The Black American Experience in one quick chart

[MrScorpio]

[Old Union Guy]

1. And yet the president, attorney general, and secretary of homeland security are all black.

Are they powerless to stop it, or just don't feel like it?

[morningfog]

2. Are you sure you are an old Union guy?

[Old Union Guy]

3. What does that mean?

Working class solidarity does not require me to love any member of the ruling class, even a president I voted for and his appointees.

[morningfog]

5. Oh! That kind of union! I was thinking of the Union.

That makes more sense.

[MrScorpio]

4. Yes, they are powerless to completely stop it

They can all make limited measures to mitigate this problem, limitations indicative to their particular offices.

But let's not forget that severe backlashes against them happen even when they all have the temerity to simply acknowledge that the problem exists, much less take any concrete action.

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. +1. It has been said (seemingly) 1,000,000 times ...

if Black people could end, or even affect, institutionalized racism/white supremacy, we would have already done so.

[NCTraveler]

6. The oppressive nature of our people and government...

Is deeply entrenched. The people you mention have fought for improvements. No one thought electing Obama was going to fix it.

[morningfog]

7. As if a we elect kings who rule by fiat and we only needed on black King.

[Duckhunter935]

8. And the Dallas police chief

Many are dumping on now because he made the giant mistake is saying they could accomplish more if thy signed up to be police officers, how dare him say that.

[puffy socks]

18. I don't think that's a giant mistake. He is right.

Dallas has had police dropping out left and right because he is putting up with any nonsense from officers.
He's being bashed by police forces in other cities for sticking to his guidelines and firing bad cops.

This would be a great time for some of these folks to help by becoming part of the force.

I think he's doing a great job from everything I've read and the data I've sifted through thus far.

He probably should have left out the part about the "being part of the problem" imo.

[Duckhunter935]

20. I agree, especially the last part

[LanternWaste]

32. How dare people express a sentiment you disagree with.

" how dare him say that..."

How dare people express a sentiment you disagree with.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other-- and each as interpretive and petulant as the other. However, I really do empathize-- as I understand it's simply ethically convenient to indict others for the very same actions we rationalize in ourselves.

[midnight]

9. A good question.

[ismnotwasm]

12. You think they can end centuries of institutional racism?

Really?

[Old Union Guy]

42. I think they can reign in law enforcement. n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

19. Obvious rollT is OBVIOUS!

Instead of the republican convention you should go the NAACP Convention and say those things. You'll find a lot of friends there, I'm sure!

[lib87]

27. And yet the Overwhelming majority of positions of power at all levels of govt are still all white.

Are they powerless to stop it, or just don't feel like it?

[1StrongBlackMan]

34. And what would you have ...

the President, Attorney General, and Secretary of homeland security do to stop it?

[giftedgirl77]

40. A civics refresher course may be in order for you.

[rury]

44. You forgot a few people who are not

black and need to be part of a lasting solution. They are called federal and state legislators, judges, state attorneys general, district attorneys, prosecutors, probation and parole board members and freaking law enforcement personnel.
It takes more than three highly visible black people in the federal government - even with all of the authority of their respective offices - to address this longstanding problem. Your overly simple suggestion works only in dictatorships. You're welcome for the civics lesson.

[Solly Mack]

10. K&R

[Gothmog]

13. Sadly, this chart is accurate

[brer cat]

14. K&R

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Stupefyingly simplistic, but there is a lot of truth in it. Sadly, too much truth. . . nt

[jaysunb]

16. Excellent n/t

[zz-la]

17. And all of this has led to dehumanization

For so many people in this country they look and see black people in a way that they would never look upon a white person. It's easy to incarcerate and execute people that are dehumanized from the word go.

[VOX]

21. America is still fighting its goddamned Civil War...

150+ years out, and STILL stuck in this conflict. And worse, there's a real chance that war could be lost if its lessons are not applied. Damn, Americans are slow and stubborn. And small-minded.

[Raine1967]

22. I cannot Rec this. I can kick it.

how sad and truthful.

[chowder66]

23. That is as clear as anything I've ever seen.

This should be on billboards across the country, in ads, in newspapers, on protest signs.... Plastered Everywhere.

[zentrum]

24. The word "Segregation"

…..is just one aspect of all the things that were done under Jim Crow.

And in lots of ways and parts of the country, "segregation" did not end in 1954. It's not at all the case that all Black Americans had to deal with since 1954 was mass incarceration. Jim Crow just kind went underground with a wink and a nod.

The chart shows though that it's been a 400 year Apartheid-type country.

[mountain grammy]

25. Of course, this is a huge part of the Black American Experience

but not all of it. Part of that experience must be the perseverance, resilience, and the courage to fight back and for change. I look at this chart and see the worst that had been done to a people and feel hopeless, but real hope, change, and optimism came from these same people and that's had a huge impact on the total American experience, even while full equality is still a dream. Chris Rock said, to say black people have progressed is to say everything that happened to them was their fault, and I completely agree. He also said white people were crazy, now they're less crazy, putting the blame where it belongs. But the credit goes to a people who fought enormous odds just to survive, much less excel, but they did.

The white race has been writing the rules for a long time, but that's changing too, and it can't happen soon enough.

[struggle4progress]

26. The mass incarceration era started when Reconstruction ended

http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/

[1StrongBlackMan]

36. +1 ... for historical truth.

[struggle4progress]

39. The stereotypes so obviously originate as justifications of the economic systems

Before the war:

Why doesn't Sambo go to school with us, Mommy?
Well, his people just aren't smart enougn to learn reading and arithmetic. So the kindest thing we can do is to put them to work in the cotton fields as soon as they're old enough
And why are his clothes always so raggedy?
That's because his people are all so lazy. Some of them won't even work unless we whip them

And after the war:

Why are so many of Sambo's brothers on the chain-gang, Mommy?
Well, his people are naturally violent criminals. So they do bad things, like stealing or talking back, and then we have to arrest them and punish them to teach them how to behave

[KelleyKramer]

28. That's a powerful statement

Should be shared far and wide

[Fast Walker 52]

29. it's almost like the leaders of this country think that blacks need to be continually subjugated

or something...

[DrBulldog]

30. The chart is incorrect.

The period from 1954 to 1981 is not part of the mass incarceration period. This period needs to be re-defined as a civil rights era that acted as a protest period for African-Americans - a time that was temporarily an optimistic one when Jim Crow had been significantly pushed back until Reagan's War on Drugs legislation brought a new form of Jim Crow (mass incarceration) to replace segregation.

[Amimnoch]

31. this.

Step 1: Create a victimless crime.
Step 2: Selectively apply the prosecution and incarceration of it.

[1StrongBlackMan]

37. The period from 1954 to 1981 DOES represent ...

a CONTINUATION of the mass incarceration that began after the end of slavery. The War on Drugs may have increased the numbers/frequency; but, it's not like African-Americans weren't being sent to prison farms for such heinous crimes of vagrancy, before Reagan!

[1StrongBlackMan]

35. True; but, I would have started the "Mass Incarceration" section ...

at the 1865 mark. Also, beneath the timeline, I would include a heading, covering the entire timeline, entitled: "State sanctioned terrorism".

[Iggo]

38. Ouch.

[uawchild]

41. K&R

[BumRushDaShow]

43. K&R