Allegory Of The Cave Essay

Are African Americans Still Oppressed?

African Americans in society today like the prisoners in the Allegory of the Cave are hostage to their own mentality. The two characteristics commonly shared between both is ignorance to reality and a reluctance to change. Thus in the essay the prisoners are locked and chained down in darkness with only a glow of light that allows for little sight. In turn objects placed in front of the glow cast shadows before them. These shadows are then interpreted as reality. Looking forward or straight ahead is only one-way of thinking. Being able to look around and explore allows the freedom to challenge or determine if in fact what appears to be the truth is true. African Americans ancestors went through the Allegory in the Cave situation. They were chained under the boats and held captive in the darkness with the only light seeping through the door that led to the light, the only way out. Once in America they were told they were slaves. Forced into a situation that seemed evidently out of their control they became complacent to what was an invented reality. After everyday routines of farm duties and household tasks it became a customs or their way of life. No one knew how to read and write, were they came from, where they were, and so forth which developed into ignorance. They were educated to not know their strengths while the white man took advantage of the weakness. During the centuries of enduring misery, church became their only escape. The irony is that while they were brought into Christianity the white man use the bible as This way of thinking was pass down generation to generation. In turn it becomes a slave mentality.

African Americans are deficient in knowledge concerning certain aspects of life. It is not that we lack intelligence rather we still hold on to the idea of being oppressed. Picture the prisoners living since childhood in an underground den, chained so they cannot move or see anywhere but straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, which casts shadows on the cave wall in front as people carry objects past the fire. The prisoners seeing nothing but shadows assume the shadows are all there is to reality. The African Americans in the world have become victims to a feeling of helplessness, because they are by nature, the son's of African, whose sons have incapacitated them for centuries. The black man sees and realizes that he should act as the Caucasian in order to be accepted and successful, but he cannot. It is not in his nature, it is not part of his system of thinking and acting. "Can an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots..." (Jeremiah 13:25) The more others in particular the white man, attempts to help him, the more disturbed he becomes, due to the changes that have been forced on him. The Black "leaders employ politically loaded programs to lead the easily led and the easily discourages black. Their favorite subjects are education, employment, and politics. The topic education is loaded with emotional and sympathetic subjects involving children and public money. In the field of education, blacks are completely ignorant. To African Americans, the word, EDUCATION is used specifically to mean understanding. They ask special educational privileges for black children and sometimes others demand that this education stick closely to black culture. With employment, economic unrest is the main weakness of our American form of industrial democracy, because it pushes the aggressive to do something, while it permits the last to organize and demand more. Technological advances add tools, which make the unskilled black laborer obsolete. The interpretation of these two words POLITICAL

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