100 word response pt 1

Antonia Post

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,

Or shall I say Mrs. First lady? Either way I’m bad with formalities and shy when it comes to public speaking, hence the reason for my letter. My name is “Black Boy”, even though I’m a full-grown man standing six-foot 1 inch tall at age 24, neither a boy nor black. I guess my name is as irrelevant to a white person as the day I was born so I won’t burden your ears with it here. I wasn’t born in chains a hundred years ago, but I am a product of the people that built this country with their bare hands. People that was forced to work for you whites and now I can’t get a job to feed my family. This angers me so much I’m trying not to be vulgar in this letter to you, but it takes every ounce of decency I have in me not to scream through these words! I currently live in Washington D.C, in the capital of the fictional land of opportunity. I guess the opportunity is for white people because my black skin and people that look like me can’t get a job. I can’t join the military because the Navy doctors told me I was born with a physical disability. I can’t even be a porter, a server or a cook in service of the whites. (Lesson 5, 2018) I have worked my whole life and now I can’t even “fight” or voluntarily clean for my country to make a living at this point. I tried to apply for a defense job doing simple welding, but no one will hire me. This time it’s not because of my disability, it’s because of my color. I guess that’s a disability all in its own. Mrs. Roosevelt, I’m writing to ask for your help on getting your husband to pass a law banning discrimination in government as well as the defense industry companies working on behalf of government. Black people have served in every war to date including the one for independence in which we were still slaves after. All these immigrants come here and get jobs because of their white skin, all we have ever wanted is a chance to stand on our own and to be treated equal. I plan on attending the A. Philip Randolph march, to stand in unification with my oppressed brothers and sisters. I urge you to stand aside and embrace change in secrecy if you will not stand in public defiance to segregation with us.

R/

Black Man

I chose to write on the topic I did concerning discrimination in the defense industry, as well as discrimination and segregation in the military. The inspiration to write what I did stems from my thoughts on placing myself in that situation and time. The time must have been very fearful with the country at war, discrimination and segregation still looming, all the while black families starving because whites wouldn’t give them a job to benefit from the war machine in the country. They say wars make money and jobs so to not let African Americans in on it was disgraceful, especially when they had even more to lose than whites based on their skin color in Hitler’s eyes.

Reference:

Kelley, R. D. G., & Lewis, E. (Eds.). (2005). To make our world anew : a history of african americans. Retrieved from  https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu

HIST222 Lesson 5 Victory on Two Fronts: African Americans in World War II Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/arts-and-humanities-common/Universal/HIST/222/elf/lesson-5/elf_index.html