DLNews Staff:

The United States is experiencing an unprecedented wave of racial anger and violence. It is a result of ongoing injustices and discrimination against people of color.

The racially-charged events of June and July have renewed interest in racial issues. Among the causes of this anger are a history of racial violence in the United States and white supremacy.

Blacks and Whites in America

One of the most intriguing fantasy ideas that have ever emerged from a white man's mind is the notion that America's true lily-white character has been forged by Negroes, and that if they could just get shut out of American life, the country would be better off. This idea was born in the seventeenth century as a plan for exporting the enslaved Negroes back to their ancestral homeland in Africa.

During the early years of settlement in North America, populations of mixed European, African, and American Indian ancestry were relatively common. This history has been ignored by many racial classifications used in the United States today. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown that racial boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred by high levels of intermarriage (Farley 1999; Stevens and Tyler 2002).

Blacks and Whites in the South

White people in the South were deeply frustrated with the growing political influence of Black voters, who overwhelmingly supported candidates allied with the Fifteenth Amendment and federal laws requiring states to respect Black men's voting rights. Rather than accept the legitimacy of Reconstruction governments, white mobs violently suppressed Black political reform and targeted Black community members who worked to encourage Black political engagement.

As Blacks and Whites work to address racism, it is crucial to understand how white supremacy remains a potent force in the United States. Throughout our history, the wealthiest whites have used racism to their advantage and impeded social movements that could challenge the status quo.

During Reconstruction, many Blacks were attacked and killed for minor social transgressions against white people, such as speaking disrespectfully, refusing to step off the sidewalk, or bumping into a white person. The Klan, for example, lynched Black men without trial in numerous towns across the South.

Blacks and Whites in the North

In the late 19th century, Blacks moved to the North for better jobs. The migration accelerated after World War I as European immigrants, their traditional source of cheap labor, disappeared from the North.

In addition, Southern Black people were subjected to ongoing racial violence, including lynchings and racial massacres. The influx of African Americans to the North made Northern whites hostile.

But as African American economic success increased, their racial relations with whites changed dramatically.

Despite this, some middle-class and working-class African Americans remained alienated from the mainstream. They feared multiculturalism and progressive politics would spell their obsolescence, erasure, or subjugation.

Blacks and Whites in the West

The racial problem war will continue to be a hotly contested issue in American politics especially because blacks and whites offer differing perspectives on race relations.

Until recently, the United States had a system of official segregation that divided city neighborhoods by race. Cities enacted this separation to discourage racial mixing in the hope that it would slow the growth of racial discrimination.

However, since the 1960s, a significant demographic change has occurred in America. Today, the country is more racially diverse than ever before.

Moreover, many people from non-European countries have become more involved in the nation's economic and political life than ever before. This demographic shift is making obsolete the old framework of the black-white conflict.