From the beginning African Americans were excluded from the Melting Pot

While reading these articles, I kept thinking about our discussion in class – how African Americans are excluded from the melting pot. It is evident now that they probably are. Their major disadvantage to being accepted was right from the start – the slave trade. They were looked at and treated as inferior to Anglo-Saxons, and really had no other choice than to work for them. They were forced into the culture, some by having to convert to Christianity. And though they did whatever they had to to ensure their freedom, it still took decades before it happened. Other immigrants weren’t forced to come here, and when they did come they were able to bring their own culture and ideas with them. In this sense it was probably easier for them to “melt” into and fit in to the American culture. Most of the African Americans probably did not want to come to America, and when they did were upset that they had less freedoms than everyone else – a reason that they started the riots. An interesting point made by Foote’s article Black and White Manhattan was the symbolism between darkness and light. “Whiteness symbolizes moral purity, and blackness symbolizes moral pollution” (184). If this is the case and this is how Europeans and Americans saw/see the African Americans, then I don’t think they will ever be fully accepted into the melting pot. The blackness of their skin is associated with evil, sin, and guilt. Though none of these may be true, these thoughts arise subconsciously because people have believed and talked about it for so long now. Other immigrants have been able to come in with fewer problems. Though the color of their skin may not be white, because it is not black they aren’t looked down upon for that reason. It took the longest for African Americans to gain their freedom and equal rights throughout history, struggling more in the south than the north. And even though they are being accepted more and more, as we do have an African American president today, it still seems that they are discriminated against more than other cultures. The difference today is that discrimination is less of a government or whole society issue and more so seen in an individual’s action. Today they at least have a chance to grow in society and keep practicing their cultures. But as for now they are still fighting to be accepted into the melting pot and the darkness of their skin is their downfall.