My Dungeon Shook

by James Baldwin

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Has the Civil Rights Movement resolved the racism problem discussed in James Baldwin's "My Dungeon Shook"?

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The Civil Rights Movement has not fully resolved the racism issues highlighted in James Baldwin's "My Dungeon Shook." While there have been improvements in education, income, and political representation for African Americans, significant disparities remain, particularly in housing and economic equality. Segregation persists, with a large percentage of African Americans still living in ghettos, reflecting ongoing marginalization. Thus, despite progress, the challenges Baldwin described continue to affect African American communities today.

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Since the Civil Rights Movement, some progress has been made in several different sectors. At the time of John F Kennedy's "Report to the American People on Civil Rights," here were the facts brought up by the president: African Americans were only half as likely to graduate high school as white students; blacks had one-third of the opportunities that whites had to graduate college; blacks were one-third as likely to work in a professional field as whites; blacks experienced unemployment twice as much as whites; blacks had one-seventh of whites' chances to earn more than $10,000 a year; and blacks had life expectancies seven years shorter than whites.

Tremendous strides have been made in high school education, but there is still room for improvement with college graduation rates. African Americans' incomes have also risen; however, there is still a huge wealth gap, and black unemployment rates are still high. Here's...

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where there has been a significant improvement for blacks: voter turnout and a seven-fold increase in the number of black elected officials.

In his letter entitled “My Dungeon Shook,” James Baldwin talks about racism that existed in his day (especially in segregated ghettos) and would persist into the future. As per the statistics mentioned, the Civil Rights Movement and ongoing activism have brought about real improvements in several sectors, such as politics, schooling, and the workplace. However, progress in housing has been, and continues to be, much slower. Nearly six out of every ten African Americans still live in segregated neighborhoods.

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In his letter to his nephew titled "My Dungeon Shook," written in 1963, writer James Baldwin makes the important point that all his nephew has to do is look around at the Harlem ghetto in which he was born to see the still active reality of the feelings of white supremacy, the existence of white oppression of African Americans, and the existence of racism. In fact, as Baldwin phrases it, "This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish." Baldwin continues to describe how by being placed in a ghetto, his nephew and all African Americans have had their ambitions limited, have "been told [they were] worthless human being[s], and been told they are "not expected to aspire to excellence" but instead must "make peace with mediocrity."

Today, 61 years after the start of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, beginning in 1954 and lasting into the 60s, though improvements have been made, the prevalence of the African-America ghetto still bears testimony that racism still exists and that African Americans are still marginalized.

In an article posted on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research titled "The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto," authors and researchers David Cutler, Edward Glaesar, and Jacob Vigdor argue that "on average, 60% of blacks would have to move in order for blacks and whites to be equally distributed in American cities." Their article continues to explore historical reasons for segregation and to see that reasons have certainly changed. The authors in particular saw that, today, the predominant reason for segregation is that simply "whites pay more than blacks to live in predominantly white areas." The authors further saw that segregation is even increasing in the largest cities.

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