Review of Ghosts of Jim Crow by F. Michael Higginbotham

Initially I didn't know how to approach this review without being longwinded so I decided to take the things that stood out to me most and use the same structure as the author F. Michael Higginbotham uses in Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America.  F. Michael Higginbotham is a tenured law professor at the University of Baltimore and the former Interim Dean at the University of Baltimore School of Law. I really appreciate the approach he used with this book in the fact that it's simple to digest so a broad audience can read it without the aide of a person familiar with legalese or a legalese for dummies book.

Higginbotham begins with a little background into his experiences with racism and how those instances shaped his reasoning behind a lot of his arguments in achieving ending structural and cultural racism and having a true post-racial society.  A post-racial society isn't meant in the sense of being color blind but a way of ending notions of racial victimization, racial hierarchy, isolation, or judgement perceptions being a way of the past and not practiced by the majority. Having the preface helps the reader to get to know the author and understand that he's coming from a place of honesty and that plights of one person are actually the plights of many. Although raised in an upper-class home with two parents and well educated, he was still subject to the many prejudices that have longstanding since the days of slavery.

The introduction and Part I explores how the racial paradigm was formed and how the mindsets of black inferiority and white superiority are widespread through society by the installation of laws to make it such. Laws that forbade slaves to read, be publicly tried without a judge or jury, and even them not being lawfully able to own property. These laws were of course in place to maintain white superiority and black inferiority ultimately leaving behind its many ghosts. As long as blacks remained uneducated, subservient, poor, and believe they are, the racial paradigm will not change. 

Part II further parallels how Jim Crow laws and the harmful effects it has made for our society today. Jim Crow laws gave the false sense of seperate yet equal but as we look back on the past we know this wasn't true. Blacks were systematically killed without judge or jury, given lower wages when compared to other whites with similar skills, and often under-educated because their schools didn't offer subjects that were on course with furthering their education. Even if the majority wanted to attend college, there were few accepted into college. Higginbotham also references the "white-flight" which left many urban areas at a disadvantage when it came to receiving government funding. There were even vouchers given to whites to help send their children to schools that did not accept blacks. Jim Crow influenced the races not to mix so notions of inferiority and superiorty never had a chance to change because neither knew much about the other.

Part III was the most interesting for me. I really enjoyed reading his ideas on how to acheive a true post-racial society. I am most in agreement with two points he makes such as equal funding to all schools. I went to a elementary magnet school and I understand the importance of having an education. I also believe that every child should at least have a chance to have a level playing field. When an ENTIRE society is better educated the ENTIRE society benefits. There are better job opportunities, more self-worth and less actions of crime and violence. When people are aware of their options they can make better more informed decisions. It's no secret that inner cities such as Detroit and Chicago have a heavy gang presence as well as high crime rates but an effort to keep children in school can decrease these occurances which are heavily associated with blacks. This will help keep jails from being so crowded with black and latinos who are sentenced at disproportionate rates when compared to identical crimes committed by whites.

The second idea I agree with completely that Higginbotham states is for blacks to take advantage of how far things have come since the days of Jim Crow and not to play the victim. Taking responsibility of one's own life is a pretty popular idea. Blacks being associated with being takers or lazy is so far embedded into the racial paradigm that people reference our president as "the food-stamp" president, asking for his background check, and suggesting that he produce his grades or birth certificate. These social prejudices can only be changed if we accept the challenge and change them. Blacks referencing that another black is "acting white" only further suggests that being white is better than being black and hinders the movement towards a post-racist society.

There are many more points Higginbotham argues pretty convincingly and it was a pleasure to read his insight into ways we can change the racial landscape of our society. I tried to be as brief as possible but Higginbotham refereces a lot in this well researched book. I suggest this book for everyone. It was interesting to see how the ghosts of Jim Crow are still lurking where they really shouldn't be.****

Ghosts of Jim Crow... Alive!

So far I'm currently 50% in this book and have just reached Part II in the novel Ghosts of Jim Crow by F. Michael Higginbotham.  The beginning starts off with Higginbotham recounting his younger years and some of the racial injustices that stood out in his life. He grew up in an upper-class family and went to really good schools but still endured racism, albeit different than blacks from a different social class, but still so overt that he became at one point integration fatigued. I really like that expression "integration fatigue". I was not raised in a wealthy home but my upbringing in the suburbs, and some twenty years later, helps me to understand his plight.

Honestly I don't know where I should begin with describing this book. In Part I of the book, Higginbotham goes over legal precedent that made slavery legal and how law was used to dehumanize blacks as well as elevate whites becoming the main fuel in black inferiority and white superiority. These structural policies are used to promote inequality and ultimately damage any hopes of becoming a society free of racism or bias. He mentions laws that forbade slaves to read therefore making them appear to be uncivilized or dumb. The laws that gave slave owners the right to punish slaves as they please even up to killing them, also further exacerbates the idea of white superiority and black victimization. The next step in the legal process was the emancipation of slavery which led to a lot of new laws put in place to keep the playing fields for whites and blacks imbalanced and uneven.

Higginbotham brings us next to the laws that which the book is named for: Jim Crow Laws. Here Higginbotham shows how these laws not only separate blacks and whites, but does it in a way that blacks would still feel inferior even if they were well off.  In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the decision to uphold the constitutionality of "seperate but equal" in public facilities continued in the way of promoting black inferiority. Many of the public places labeled as okay to use for blacks were in disrepair, ill-funded,  and not up to same standards as white's only public places. This case upheld the states "seperate but equal" policies but completely ignored the fact that the states failed to make anything equal. Plessy v. Ferguson ushered in the Reconstruction Era and led the way for future and further segregation laws.

This same approach with being seperate but very clearly unequal translates the same with regard to education and housing. Many blacks were placed into schools that did not have adequate materials nor teachers able to teach them adequately. This helps to further blacks being at a disparate level compared to whites. Blacks are viewed as dumb or lazy and unable to maintain control of their lives because of laws passed during the Jim Crow Era. Underfunded schools lead to lower education levels. Inabilities to get employment affects being able to obtain a loan for property. I mention these because they are among the many prejudices that black people face today. Sadly, Brown v. Board of Education, only shifted the playing fields slightly.

There is so much I want to discuss and there is so much to be learned from this book. Although the stories of inequalities are not new to Americans, the idea that we haven't moved as far along as we can by now is what is most sad. There are still ghosts of Jim Crow that linger in a way that place blacks at a disadvantage and further fuel the idea of white superiority. The fact that our President is black has not done enough especially when there are still other public officials who are interested in calling him lazy, labeling him the welfare president, or a schuck-and-jive-er. Although much racism is not as overt as it was only 60 years ago, the rate of imbalance between the two races are still staggering.  I look forward to finishing this novel by tomorrow and posting my thoughts on it there. Until then... Let's Read.

Ghosts of Jim Crow by F. Michael Higginbotham

I end work today on Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America by F. Michael Higginbotham. I'm eager to find out what I can learn from this work. I honestly don't know if their will ever be a post-racial America but I can dream that it's possible. I can't wait to read what arguments the professor of law at University of Baltimore School of Law has for achieving an actual post-racial America. Really I'm just excited to finally be reading this.

Synopsis: When America inaugurated its first African American president, in 2009, many wondered if the country had finally become a "post-racial" society. Was this the dawning of a new era, in which America, a nation nearly severed in half by slavery, and whose racial fault lines are arguably among its most enduring traits, would at last move beyond race with the election of Barack Hussein Obama? In Ghosts of Jim Crow, F. Michael Higginbotham convincingly argues that America remains far away from that imagined utopia. Indeed, the shadows of Jim Crow era laws and attitudes continue to perpetuate insidious, systemic prejudice and racism in the 21st century. Higginbotham's extensive research demonstrates how laws and actions have been used to maintain a racial paradigm of hierarchy and separation—both historically, in the era of lynch mobs and segregation, and today—legally, economically, educationally and socially. Using history as a roadmap, Higginbotham arrives at a provocative solution for ridding the nation of Jim Crow's ghost, suggesting that legal and political reform can successfully create a post-racial America, but only if it inspires whites and blacks to significantly alter behaviors and attitudes of race-based superiority and victimization. He argues that America will never achieve its full potential unless it truly enters a post-racial era, and believes that time is of the essence as competition increases globally.