Mid-Term Essays

Study Guide: The State/Condition/Status of African America HIS 1110 Dr. G. J. Giddings In order to appreciate the importance of history as a tool we can use to help us better understand present issues, let us explore the present state or condition of African America (AA) first before reaching back into the past to find some sources of what ails African America today. Before we explore the AA condition, we should first consider its current demographics: size, boundaries, location, diversity, etc. We have already explored how history surrounds us – the significance of WU and CSU. We have also analyzed some of Jay-Z’s work to learn how make Afrocentric or culture-based analysis of African American issues and history. To understand important aspects of the current state/condition of African America (1980s-present) explore these resources: Black Demographics website and PEW Research Center reports. (You may also consult our optional textbook, From Slavery to Freedom, 9th Edition, chapters 22 and 23.) Most of us are very familiar is the modern Civil Rights movement (1950s-1970s) the goal of which was to bring an end to racist discrimination and socio-economic inequalities/disparities through the accomplishment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Yet, over 50 years later African Americans still face many socio-economic and health disparities, compared to the whites and others in the U.S. population. I use the word “African America” to suggest that in some ways it seems that there is an African America and a white America when it comes to many socio-economic realities. Indeed, African Americans are only approximately 14% of the U.S. population, yet their overall socio-economic conditions are disproportionately wretched, bearing an oversized or disproportionate share of Americas’ miseries such as high incarceration, high HIV-AIDS contraction, high morbidity, high mortality, low life expectancy, etc. Your goal here is to identify some of these disparities and their cause or reasons. Now, the state/condition of African America is not all bad news, because African American culture/s and communities have definite strengths and achievements. Let’s explore some of these disparities, the reasons for same, as well as the diversity, strengths and solutions within the African America. After exploring the current negative state of African America and some of the reasons, but also the strengths of African America, you should wonder what can earlier history tell us about both the challenges and the strengths.

Select Resources:

Current Black Demographics: https://blackdemographics.com/

5 Facts about Blacks in the U.S. today: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-

tank/2018/02/22/5-facts-about-blacks-in-the-u-s/

Black immigrants to the U.S.: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/24/key-

facts-about-black-immigrants-in-the-u-s/