Growing up during a time of widespread discrimination against African Americans, Jessie Adams fought hard for equality despite enduring years of injustice. She witnessed firsthand the denial of basic rights such as sitting at the front of a bus or eating at a lunch counter in the South. However, she found ways to move past the hatred directed towards her community. During our meeting in Los Angeles, while pouring coffee, Jessie and I discussed Jackie Robinson's impact on baseball. She remembered attending one of his games where she felt both proud and disillusioned - cheering him on during his home run but silenced by racial slurs towards Robinson. Her family left Virginia for New York in search of better opportunities during the 1950s when thousands of African Americans fled the South. Her father worked as a metal sheet worker at S
...ears Roebuck and Co., and every Friday, Jessie and her sisters Emma and Marine would visit him since it was their only opportunity to see him despite living nearby. Racial tension over jobs, housing, and access to free public space resulted in twenty-four African American deaths during the 1943 Detroit riots - an experience that Jessie remembers as imperfectly ideal which she shared with someone who listened attentively.According to Jessie, although she personally had not experienced any discrimination or violence as a Muslim in the United States, those around her had faced it. She likened this treatment to how African Americans were treated as second-class citizens in the past and despite many fighting for equal rights, discrimination still persisted. Jessie used poor SST. Woodard's brutal beating by police until he was blind at 27 as
an example of this pervasive discrimination. Despite these injustices, Jessie does not harbor hatred towards discriminated groups and believes that forgiveness has powerful healing abilities. During our interview, she expressed admiration for a friend who worked at an all-Black radio station ranked number two in the country and fondly recalled encountering many people unlike infamous cases such as Woodard who treated Black people with respect. Our conversation lasted two hours before Jessie almost missed her yoga class.
At the end of our discussion, she kindly advised me to reduce my sugar intake to prevent possible health complications and cordially invited me to return if I had further inquiries or just wanted to talk.I am eagerly looking forward to accepting her gracious invitation.
- Malcolm X essays
- Black Lives Matter essays
- Antisemitism essays
- Ku Klux Klan essays
- Miscegenation essays
- Racial Segregation essays
- I Have a Dream essays
- Martin Luther King essays
- Racial Inequality essays
- Black History Month essays
- Black People essays
- African American essays
- African American Culture essays
- American Values essays
- Asian American essays
- Chinese essays
- Ethnicity essays
- Ethnocentrism essays
- German essays
- Han Chinese essays
- Hispanic essays
- Identity essays
- Korean essays
- Mexican essays
- Nation essays
- Native American essays
- Race and Ethnicity essays
- White People essays
- Ageism essays
- Cultural Diversity essays
- Discrimination essays
- Diversity essays
- Gender Discrimination essays
- Multiculturalism essays
- Oppression essays
- Peer Pressure essays
- Racial Profiling essays
- Sexism essays
- Abortion essays
- Abuse essays
- Animal Rights essays
- Animal Testing essays
- Assault essays
- Bullying essays
- Controversial Issue essays
- Crash essays
- Cyber Bullying essays
- Feminism essays
- Human Rights essays
- Immigration essays
