Racial segregation

Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race. It is characterized by the races' separation from each other when both are doing equal tasks, such as eating in a restaurant. However, segregation often allows close contact in hierarchical situations, such as when a person of one race is working as a servant for the member of another race. Segregation can involve spatial separation of the races, and/or the use of different institutions, such as schools by different races. See also: racism.

Black separatism

Parallel to the white separatism, there also exists, particularly in the United States, a similarly politically marginal black separatist movement. Black separatists generally hold that whites are racist oppressors of blacks and that there can be no remedy for black advancement within contemporary white-dominated society. They believe that the only solution for blacks is to break away and to create a separate, segregated black society.

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The more specific goals were historically in flux and varied from group to group.

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Martin Delaney in the 19th century and Marcus Garvey in the 1920s outspokenly called for African Americans to return to Africa, by moving to Liberia. The Nation of Islam calls, much more quietly, for an independent black state on American soil. Much more mainstream views within black separatism hold that blacks would be better served by exclusively black schools and businesses, as well as by black local politicians and police.

Related Topics:
Martin Delaney - Marcus Garvey - Africa - Liberia - Nation of Islam

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The mainstream black separatism is sharply opposed by anti-segregationists and integrationists within the African American community. They generally hold that blacks can and should advance within the larger American society and call on them to work to achieve that through personal improvement, educational achievement, business involvement, and political action. Martin Luther King, who led the political effort to overthrow segregation in 1960s, and Malcolm X, a contemporary black separatist from the Nation of Islam may personify the opposition between the two views.

Related Topics:
Martin Luther King - Malcolm X - Nation of Islam

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