Caution: An author is telling you different things when using these words:

·         civil rights

·         discrimination

·         segregation

The author means something even more if the author includes in the sentence such words as legal or by law or supreme law of the land (a reference to our Constitution).

 

Notice the Caution with segregation below.

Terms Used in the Column Headings of the Table or in the Textbook Pages

Always use the dictionary for any terms that you don’t know and that are in sections of the textbook that you use. These definitions are from Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, available at
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

The words defined on this page are:

caste

civil rights

discrimination

segregation

ghetto

incarceration

internment

Quarantine

caste

Main Entry: caste              Pronunciation: \ˈkast also ˈkäst\       Function: noun   
Etymology: Portuguese casta, literally, race, lineage, …             Date: 1613

1 : one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes
2 a : a division of society based on differences of wealth, inherited rank or privilege, profession, occupation, or race b : the position conferred by caste standing : prestige
3 : a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law, or religion

civil rights

Main Entry: civil rights   Function: noun plural   Date: 1658

: the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; especially : the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to United States citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress

 

discrimination

Main Entry: dis·crim·i·na·tion      Pronunciation: \dis-ˌkri-mə-ˈnā-shən\              Function: noun    Date: 1648

1 a : the act of discriminating b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently
2 : the quality or power of finely distinguishing
3 a : the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually b : prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment <racial discrimination>



Caution in reading the next definition: Words mean something. “Separation or isolation” are different from other forms of discrimination. Further, an author is telling you something with he or she adds these words to the words separation or isolation:

  • Enforced
  • Voluntary

 

Look at the examples of voluntary and enforced separation in chronological order:

·         Before the Civil War, whites had forced black slaves to worship in white churches.
Whites did not allow blacks to be separate. (For why, remember Nat Turner.)

·         After the Civil War and the end of slavery in 1865, the new freedmen want their own churches.
The blacks separated from the whites by their choice—thus a voluntary separation.

·         After the late 1880s in some areas, whites only let freedmen live in one section of the town.
The whites separated the blacks from them—thus an enforced separation.

 

segregation

Main Entry: seg·re·ga·tion                 Pronunciation: \ˌse-gri-ˈgā-shən\      Function: noun    Date: 1555

1 : the act or process of segregating : the state of being segregated
2 a : the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means b : the separation for special treatment or observation of individuals or items from a larger group <segregation of gifted children into accelerated classes

 

Related Words – with 4 of them defined below

loneliness, lonesomeness; vacuum; confinement, incarceration, internment, quarantine; retirement, withdrawal; ghettoization

ghetto

nounge-(ˌ)\

: a part of a city in which members of a particular group or race live usually in poor conditions

incarceration

1 :  to put in prison

2 :  to subject to confinement

 

internment

:  to confine or impound especially during a war <intern enemy aliens>

Quarantine

a :  a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or the transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease or pests