Time and Distance Overcome
Eula Biss discusses in her essay "Time and Distance Overcome" how the invention of the telephone ultimately resulted in one of the many racist acts in history. Black men were hung every day without even being guilty of charge. She certainly puts a lot of emphasis on describing these hangings which sort of makes her essay quite monotone, but in the end definitely makes this essay a lot more personal. I think that the purpose of this essay is to bring back the racial question which is still very present in our society today.
The text in itself is quite symbolic. With the invention of the phone came the wire, and as she writes in the text "Even now it is an impossible idea that we are all connected, all of us".
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I think that the crucifix-like telephone poles was quite intentional. The society was largely based on the religious views of Christianity and perhaps this draws a parallel between the two, creating a contrast between the good of the church and the evil of human nature.
The invention was hard for people to comprehend and it questioned everything that was considered the conventional wisdom. The people were, and are still today, afraid of change which meant that someone should be the "fall guy". In the end this meant that the minority, the "negroes" as they're referred to had to take the fall. Eula Biss describes the American concept "Lynching". Lynching meant hanging people onto poles, trees, bridges and street poles. It was considered to be a punishment towards crimes, and as she writes in her essay: "...black men were lynched for crimes real and imagined...". Again, it was the negro minority who had to take the fall for the majority's incompetence in coping with change. Because the society is constantly in change and even today people are afraid of this constant force. You have to be able to recognize and expose yourself which surely, for many people would be considered a fearful and scary thing to do.
The invention of the telephone had both negative and positive outcomes. The telephone meant that the hurdle of not being able to communicate directly from point A to B disappeared. This was considered a huge step for the individual of that
Whites have always considered themselves superior to blacks, no matter if they were slave owners or not. Blacks were considered lower than humans, making them a main target of oppression of whites. So even when a small group of blacks were given their freedom, they weren’t truly liberated from the chains of slavery and oppression. Blacks were freed in the early 1800s, giving a limited amount of blacks the freedom they deserved. These blacks were usually rural, uneducated, and unskilled domestic servants who had to work hard to survive in the society that shunned them. Free blacks were still given restrictions and laws because of their status in society. In the early 1830s, a law in Virginia was made to prohibit all blacks from getting their education. They even took it to the level where free blacks who went out of state to educate themselves were not able to come back and return to their own state. The worst restriction was that blacks could not testify in court. When a slave owner claimed that a free black was their slave, they could not defend themselves, and would have to conform back to their slavery. Despite the terrible treatment given to blacks, some rose above the oppression and became successful, therefore achieving their goals and potentials of being a free black man, leaving a huge impact on society in the 1800s.
They thought that if they were to treat the Blacks as equals then this would encourage interracial relationships. They used violence to keep the Blacks in place and at the bottom of the racial chain. This caused several Jim Crow Laws to be set forth such as a black man could not shake hands with a white man because it meant that they were socially equal. A black man could not also extend a hand or other body part towards a White woman for the fear of being accused of raping her. Blacks and Whites were forbidden from eating together and if they did the
This idea was rejected, which led to multiple acts of vandalism and terrorizing of black communities by angry white people. African Americans were either being killed or forced into unpaid labor systems. Living in a southern state became
Founded in 1909, the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of White people) strived for the abolishment of segregation, the protection of blacks from lynching, and the destruction of the black codes. Lynching (lynch [verb]: to put to death (as by hanging) without legal sanction. Source) had been a common threat to black life after slavery was abolished in 1865. Usually carried out by a mob of whites, a person could be lynched for no reason, though the most common reason for a black to be lynched was a false accusation of murder or rape. And Blacks were not the only people who could be lynched. Any white during this time that sympathised with a black ran the risk of being lynched themselves. Between 1882 and 1962, approximately
This theme helps illuminate how black people came to be treated in America both when slavery existed and beyond into today’s society. The theme that black people are disposable bodies within American society. Because of the tradition of treating black people as objects or whose value strictly came from their ability to make profit, the idea of what it means to be black in America is imbedded in the danger of losing one’s body. Although slavery has ended, the racism remains as a violence inflicted on black people’s bodies. Coates is more than happy to emphasize that racism is an instinctive practice.
racism was the problem. The time period was 1700-1800’s when racism was a major problem. The time when slavery had just ended but still had tension with races. This was a bad time for black because you could go to jail for nothing. A major part of Racism was segregation. Segregation was basically separation between races (PBS).
There were stereotypes placed on and myths about blacks. The most frequently given reason of lynchings was the idea that black men are sexual beasts and want to rape white women. For most of the lynchings, rape was the given cause. In general, it was a way of keeping blacks in their place. In advertisings, blacks were depicted as the "happy darky" and "Uncle Toms" such as Aunt Jemima.
With increased education and European ideals bleeding over to America people started to change and see that everyone, blacks, and whites, were the same and following the Christian ideals of the time saw that slavery of another person, not the property was wrong.
positive change for the common people because it allowed people to be equal.Also I think the
In this time period, life was extremely hard for African Americans simply because they were slaves and even though they were emaciated in 1863 by the Emancipation Proclamation. They were still treated with such disrespect...to the point where they were considered not to be humans. They were instilled with so much fear that the thought
The African American population in the United States have always seemed to have been oppressed and persecuted throughout the history of the country. They have been targeted and put down using emotional, physical and sometimes, extremely violent methods. The time period from 1865 to 1905 was a particularly bad period for Southern African Americans. Huge hurdles had to be crossed for the people that were newly allowed to participate in the United States as citizens.
As times got tough, people reverted to racism and discrimination to appear superior. As a result of this, African Americans were deprived and forced into poverty based on skin color. White men of the time used
The most recent breakthrough is the internet. It brought any information to anyone, in an instant. Productivity skyrocketed in areas like research and development and for researching mid term exams on economics, particularly on questions about the history of the US economy.
If one were to clearly state the biggest impact, it would be that the telephone allowed smooth communication to take place.
Racism was a big problem during the 18 and 19’s century. White people always thought that they were at the higher level in the society and they treated black harshly. They could trade them in the markets. They also thought the deserved to have better life, better education, better house, etc. Why this happened? The government was the chief culprit. The government educated white people that they were above the blacks. Because of that, they taught their children in the same idea. Luckily, the growing number of people realized that it was unfair and they tried to make the government treated everyone equally. More than that, the government laid down the law of protecting all of the colored people; however, even the laws passed, the racism still happens today. Black people were classified as robbers, murders, or thieves and a lot of people judge them with this category.