Black Workers in American Society

Last lecture: The role of Black people since the beginning of slavery in the United States has been to work, to produce goods, and to provide services; as we learned through studying the historical formation of race and work in the United States. The experience of Black workers reflects the general trends of the overall U.S. economy. This meant that up to the 20th century, many industries needed a great deal of workers, especially unskilled workers. For Black people, this meant agricultural work until World War II. However, during the 1940s and 1950s, the use of tractors and other automated machines meant that the need for agricultural labor was drastically reduced and the need for educated skilled labor increased (eBlackstudies). The role of Black workers within the labor force has drastically evolved over time. As with other oppressed nationalities, Black people have worked under the double oppression of being exploited as workers and oppressed as Black people, which became apparently true when we studied the labor unions of the Civil Rights era. For Black women, there often is a triple oppression: as a worker, as a Black person, and as a woman. For some Black youth it can be even more difficult to overcome many of these past stereotypes to achieve educational prosperity. The most important social content of Black history reveals the struggle against these challenges. Finally, it is only when all of these aspects of the suffering of Black people are understood; when Black people learn how to gain access to work, become more educated, and learn to work through social injustices and other types of discrimination will they achieve greater access to jobs and to an overall better quality of life. However, we as people living in this society must ALL understand these disparities so that we can overcome racial barriers and other forms of discrimination that prohibit Black people from achieving these goals. This is the most important lesson to learn from this course. But, what does it all mean? Well, this entire course and all of its content can be interpreted differently. It is important to express your personal experiences, ideas, and observations that you have had as it relates to this course and the many topics that we have discussed. Your final assignment is to write a 2-page (double spaced) “Reflection” on your personal perspective of what you have read, watched, and/or learned from this course. To help you formulate this paper below are two writing sources that will assist you in developing your thoughts. Keep in mind, that a reflection is not a summary of the course readings. A “Reflection” is how you feel about the course content. What have you learned? What are your perceptions? It is a comparison of what you knew before taking this course to what you know now (since you did most of the writing assignments.) Thank you so much with your help this semester. Excellent work. I attached some guidelines for the reflective writing.