Creating Black Americans By: Nell Irvin Painter
Creating Black Americans: African American history and its meanings, 1619 to present. “Ranging from life in Africa before slavery to today’s hip-hop culture, this magnificent account of African-American history examines a past rich in beauty and creativity, but also in tragedy and trauma. Writing for a new generation, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter blends a vivid narrative based on the latest research with and array of artwork by African-American artists, adding a vital dimension to the story and a new depth to our understanding of black history. (Oxford University Press, 2005) We ask that you choose the book you read based on two primary criteria:
(a) Select a book that will support you in locating in history the origins of the hierarchical sorting of people that has led to oppression, domination, power, and privilege.
(b) Select a book that will enable you to learn about the history of oppression in the United States. Lead in-class conversations on how the history they have read informs social work assessments at the individual, family, group, community, and organizational level.
• Provide an overview of one or two historical incidents from the book and explain why the author includes it. What is the author trying to show?
• How can we see echoes of these events or this tendency in the modern U.S.? Silberman School of Social Work updated Spring 2020 5
• How does social work either confront or actually perpetuate these tendencies?
• How do your own biases, preconceptions, and history factor into your understanding of the historical content you have read and your perception of whether or not echoes of this content or this tendency are present in the modern U.S
• Concluding remarks: how will you use this history to inform your social work practice?
Sample Solution
When examining the history of African Americans, Nell Irvin Painter’s Black Americans: African American History and its Meanings, 1619 to Present provides an insightful overview that supports readers in locating the hierarchical sorting of people which has resulted in oppression, domination, power and privilege. The book begins by delving into life in Africa before slavery, a critical factor in understanding the root cause for so much violence and segregation experienced through generations of Africans both on the continent and abroad (Painter 2005). Moreover, it analyzes how Western colonization created “hierarchies based on race with white Europeans at their apex” (Painter 2005: 10). This was done through a range of tactics such as established laws that limited freedoms perceived as threatening to colonial rule or “systematic exploitation of Africans” including slave labor (Painter 2005: 11-12). Furthermore, Painter explains how after Emancipation this inequality persisted through racial segregation policies like Jim Crow laws and redlining. Such measures have had severe consequences on communities of color today seen in disparities related to wealth accumulation and education attainment. Overall, reading Black Americans enables us to view the experiences of African Americans from various points throughout history while providing an analysis necessary for understanding why oppression continues to exist even centuries later.
