As I perused this week’s readings, I was appalled to come across a disturbing statement from Joe Feagin, which read, “no matter how affluent or influential blacks may be, in public places they cannot escape the stigma of being black.” (Foner 151). This concept was absolutely mind-boggling to me, but as I looked at the various examples illuminated in From Ellis Island to JFK, I quickly learned that even in our modern world, African Americans and people of West Indian descent are extremely prone to instances of non-violent discrimination. For example, Feagin illustrates that it is not uncommon for taxi drivers to ignore and drive by well-dressed black men waiting for a ride. Feagin also provided an anecdote from a West Indian social worker, who recalled a trip on an airplane in which the flight attendant offered a magazine to every passenger besides the black man. Furthermore, young blacks are also subject to these forms of prejudice, as Foner sheds light upon scenarios in which white pedestrians cross the streets to avoid oncoming groups of black boys, or store owners following West Indian boys down aisles to monitor potential shoplifting. Even in the social facets of life, blacks are restricted to all black social circles and low instances of intermarriage with whites.
The most disturbing example of discrimination given by Foner is the deplorable cases of racial segregation in New York City. Gentrification has forced Africans and West Indians out of white neighborhoods and into all-black communities. A statistical measure of racial segregation known as the “index of dissimilarity” revealed that in New York City, on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 representing total segregation, West Indian scored an 82, while African Americans scored an 81. These shocking numbers are not even the worst part. The separation continues to confine blacks to areas with inferior schools, high crime rates, and poor access to government service. Because of their race, blacks are forced to live by standards that are grossly inferior to their white counterparts.
These readings reminded me of the most egregious example of non-violent discrimination that I have ever come across: downward job channeling. In my Urban Studies class, we studied cases in which blacks and whites with the same qualifications applied for the same jobs. In some cases, specifically in the restaurant industry, white applicants were “channeled up,” offered a better job for which they applied. So if a white man would apply for a job as a waiter, he would be offered a job as a manager. On the other hand, black applicants faced “downward channeling,” and those applying for waiter jobs would instead be offered a busboy position. Moreover, another study was constructed in which white men with criminal records applied for the same jobs as innocent and qualified black men. Distressingly, the criminals had a significantly higher success rate than their African American counterparts.
Even as the United States has escaped the Jim Crow era of racial violence and ushered in an environment of “ peaceful equality,” black Americans continue to be stymied by non-violent prejudice. Even if they face no physical harm, blacks continue to be suppressed and mistreated in a manner that is not too different from the Jim Crow south.
