Life during the Great Depression
The Great Depression was an economic crisis not only in the United States, but in every industrialized region of the world. Although the financial plunge during the economic crisis during the 1920’s was a time of unemployment and economic hardships for families worldwide, people tend to forget that the Great Depression was a significant occasion that called for a social balance between African Americans and Whites. The need for a social reform can be visualized in the segregation, the inequalities, and the racism present between African Americans and Whites in the U.S. throughout the entire period of the Industrial crisis.
The Great Depression illustrates a world in the United States where African Americans and whites were intensely segregated. Particularly, Woods in her article, “You Have to Fight for Freedom” shares her experience with the social divisions of the 1920’s. Wood portrays these divisions in her article when she states, “When I was maybe ten years old, I Changed Schools. On the Way to School, I had to go through a park that was for white people only. We could walk through the park but we could’t stop at all, just pass through it. There were swings in the park and, oh I so much wanted sometimes to just stop and swing a little while, but we could’t because we were black,”(Woods, 320). Woods in the passage speaks not only for herself, but for the entire African American people, as instead of utilizing the word “I”, she uses the term “we”. She also mentions the fact that each ethical group had their own designated areas, in which they could, or could’t occupy. Woods explains that she could’t play at the park because she was African and that the park was strictly intended for whites only. Woods’ allegory is a critical concept, which is significant in order to understand the separation of whites and Africans, as she speaks for all the African residents in the country, while at the same time giving us with a thorough model, providing an incredible layout of the exclusions.
The Great Depression was an economic crisis not only in the United States, but in every industrialized region of the world. Although the financial plunge during the economic crisis during the 1920’s was a time of unemployment and economic hardships for families worldwide, people tend to forget that the Great Depression was a significant occasion that called for a social balance between African Americans and Whites. The need for a social reform can be visualized in the segregation, the inequalities, and the racism present between African Americans and Whites in the U.S. throughout the entire period of the Industrial crisis.
The Great Depression illustrates a world in the United States where African Americans and whites were intensely segregated. Particularly, Woods in her article, “You Have to Fight for Freedom” shares her experience with the social divisions of the 1920’s. Wood portrays these divisions in her article when she states, “When I was maybe ten years old, I Changed Schools. On the Way to School, I had to go through a park that was for white people only. We could walk through the park but we could’t stop at all, just pass through it. There were swings in the park and, oh I so much wanted sometimes to just stop and swing a little while, but we could’t because we were black,”(Woods, 320). Woods in the passage speaks not only for herself, but for the entire African American people, as instead of utilizing the word “I”, she uses the term “we”. She also mentions the fact that each ethical group had their own designated areas, in which they could, or could’t occupy. Woods explains that she could’t play at the park because she was African and that the park was strictly intended for whites only. Woods’ allegory is a critical concept, which is significant in order to understand the separation of whites and Africans, as she speaks for all the African residents in the country, while at the same time giving us with a thorough model, providing an incredible layout of the exclusions.