famous black fashion designers, like Amando Cabral, Tracy Reese or Stephen Burrows. On the internet, a lot of black fashion bloggers show their everyday clothing style, the "black girl style" is very trendy.

 

Even if in 2014, black models were part of only 14 % of major mag covers, the rate increases every year..

Clothes topic is just one part of the African-American style: we will talk about hair style, dance...

Source: http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-around-world/african-american-dress

Social : The biggest problems facing African Americans today

Nowadays, Black Americans still have to face problems, we can evoke ten of them which are the biggest one :

1. Lack of opportunity and safety : There has been a loss of industrial jobs and a failure to control crime in nothern cities... 
2. Breakdown of the family : Illegitimacy increased from 23,6% in 1963 to nearly 70% of all black children today.
3. Black anti-intellectualism : Accusations of "acting white" in the classroom
4. Failure of urban K-12 school : Teachers unions and the education establishment have been more interested in pay-raises and grants than student achievement
5. High incarceracion rate of Black men
6. Reduced respect for human life : Black women have nearly 30% of the all abortions, resulting in the death of 350 000 fetuses a year or one every 90 seconds. Beyond the tragic loss of life itself, this much death reduces the civility with which people treat each other. 
7. Licensing requirements : Government imposes barriers to labor-intensive entrepreneurial opportunities, licences are a de-factor re-creation of Jim Crow laws, they are passed in the name of "health and safety"... Moreover, continual increases in the minimum wage make it more attractive to invest in capital equipment than hire unskilled black workers..
8. Victimology  
9. Radical relativism : : Black leaders and liberal academics do not criticize even the most obscene behavior of people like Puff Daddy, OJ Simpson, and Dennins Rodman..
10. Excessive race-consciousness 

As we can see, the situation of Black people in the USA is still unperfect, but still, we can notice a lot of improvment compared to what they had to endure in the past. Black Americans are nowadays well integrated in the society of the USA. 

Source : https://blessedaaron08.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/the-ten-biggest-problems-facing-african-americans-today-ranked-in-order-of-despair-caused/comment-page-1/

The color Purple

The evolution of the Black American people life in US 

So far we have been showing several chapters or situations in the evolution of the Black American people taking as reference the most recent movies about this topic. Now, we are going to see two remarkable films really indispensable to ilustrate the struggle of  the Black American people to achieve the most basic human rights.

The Color Purple is a book of the American writer Alice Walker which obtained the 1983 Pulitzer Prize. Steven Spielberg brought it to the cinema in a delightful movie.

Located in the country of Georgia (the south of the United States), the plot centers on an African-American women in the 1930s, showing many difficulties like their extremely low situation in American social culture.

         

         The most important topics are:

• Black culture, Black communities in the south of US
• Sexism and racism in US
• Disruption of traditional gender roles 

All the movie is a reflection about sexism and racism as an issue to beat. 

The movie begins in 1909 when Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) a young girl, victim of incest, is impregnated by her father. Celie feels ugly and detested, isolated from her adored sister and children, she has no other option than to be married to an offensive, penurious, and womanizer husband, Albert (Danny Glover), a man who treats her as a slave. Nevertheless, Celie's life changes as soon as Albert gives back home with his lover Shug, an attractive Blues singer.

Despite the apparently desperate position the movie's story offers Celie with, the Color Purple is not a tale of her hopelessness, but on the contrary her achievement, one which is hugely stimulating. Brilliant in each feature this movie is, as well as Stephen Spielberg's exceptionally smart direction, particularly of the four most prominent stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey Danny Glover, and Margaret Avery. 

Malcolm X, (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little was an American Muslim cleric and a civil rights militant. 

To his followers he was a audacious activist for the rights of Black people, a man who accused white America for its crimes against. Black Americans; critics respondent him of campaigning prejudice and violence. He has been named one of the highest and most significant African Americans in history.

Malcolm X worked as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam in the 1950s and '60s. Eloquent, fervent Malcolm X encouraged Blacks to throw off the restraints of racism "by any way necessary," comprising violence.

He has been used to represent an alternative, more militant vision of social protest than Martin Luther King's nonviolence, and his name appears as a symbol of black pride.

Malcom X, the Spike Lee’s movie was the first blockbuster of this director. Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the southern of the US. In his childhood he knew the problems of the racism. His family were closely related with the jazz music. Today is one of the most important Afro American directors with a significant professional career full of success. In Malcom X, Lee worked with Denzel Washington in the leading role. 

http://malcolmx.com/biography/

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/smith/malcolmx.htm

http://www.imdb.com/

https://www.pinterest.com/