Jim Crow Blog Post

Maile Danilchik

1/17/18

IB Language and Literature

Prompt: How and where do you see Jim Crow laws and instances of racial segregation at play in our society?

Even with the elimination of the Jim Crow Laws by the United States Congress in 1965, the stigma and mindset that were imprinted on society still remained. In modern times, we view the Jim Crow Laws and legalized physical racial segregation as a mark on American history that has been left in the past. However, with more educated discussion of race popularized in today’s media, remnants of Jim Crow psyche exist even in contemporary times. For example, the American modelling industry has been under scrutiny for their lack of representation of colored and darker skinned models. Marcia Mitchell, a prominent model from Massachusetts described her own struggles as an African-American woman in a biased business. In an article for Model’s Alliance, and activist group for women in the fashion industry, she said she was denied a modelling job because an agent told her, “We’re not doing black girls right now.” Not only does this show blatant racial discrimination in a business setting but it carries the effect forward. With African-American women being denied job opportunities because of their race, especially in the beauty industry, this lowers the amount of that demographic seen in popular media and culture. Therefore, young African-American women as a whole community are not thoroughly represented as other races. Not only are these actions stopping African-Americans from getting the same jobs as white people, but they also imply that having a dark complexion is not considered beautiful because there are being excluded from frequently circulated media. This is a demonstration of how latent racism from Jim Crow Laws still prevent African-Americans from opportunities and representation in contemporary society.

Word Count: 271

Works Cited:

“The Fashion Industry’s Race Problem: Models Of Color Rarely Get Hired (2013)”, ThinkProgress. https://thinkprogress.org/the-fashion-industrys-race-problem-models-of-color-rarely-get-hired-d00d3ca36b1/. Accessed 17 Jan. 2018.