Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute › Forums › 2020 BHLI Cohort Engagement › From Separate to Equal and The 1619 Project › Reply To: From Separate to Equal and The 1619 Project
E) Throughout the “1619 Project” it is widely discussed that during the time of enslaved blacks in America was crucial as it built the American economy at large. Owning property, land, and slaves put white individuals at a higher economic position. As enslaved black people were not considered as human but rather property, because of this black ultimately built a large portion of the early American economy with the free labor on plantations around the country.
At the end of slavery black individuals were faced inequality of economic opportunity. What now we can consider African Americans were thrown out into society without any resources to strive economically. The African Americans that did not directly enter society as others did started their free lives off as share cropping which ultimately was slavery and in fact put many African Americans into debt. During the period where we saw many African Americans going into share cropping they worked in order to have food and other goods but the longs day of work would not cover their housing, causing them to owe plantation owners an abundance of money.
I think the transition from a life of slavery to a life of freedom put African Americans at a great economic disadvantage that persist to this day. Because of not having the opportunity to have economic equality many African Americans have been forced into poverty and modern-day slavery through low paying jobs and pushed into the New Jim Crow through mass incarceration. This ultimately has put African communities in more and more debt and poverty. With the health of these communities are negatively impacted as they cannot afford the resources to live healthy lifestyles.
To conclude all these ideas, the attitudes towards blacks during slavery and the lack of resources during the transition to free life has ultimately as a whole put African Americans at a disadvantage. Because of this putting these communities more and more in dept not allowing them to have they desirable credit that plays a large role in our American lives. Living in poverty does not make having a healthy life be one of your top priorities as most in those communities are honestly trying to survive just by having just the bare minimum things to survive.