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In order to understand the struggle of African Americans in the work place, one must first understan

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The American Slave Trade. The first work place for African Americans in America. 1615-1865 ... An African American Perspective. My questions mean I am unaware. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: In order to understand the struggle of African Americans in the work place, one must first understan


1
Introduction
  • In order to understand the struggle of African
    Americans in the work place, one must first
    understand the history of this group in the work
    place.

2
The American Slave Trade
  • The first work place for African Americans in
    America
  • 1615-1865

3
The American Slave Trade
  • 250 years of slavery
  • Recruitment to the work place
  • Capturing slaves
  • Auctions
  • Sold for slaves
  • Tobacco, Cotton, Sugar and Rice Cultivation lead
    to a demand in slave labor

4
The American Slave Trade Spotlighting Elsie Reece
5
The American Slave Trade
  • In 1776 a passage condemning the slave trade, is
    removed from the Declaration of Independence.
  • Eleven years later it is changed again to
    continue slavery for twenty more years.
  • 1808 importation of slaves ends in America. (1
    million slaves)
  • Many slaves migrate north

6
THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865
  • SLAVES EARN MONEY FOR FREEDOM

7
THE CIVIL WAR
  • 200,000 Blacks served in the union armed forces
  • Wages Black vs. White
  • 1865 Lincoln Outlawed Slavery
  • Two months later he was assassinated

8
THE CIVIL WARSPOTLIGHTING Frederick Douglass
  • During the course of his remarkable life he
    escaped from slavery, became internationally
    renowned for his eloquence in the cause of
    liberty, and went on to serve the national
    government in several official capacities.

9
Sharecroppers
  • A practice that emerged following the
    emancipation of African-American slaves,
    sharecropping came to define the method of land
    lease that would eventually become a new form of
    slavery.

10
Business and Employment
  • 1864- Congress passes bill forbidding
    discrimination in hiring US mail carriers due to
    labor shortages.
  • 1865-Legislation contains Black Codes.
  • To control blacks, slavery is re-established in
    some areas.
  • Blacks owned marine railroad, employed 300 black
    workers- black artisans.
  • Over the next 25 years black artisans will
    disappear as white society reserves skilled
    crafts for white.
  • 1869 blacks to form their own labor union.
  • 1877- 14 blacks served at one time in the House
    of Representatives.
  • 1879 1.25 million blacks join Colored Farmers
    Alliance.

11
Blacks in Industryand Unions
  • During the 1880s American industry railroads,
    mining, lumber, steel and construction would hire
    blacks as unskilled labor.
  • Cotton pickers unionize and strike for higher
    wages.

12
  • 1896 National Association of Colored Women was
    founded.
  • 1897 The American Negro Academy founded to
    provide a forum for black intellectual
    discourse.
  • 1900 The National Negro Business League is
    organized, sponsored by Booker T. Washington, it
    begins to form local all-black labor unions.
  • 1903 Manhattans Harlem district begin to develop
    by a black realtor.
  • 1908 California to allow blacks to develop
    industry.
  • 1911 first New York black police officer.
  • 1912 NAACP founded (National Association for the
    Advancement of Colored People).
  • 1920 union formed for black dinning room train
    cars employees.
  • 1923 Grace Del Marco model agency paved the way
    for black models.

13
  • 1924 National Negro Business League have 1
    million dollars to help black business and
    investments.
  • 1929 Black workers in dress industry organized
    garment union.
  • 1930 Black railroad workers organize a convention
    to fight discrimination.
  • 1932 10 blacks are killed when white employees
    prevent blacks from working.

14
Symbols of power and achievement

Joe Lewis
Rosa Parks
Marian Anderson
The Little Rock Nine
15
  • THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

16
March on Washington
  • The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took
    place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.
    Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the
    largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's
    capital, and one of the first to have extensive
    television coverage.

17
Americans
18
Cultural AttributesJones, 1988 as cited in
Triandis, 1994
  • Contemporary African-American
  • Spiritual
  • Spiritual forces
  • Harmony with nature
  • Present oriented
  • Time is defined by the rhythm of social
    relationship
  • Oral Emphasis on context
  • Expressive
  • Movement
  • Surprise
  • Improvisation
  • Rejection of routine
  • Social responsibility
  • Collectivism
  • Identity defined by
  • Expression
  • Style
  • Spontaneous activity
  • Gregarious
  • European-American
  • Materialistic, mechanistic
  • Physical forces
  • Control nature
  • Future oriented
  • Time is money time is to be used
  • Written emphasis on content
  • Controlled expression
  • Balance
  • Predictability
  • Routine
  • Individualism
  • Self-focused
  • Identity defined by
  • Property
  • Experience
  • Record of accomplishments
  • Task oriented
  • Narrowly driven

19
(No Transcript)
20
Research
  • Contemporary African-Americans are trying to find
    a balance between two tendencies
  • African Culture
  • European-American Culture

21
A large empirical study (Triandis,1979) concluded
  • The similarities in the subjective cultures of
    African-Americans and European-Americans are
    overwhelming the differences are small.

22
The major difference occurs when African
Americans who have never had a job are compared
with other African Americans and
European-Americans.
23
Both blacks and whites see conflict in
black-white relationships.
24
The different groups of blacks all favored
formal forms of address (Mr., Mrs.), more than
whites it implies acceptance of respect.
25
Differences between employed blacks and
unemployed blacks is that they live in an
ecosystem of mistrust a system of feelings or
beliefs and behaviors that include not trusting
people, not trusting themselves, not trusting the
way the establishment institutions function, and
not trusting the dependability of relationships
between events occurring in their environment.
26
Another difference between these two groups is
the latter has an ambivalence about their
self-concept, the unemployed when compared to the
employed do not think of themselves as
important and they value being a powerful
person more than they value being a nice
person.
27
Unemployed blacks, when compared to employed
blacks, see social relationships as a Pose or
when people try to appear better or more
important than they actually are.
28
Unemployed blacks accept conditions in the
ghetto (crime, drugs) as normal.
29
Unemployed blacks have strong anti-establishment
impulses including rejection of people who do
well under the status quo, such as blacks who are
successful.
30
Most of these behaviors are functional and have
been adopted in order to survive the situation
unemployed blacks are in.
31
Both blacks and whites think that their own
group is less prejudiced than the other group.
32
Both blacks and whites think of people in roles
according to the role rather than the race.
(Black policemen are seen the same as White
policemen)
33
There are more similarities than differences in
the responses of blacks and whites-some blacks
are much more like the white middle class than
they are like other blacks. Unemployed blacks are
the only black sample that is consistently most
different from the white middle class.
34
Summary
  • In reviewing this information- African Americans
    have many advantages and different perceptions
    that a work place could utilize to better the
    companies productivity, competitiveness in market
    place, and solutions to problems.
  • Employers that utilize a workforce that may be
    drawing from the unemployed black population need
    to make the employee feel safe, and give
    stability in order to realize that employees true
    potential.

35
An African American Perspectiveillustrative of
situations that African-Americans might encounter
  • They take my kindness for weakness.
  • They consider my uniqueness strange.
  • They see my confidence as conceit.
  • They call my language slang.
  • They take my silence for speechlessness.
  • They see my mistakes as defeat.
  • They consider my success accidental.

36
An African American Perspective
  • My questions mean I am unaware.
  • Any praise is preferential treatment.
  • My advancement is somehow unfair.
  • To voice concern is discontentment.
  • If I stand up for myself I am too defensive.
  • Pride in my race makes me Too Black.
  • Im defiant if I separate.

37
An African American Perspective
  • If I dont trust them I am too apprehensive.
  • Im fake if I assimilate.

38
African American Perspective - Situations
  • You arrive at work on time as usual. Your boss,
    making her rounds, peeks in and remark with
    surprise, Oh, youre here!
  • You have to perform at 250 just to stay even.
  • You are frequently asked why you change your
    hairstyle so often.

39
African American Perspective - Situations
  • A colleague says with a broad smile, You know, I
    really like you, I dont see color. I dont think
    of you as black.
  • You tell your manager about a problem you are
    having and the response you get is Youve got to
    be exaggerating! I find that hard to believe.

40
African American Perspective - Situations
  • You continually get more responsibility, but no
    authority.
  • After a co-worker returns from a weekend in the
    sun, they run to you on Monday morning and extend
    their arm to touch yours and say, Hey I am
    darker than you.

41
African American Perspective - Situations
  • You are being recognized at a company banquet. As
    you approach the stage to receive your companys
    highest achievement award, your corporations top
    executive exclaims, Yo homeboy,
    congratulations!

42
Employment Laws
  • African Americans in the Work Place

43
We The People
  • Constitution
  • - People did not include African Americans.
    They were possessions or property.

44
Amendment XIII
  • Ratified December 6, 1865
  • Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
    servitude, except for crime whereof the party
    shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
    within the United States, or any place subject to
    their jurisdiction.
  • Article IV, section 2, of the constitution was
    superseded by the 13th amendment.
  • Buffalo Soldier (right) in the Civil War.

45
Jim Crow Laws About Employment
  • From the 1880s-1960s America enforced
    segregation through these laws.
  • Toilet Facilities, Male
  • - Every employer of white or negro males shall
    provide for such white or negro males reasonably
    accessible separate toilet facilities. Alabama

46
Jim Crow laws
  • Barbers
  • - No colored barber shall serve as a barber
    to white women or girls. Georgia
  • Amateur Baseball
  • - .. It shall be unlawful for any amateur
    colored baseball team to play baseball in any
    vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks
    of any playground devoted to the white race.
    Georgia

47
Jim Crow Laws
  • Militia
  • - The white and colored militia shall be
    separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled
    to serve in the same organization. No
    organization of colored troops shall be permitted
    where white troops are available, and while white
    permitted to be organized, colored troops shall
    be under the command of white officers. North
    Carolina

48
Jim Crow Laws
  • Mining
  • - The baths and lockers for the negroes shall
    be separate from the white race, but may be in
    the same building. Oklahoma
  • Promotion of Equality
  • - Any personwho shall be guilty of printing,
    publishing or circulating printed, typewritten or
    written matter urging or presenting for public
    acceptance or general information, arguments or
    suggestions in favor of social equality.shall be
    guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine or
    not exceeding five hundred dollars or
    imprisonment not exceeding six months or both.
    Mississippi

49
Controversy over The New Deal
  • Davis-Bacon Act of 1931
  • - It requires employers to pay locally
    prevailing wage on federally funded projects.
  • The NAACP and the National Urban League opposed
    it in 1931.

50
Davis-Bacon Act
  • David Bernstein argues that the Davis-Bacon Act
    is unconstitutional and discriminatory (even in
    present times).
  • He says the law was passed to favor white-only
    unionized workers over non-unionized black
    workers.
  • He states that black workers lost their
    bargaining power because they could no longer
    undercut wages.

51
Davis-Bacon Act
  • With Jim Crow laws actively discriminating in the
    1930s, the black workers power was in his
    bargain.
  • Many African-Americans lost their jobs because
    Companies were not willing to pay a black man
    that high of a wage. The discriminatory unions
    didnt help either.

52
Discrimination of Unions
  • It was possible for unions to discriminate
    because of professional-licensing laws for
    plumbers, barbers, and doctors.
  • African-Americans were not allowed in the schools
    that provided such licensing.

53
Positive Outcomes of the New Deal
  • Many organizations and individuals collectively
    strengthened the African-Americans fight to work.
  • The NAACP campaigned against unequal education in
    the south, saying education was a means to better
    income.
  • The Public Works Administration (PWA) called for
    a no-discrimination policy on federally funded
    work projects.

54
PWA
  • The PWA constructed a non-discrimination clause
    to be included in all PWA contracts.
  • - There was one problem, how to enforce it.
  • Ickes and Hastie, administrators of the PWA,
    devised a procedure whereby PWA contract
    recipients were required to employ a minimum
    percentage of black skilled labor, based on the
    percentage of skilled black laborers in the local
    population according to the 1930 occupational
    census.
  • -Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope

55
Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Title VII of the CRA
  • Employer is defined as an industry affecting
    commerce who has 25 or more employees. These 25
    employees must also work 20 or more calendar
    weeks.
  • Section 703. Prohibits discrimination based on
    race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

56
CRA
  • No employer is allowed to discriminate.
  • - During hiring, or termination, and with
    respect to compensation, terms, conditions,
    privileges of employment.
  • - It is unlawful for an employer to limit,
    segregate, or classify an employee that would
    deprive him/her from opportunities and status as
    an employee.

57
CRA and Labor Organizations
  • It is unlawful for Labor Unions to exclude and
    discriminate against members or prospective
    members.
  • - including apprenticeships and training
    programs.
  • - unlawful employment practice does not
    include a member of the Communist Party of the
    United States.

58
Positive attributes of the CRA
  • The Davis-Bacon Act could no longer legally
    discriminate. In fact it became a positive
    reinforcement for African-Americans bargaining
    power. Unions could not exempt blacks from
    membership and therefore were paid prevailing
    wages.
  • The EEOC was created by section 705 to enforce
    the CRA.
  • Affirmative Action (EO 11246) was also put into
    law, 1965, to help support application of the
    CRA. Affirmative Action is the proactive
    recruitment, hiring, promotion of minorities.
  • These, CRA, Affirmative Action, and the EEOC, all
    increased African-Americans opportunities for
    employment.
  • Peoples attitudes and behavior toward
    African-Americans in the work force have changed.

59
Signing of the Civil Rights Act
60
Effect of Civil Rights Act
61
The Impact of These Laws Today
  • Progress or Regress?
  • - The progress of the African-American worker
    has not been linear.
  • There have been a small amount of African
    Americans to serve in the U.S. Senate since 1870.
  • Barack Obama from IL.
  • The first female
  • African American in
  • the U.S. Senate was
  • Carol Moseley-Braun, 1992.

62
These Laws and Today
  • A survey done in 1995 concluded that diversity
    programs were helpful. But were they working
    fast and hard enough?

63
1995 Study
  • SC Johnson Wax
  • - 1 of 43 officers are African American
  • - 367 increase in purchases from minority and
    woman-owned businesses
  • Teachers Insurance and Annuity
    Association-College Retirement Equities Fund
    (TIAA-CREF)
  • - African Americans make up 11.6 of officials
    and managers
  • - 10 member board of TIAA 3 are African
    Americans
  • - 10 member board of CREF 2 are African American
  • Texas Instruments Inc. and Ameritech Corp also
    did well in the survey.

64
Davis-Bacon Suspension
  • David Bernstein and those who oppose Big
    Government would argue that this is a great thing
    for African-Americans.
  • This may or may not be helping African-Americans
    rebuild their lives, economically, especially
    after the Davis-Bacon Act has increased many
    African-Americans income.

65
No-Bid Contract Recipients
  • The Corporations who have received no-bid
    contracts to rebuild the Gulf are
  • The Army Corps of Engineers
  • The Shaw Group
  • Boh Brothers Construction
  • Kellogg Brown Root
  • Bechtel Group Inc.

66
Davis-Bacon Suspended
  • 62 billion has been allocated from the Federal
    Government to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
  • Portions of the 62 billion will go to
    construction companies rebuilding the Gulf. By
    not having to pay a prevailing wage these
    companies profit margins have substantially
    increased.
  • - Prevailing wage in Louisiana is between 9 and
    10 per hour, an already low prevailing wage.
    Now workers will only be paid 5.15 per hour.

67
Davis-Bacon Suspended
  • What does this have to do with African-American
    workers?
  • The areas hit by the hurricanes are a heavily
    impoverished and African-American communities.
  • They will receive an income that equates to lower
    than the poverty line to rebuild their lives.
  • Whether or not this suspension has racial
    implications is not for me to conclude, but it
    does have adverse effects for the
    African-American population of the Gulf region.

68
Affirmative Action Waived
  • Friday September 23, 2005 Affirmative Action
    policies are waived for any contracts regarding
    the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.
  • - meaning the companies reconstructing the Gulf
    region have a personal responsibility to hire
    African-Americans and minority-owned companies as
    sub-contractors because it will not be legally
    enforced.

69
Have we done enough?
  • While much progress has been made, is this enough
    though? There are still gaps between Blacks and
    Whites income. Unemployment for
    African-Americans is consistently higher, even
    though Blacks make up a smaller portion of the
    work force.

70
Unemployment Statistics for 2004
71
Average Duration of Unemployment in Weeks
72
Asking You
  • We are not concerned with the political
    implications of this cartoon.
  • There is a specific Myth we have discussed in
    class that this cartoon is an example of.
  • What is the Myth and Why?

73
Guest Speaker
  • Karen Brown, MSW
  • Personal experiences with discrimination in
    employment
  • One womans view on the continuation of the Civil
    Rights struggle
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