America defined

Part I: Poverty, Racism, Ignorance and Hard Work define much of America

Marc J. Yacht MD, MPH

March 2017

This series will begin at the conclusion of the Civil War and argue that this nation's character evolved in the aftermath. Much of the American culture can be defined in four enduring traits: poverty, racism, ignorance and hard work. The election of Donald Trump has brought the country full circle. Unfortunately, best described as, back from the future.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, the country was ill prepared to address Black migration. The Southern economy was in shambles and the Northern states were shocked by the migration of former slaves looking for jobs. White northern citizens who supported the freeing of slaves became quite fearful of the new cheap workforce crossing the Mason Dixon line. The slave was stereotyped as lazy, inferior, uneducated, sexually deviant and criminal.

This population, according to thinking at that time, required a firm hand. Hence the growth of White Supremacy groups. The European and African continents had centuries old histories of Aryan racial superiority. They came to prominence with Hitler and WWII. U.S. racists groups prospered as tens of thousands of white Christian Americans joined organizations like the Ku Klux Klan after the Civil War.

The lack of opportunities for Blacks in the North and South forced them to poverty. The created Black Ghettos were hotbeds for crime and unemployment. There were no government benefits to this population. The writings of intellectuals post-Civil War concluded that African Americans were inferior, dangerous and had created their own problems. Limited opportunities made these predictions self-fulfilling.

W.E.B Du Bois made an early effort to explain the plight by authoring the book, The Philadelphia Negro, published in 1899. The work had little impact on the stereotyped African American. Prominently addressed in the book was the impact of racism and poverty on deviant behavior. The book also stressed the need for the “Negro” to take more responsibility pursuing education and addressing recalcitrant conduct.

In spite of extreme poverty, Blacks were excluded from social welfare programs that were established in the 1920’s. It wasn’t until efforts defined as the “War on Poverty’ came to existence, 1960s, that Blacks received assistance. Women, infants and children were targeted and that defines Medicaid and social services today.

Part II: Who are the White Supremacists

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