History Of Black Males In American Society Essay -- African-American R

History Of Black Males In American Society The black community have always been suppressed and oppressed by the dominant and powerful white members of society. The historical social order of Americans meant that traditionally positions of power have been held by a very exclusive group of people; members of this group are stereotypically middle class, middle aged, white males with nuclear families. This Caucasian dominance is well documented throughout history and is epitomized by the slavery of African, and Caribbean Negroes in America by white settlers and pilgrims, which continued for many hundreds of years. This has led to much resentment from the black community towards white people, as it is still very difficult for someone of an ethnic minority heritage to gain a position of any real authority or significance within the USA. Things have undoubtedly improved in America but a balance of equality has still not been achieved, evidenced today by Barack Obama becoming the first Black man to achieve election into the USAsenate (the highest form of government in the American administration apart from the cabinet). Whilst this demonstrates that society is becoming more equality based in the US, it also shows that out of 255 senate seats, a black person holds only one of them. This illustrates that American society favours those of white origin, as they do not trust black people in positions of power or importance. The situation with regards to racism has changed dramatically over the past fifty years; this is largely down to the work of black activists such as Dr Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Another individual who had a ... ...ssing over $225 million each, while the motion picture biography of Malcolm X, one of the most important cultural icons for black people, and one of the most influential figures in the change of racial tolerance and ultimately, world society grossed just $48 million. American society is still intolerant of black people and in film, more often then not, cast the African-Americans in the role of the minstrel. This has been noted by black people and have now taken to playing up to the role by creating spoof films such as the 'Scary Movie' trilogy which grossed over $500 million in total. This shows that whilst society in America has not changed much, except that white people pretend to be less prejudiced, black people have decided to take control and use their own societal positions to take advantage of white America.