The segregation in United States and Nazi Germany.

By Jocelyn Zavando

As we study Martin Luther King’s life and his constant struggle against racial segregation till his death, I cannot leave aside a parallel between laws and life styles that prevailed in 1870 and 1970 in EEUU and the Nazi Germany. Even though it was not the same magnitude, they had very similar characteristics. The following reflection will develop the characteristics in which both states seem, to finish with a review about it.

Historically after the Civil War (1861-1865), between the southern and northern United States, as a consequence of the abolition of slavery, the southern part of The United States loses this war and make certain laws to discriminate against black people (Jim Crow). “As states could not eliminate the rights of blacks due guaranteed by the constitution, we used the term "segregation" as the concept of “Separated But Equal””[i], the idea was that while the opportunities offered to both races were equal, segregation was legal. For this reason black people suffered of social unequally supported by the law.   They had restaurants, hospitals, schools completely separated from White people, but obviously less quality and less resources. African Americans could not sit on buses, they had to go at the back and sit only if there was a sit available, they did not have the same job opportunities as White people had for this reason they were poor.

 Although they had the "freedom" to walk through the city unlike the Jews in Germany, who lived in ghettos, concentration camps, locked in places where conditions were really poor and where thousands of Jews were dying every day in the gas chambers and furnaces, as well as receiving bales. I can make a parallel between them as in both Nazi Germany and and south of U.S., human rights were not respected and there was an unfounded hatred that breeds them. Those who were in power considered themselves different, and there was discrimination and prejudice, racism and xenophobia

If it is impossible to compare the number of deaths and cruelty that existed during the Second World War with the issue in the southern states of the U.S who also went through died in white people’s hands, hundreds of black children killed because of the hatred that both races had.

There was suffering in both cases and all for one reason, a constant hatred to differences, believing that because someone is white or albino is pure, or by having a clean blood without miscegenation makes you superior .But where such hatred comes from?. I think that prejudices are the most important part in this differences that society make, creating hate to these differences  and at the same time, “biases operate primarily through a stereotyped thinking, using fixed and inflexible categories”[ii], for example in the case of World War II, one of Hitler’s foundations was that the jew had taken away the economical power of Germany in the case of black people it begins with slavery and moves on till after World War I, when  “black people were used to break strikes by white workers of northern that fueled racism and division between working class”[iii]. Ultimately, the prejudice created by the stereotypes made discrimination and racism bigger in our society.

Although, the African American race segregation  doesn’t exist anymore in the United states, thanks to the constant struggle given by Martin Luther King, I found very interesting that this segregation was ended in the recent years, even after the World War II(1939-1945) when the world was horrified by the terrible things that happened: “supposedly this catastrophe shook global awareness and encouraged the international community to recognize the sins of racist ideologies and engage in the cause for racial equality[iv]”.  Even in 1963 in Birmingham they were passing through one of the worst happens where men, women, and children were overwhelmed by the power of the police, who beat, attack with dogs and imprison them, without thinking about sex or age in a peaceful protest for equal rights for blacks and whites people. That opportunity the United States completely forgot the disaster experienced in World War II.

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[1] http://05racismo.blogspot.com/2009/04/126-la-segregacion-racial-de-los-negros.html

[1] Giddens, Anthony. Etnicidad y Raza. Biblioteca virtual de Ciencias Sociales. (http://www.cholonautas.edu.pe/modulo/upload/Giddens%20cap9.pdf)

[1] http://05racismo.blogspot.com/2009/04/126-la-segregacion-racial-de-los-negros.html

[1] Kymlicka, Will. Las Odiseas Multiculturales: Las nuevas políticas internacionales de la diversidad. Editorial Paidós