However, by 2010 nearly half of all black families, or about six million households, were wealthy enough to own their own homes, and a fourth of black adults occupied management or professional jobs. During these years, 2.4 million African American households had an annual income of $75,000 or more.
Free from the subjugation that marked their forefathers’ lives—pogroms, disfranchisement, lynching, Jim Crow segregation—this new generation of African Americans was optimistic about its place in the nation. Although middle-class black Americans still had to pay the “black tax” (meaning that they had to work twice as hard as whites for the same outcome and were held responsible for the negative actions of other blacks), they felt freer, and in fact were freer, than any previous generation of African Americans.
In 2008, the United States elected its first black president. For some, this moment marked the end of American racism. Others observed the difficulty that President Obama encountered when he talked about race, and the way that his opponents racialized their opposition to his policies, and concluded that the nation remained racially polarized. Moving into present day we are now faced with so many issues, Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police, Me Too, Gun Violence and the killing of unarmed black men in the press. I want you to think about our history and address these following questions.
- What are some current day connections to make with historical politics? Do you see any connections with today's politics and and politics of our past?
- Think about all that we have covered in this course.
- What can we do to improve the current political climate? Or, can there be anything done?
Your response should be minimum two paragraphs and please respond to at least one classmate.
