African Americans

African Americans are people of color who come from the enslaved descendants that
lived in West Africa and Central Africa that were brought to America during the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade. About 78% of all African Americans are West African, 19% European and 3%
Native American. African immigrants actually refuse to be called African American and actually
find it disrespectful to be called such simply because they do not want to be associated with the
negative stereotypes that America projects onto African Americans.

A person who is usually of brown or dark brown skin are associated with being African
American. Yet one fails to realize that Cubans and Hispanics can also have brown and dark
brown skin. Not only this but there are African Americans that are light skin as well. African
Americans come in all shades - from Albino (a person with pale skin, light hair, pinkish eyes, and
visual abnormalities resulting from a hereditary inability to produce the pigment melanin) to very
dark brown skin.

African American Stereotypes date back towards the beginning of slavery. White
Americans would put on shows called minstrels where they would impersonate African
Americans and portray their stereotypes with blackface in the most negative way possible.
Whites would paint their faces dark and their lips big to impersonate an African Americans big
lips. The most popular stereotype that they would portray was the Sambo, which was the
happy slave that thrived during slavery. The counterpart to the Sambo was the City Dandy or
the uppity negro that made his way to the city. His suits were usually loose fitting and too big
for him and he is not very smart. There was also Mammy was a very loud, robust woman who
was the mother figure to everyone. She usually wore a drab calico dress and head scarf. Her
main goal was to please her massa and take care of his children. She took care of her
massas children better than her own and gave the upmost respect to White people but
demanded respect in her own household. Aunt Jemimah" is another version of Mammy yet she
only cooks and does domestic work. Finally, Jezebelle" was the promiscuous harlot that
represented the hyper-sexual Black woman. She was usually of a lighter complexion, Mulatto,
with long straight hair. She looked more European than African American which made her more
desirable. This overly sexual and desirable character made it easier for White men to rape
Black women and claim that she was asking for it.

African Americans were perceived as unsanitary and contaminated during the beginning
of the 21st Century and are still perceived as such to this day. Not only this but African
Americans are also perceived as ghetto, poor, and violent. African Americans are unfortunately
poorer than their White counterparts, yet only 29% of African Americans are poorer compared to
the perceived 50%. There is the stereotype of the single Black mother on Welfare with the
absentee father that never comes around for his children or take on the responsibility of raising
them. African Americans are also perceived to be drug users and drug dealers that roam the
streets looking for trouble. There are more African American youth on the streets and in gangs
compared to their counterparts because African Americans have been placed in poor, violent
stricken areas and many turn to crime in order to survive, which is why African Americans are
perceived as criminals.
 Between the 17th and 19th centuries, about 12.5 million Africans were displaced due to
the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; only about 10.6 million survived the journey through the Middle
Passage and made it to the Atlantic. About 388,000 slaves arrived in America and majority of
them came from two regions: Senegambia (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali) and
West-Central Africa (Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon). Along with
the majority coming from those two regions, some slave came from Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Once the slaves were sold to their Master, they were given an entire new name and identity,
creating their American identity. As plantation owners dehumanized their male slaves, they
began raping their female slaves and would impregnate them, creating this new race that was
mixed with European/American blood and African blood, creating the African American.

African Americans have been faced with disadvantages since the beginning of slavery.
After facing years of being treat as property and working under inhumane conditions, they were
then faced with segregation, racism, and discrimination. African American men were beat,
lynched, accused of raping White women, and murdered for anything. An anti-black hate group
called the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) was founded after slavery was abolished and performed hateful,
racist acts against African Americans. During the 1900s, African Americans were discriminated
against; they were forced to use different equipment than their White counterparts. They could
not use the same restroom, drink from the same fountain, or eat in the same environment as the
White Americans. Not only this but African Americans were not allowed to go to the same school
as a White American and they were not allowed to vote. In the 1950s, the Civil Rights
Movement took place and began abolishing segregation and promoted equality for African
Americans in America.

Unfortunately, African Americans are still at a disadvantage to this day. There are public
school systems that are being closed down due to improper funding, there are more African
Americans in poverty stricken neighborhoods that unfortunately forces their hands to turn to
violence in order to survive, and there is the belittling of their African culture yet there are White
Americans that culturally appropriate every aspect of the African heritage and get praised for it.
Not only this but African Americans are seen as lazy for using government assistance to help
raise their children yet the system was set in order to break up the African American household.
The Black woman is the most oppressed in society considering she is belittled for her
headstrong personality and independence, she is over sexualized (seen as sex objects on
television, movies, music videos, etc.), she is put down for expressing her culture and for
showing off her African attributes yet a White woman would get praised for being unique. Not
only this but she is the lowest paid in society compared to her male and female counterparts.
African Americans are also more likely to be racially profiled by police officers compared to
White Americans and unfortunately there has been as rise in unarmed African Americans being
abused by police officers and, in worse cases, murdered.

In todays society you see more and more African Americans embracing their African
roots through rocking their natural hairstyles to wearing dashikis and head wraps.There are
more African Americans become more involved in the injustices faced by African Americans as
you see movements such as #BlackLivesMatter become more and more successful and
prominent. Society has reverted back to the Civil Rights era and you have African Americans
becoming more Unapologetically Black.