Racism through the years has provided places around the world with a shameful past that even today, racial reconciliation is still only in its beginning phase. Legends such as Rosa Park, Martin Luther king, and Malcolm X sacrificed their own life daily to pave a brighter future for America. However there is only so much people can do to change the ways of the world, the rest is up to the moral ethics of everyday citizens. The novel, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock, makes me question society in the past and present. If today; years after racism was said to be over, two people can not move on from their horrid past, how is the rest of the world supposed to? Recent events have proven that racism still exists and will always exist …show more content…
Elizabeth is an African American scholarly student who was just trying to receive an education. Hazel was a white student who attacked Elizabeth with verbal abuse, as she made an attempt to attend the same school. Decades after the globalized picture was spread through America, Hazel the vicious white women apologized to the black martyr Elizabeth. Many questions arose about why she apologized but that should not really matter, the fact is she admitted to her wrongdoings that haunted her life. Elizabeth and Hazel in 1999 even took a photo smiling in the front of Little Rock High School. They were on a good start to rehabilitation until of course the world and people around them changed things. When the scrutiny began, Elizabeth felt that there was no way that Hazel could have done something so egregious, so casually (“ 'Elizabeth And Hazel ': The Legacy Of Little Rock”)" and started to question which eventually distanced the two. Both whites and blacks criticized their every move as they tried to fix the friendship they never had. It is hard to pull off decades of racial reconciliation especially with the public eye on watch. Elizabeth and Hazel tried, but the continued hate ruined their chances of ever having a friendship. Oprah, the television host and one of the most influential people invited them to her studio in 1999 and was said to have disapproved their …show more content…
They may not realize it, but they are wrong. In 2014 a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teen named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. This story swept America by its feet and brought on a new worldwide discussion of racism. In 2012 George Zimmerman fatally shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American high school student in Sanford Florida, he was also unarmed. In an article by CNN, I read about several psychologist who staged an experiment that brought out the truth in societies racial bias. “They showed people a photograph of two white men fighting, one unarmed and another holding a knife. Then they showed another photograph, this one of a white man with a knife fighting an unarmed African-American man. When they asked people to identify the man who was armed in the first picture, most people picked the right one. Yet when they were asked the same question about the second photo, most people -- black and white -- incorrectly said the black man had the knife(“The new threat: 'Racism without racists”).”There are six times more Black people incarcerated than whites and every day, and a black-name resume is 50 percent less likely to get responded to than a white-name resume” (“This one video shows how racism is real in America”). This ties into the reason why most blacks live in poverty and have low income jobs which later result in their kids
...So the question still remains, has American society really come that far in race relations and where do we go from here? Martin Espada answers the question by illustrating the intense level of racism experienced by a minority living in modern society. The civil rights movement did make positive changes for the African-American community on various different political and social levels. However, racism needs to be broken down to its smallest components, which are the individuals who support and teach racist attitudes. The family itself is the basic unity of society. Therefore, the only way racism will be completely eliminated on a social level is if it is stopped on the individual level. Treating racism as a social phenomenon will provide short-term solutions, but will not treat the virus of hatred perpetuating its continued existence in our society today.
Even though slavery was abolished Jim Crow laws were made illegal years ago, racism is still not gone, and this is Bonilla-Silva’s central argument in his book, “Racism Without Racists.” While racist practices are not as overt nowadays, the covert, institutionalized ways of today’s new racism are just as discriminatory, he argues. One particular sentence that stood out that sums up the first part of his argument is “that the main problem nowadays is not the folks with hoods, but the folks dressed in suits.” Because of this switch to a more covert way of discriminating against people of color, white Americans have become color-blind to racism. In turn, the country is now home to “racism without racists,” which is the second part of the author’s argument. Because racism has become so internalized in our institutions, it can sometimes be hard to recognize, or at least admit to, the discrimination that is so prevalent in the U.S. Because whites either don’t recognize or admit to this racism, they claim that they don’t see color, and that any inequalities that are at play are due to the minorities not working hard enough in our meritocracy.
Although the United States have come a long way from slavery, we still have a long way to go where people can begin to feel no prejudices, which will probably never happen. Unfortunately, racism still exist and is still a major issue in culture and politics, it has taken a back seat to intellect and
For example, when slavery was ended and the slaves were emancipated, that did not end the connotation of racism in America. In order not to look like the slaves, the white farmers started to wear wool hats instead of their straw hats (107). This part in particular struck me as being exceptionally ridiculous. It is proof that the concept of racism was digging deeper and going much further than it had been even in the age of slavery. Now that the slaves were free, the American people came up with more excuses to discriminate against them. Jim Crow laws were put into place in the sixties, and they caused segregation and discrimination to become a common theme in America. African Americans could not attend school with the whites, nor could they live in neighborhoods or houses near the whites. This became another problem when social security came into play. According to the Social Security Board, “the number of Negroes to whom aid was granted… was low in proportion to the number who needed assistance” (178). Another atrocity of discrimination was associated with the housing segregation. The “redline” meant the “identifying of a neighborhood for unfavorable treatment” (182). The houses that were in the “redline” so to speak, went to people of a different race, such as the African Americans, or the Irish. Even today, African Americans are discriminated against in jobs. If they don’t want to work at backbreaking jobs, they are considered lazy, whereas they will be discriminated against and torn down if they do want the jobs
Do you find yourself finding similarities between characters when reading books? Many authors have the same writing style. Consequently, characters of different books or plays may have similar characteristics and may be very similar. Comparing Zeena From, Ethan Frome’s wife, from the novel Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton, and Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, from the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller relate through their characteristics and relationships which demonstrates how the two stories are alike.
Despite all these accepted images of successful black people "selling" the idea that the color of a person's skin is irrelevant, racism still exists and will forever exist in America. It is a never-ending phenomenon that is ingrained in American life. Racism is America, just as America is built around the idea of racism. As the civil rights activist and scholar Derrick Bell would say, "Racism is an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society." He proclaims that no matter what blacks do to better their status, they are doomed to fail as long as the majority of whites do not see t...
Since the start of the Civil War, the United States has slowly been winning the uphill battle for racial equality. It is easy to look at authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Brent Staples and wonder why there are problems with racist behaviors in our country when we seemingly have come so far. While Staples blames the system for this and not the people doing the acts, Hurston does not condemn anyone, but the implies black community turns themselves into victims. Although there are things that are better ignored than attacked, systematic racism cannot be overcome without calling attention to it.
America has had a long history of racism. This fact is more easily understood if racism is understood for what it really is. It is more than just personal hatred. Racism is the “belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics” (What is Racism). The 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the American society. Nevertheless, racism still exists owing to the truth that it is still impossible to persuade the hearts of mankind in terms of racism, which leads to many people wondering how and when black and white racism will end in America. Many solutions have been suggested, and one of the various solutions is black and white interracial relationships. Such relationships have recently been successful in the 21st century, which leads us to the definitive question: can interracial relationships help reduce black and white racism in the 21st century?
Surprisingly, many could argue that racism doesn’t exist and a large portion of white America instinctively reads black demands as cases of cynical, special pleading.
Is people going to forget what happen in Ferguson? How about George Zimmerman being proven not guilty? Or that Eric Garner was screaming “ I can’t breathe” before his death? There are lists of African Americans all over the world who were not given the justice that they deserved. In todays, news African Americans are being treated unfairly compared to any other demographic groups. America is the greatest country in the world, but it is difficult to believe that being in the 21st century racism still does exist. For instance, when it was time to remove the confederate flag, some demographic groups had a hard time letting go. People who argue that “blue lives matter,” which states that police are justified when using force and being unfair. These reasons are not justifiable enough to kill someone. Black Lives Matter alleges that police target and use
When we look at the issue of racism from a politically correct, nineties perspective, evidence of the oppression of black people may be obscured by the ways in which our society deals with the inequalities that still exist. There are no apparent laws that prohibit or limit opportunities for blacks in our society today, yet there is a sense that all things are not fair and equal. How can we acknowledge or just simply note how past ideologies are still perpetuated in our society today? We can examine conditions of the present day in consideration of events in the past, and draw correlations between old and modern modes of thinking. Attitudes of racism within the institutions of education, employment and government are less blatant now than in the day of Frederick Douglass, none the less, these attitudes prevail.
Presently racism in the U.S. is presented through the media’s portrayal of the shooting of African Americans by police officers. This racism can be found in the racial bias that is obvious in media in the present day. In the video “Terence Crutcher’s Police Shooting & Racial Bias in America” by The Daily Show, Trevor Noah mentions that we are “ living in a society where racial divisions are so deeply baked into every part of society that we don’t even notice them anymore” (The Daily Show). By stating this Noah is showing that the racial bias that is shown in many news interviews and media forms is often overlooked and quite often already present. Another example of the racial bias that is set in most Americans can be found in the video “A White Audience is Left Speechless Racism in America” when a lady asks the audience to stand up if they would want to be treated the way African Americans are treated in society. The lady responds to her audiences lack of standing by stating the obvious fact they they are aware of the situation and they do not want that to happen to them, then she asks why they “are so willing to accept it or allow it to happen to others” (YouTube). This shows the fact that people are aware of the way that African Americans are being treated because of racial bias however because the way they are treated is so normalized people aren’t
People in America are not all seen as equal, and this is especially true when it comes to people of color. According to “Theories and Constructs of Race” by Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe: “The continuous racial targeting of people of color and the privileging of whites, along with the misinformation about race passed along from one generation to the next and reinforced through the media, has imbued people of all races with a distorted sense of personal and group identity” (Holtzman and Sharpe 604). This quote means that people of color are often targeted in a negative way, which shows that racism and discrimination is something that can be passed down or learned from the media. Today, there are people who still think minorities are inferior based on the color of their skin. “Theories and Constructs of Race” also mentions how from an early age, minorities become the target for racism, blame, and overall hatred. According to “Theories and Constructs of Race” by Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe: “The myth of racial inferiority and superiority has been upheld not only by physical violence and discriminatory policies but also by the psychological violence conveyed through stereotyping and racist messaging” (Holtzman and Sharpe 604). This quote means that minorities are constantly targeted both physically and psychologically, which shows that inequality is a “monster” due to the damage it causes to individuals on multiple levels. Racism can also lead to internalized racism, which causes individuals to adapt a self-deprecating attitude and engage in self-destructive behavior. Furthermore, hate, racism, and discrimination often result from people not understanding that not everyone is offered the same opportunities due to the lack of
We have a long history of racism in America that has been structured to favor White people. Structural racism can be defined as, “a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies the dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time”(Structural Racism, 2004,p. 11). Overt racism became illegal during The Civil Rights Movement that took place between 1954-1968 (Tuck, 2015). Although society seemed to be heading toward a more socially acceptable society, the movement enabled white people to blame the struggles black face as a character flaw. White people will believe that black people have a lot of problems because their culture is bad or they have bad values. The message they are reinforcing is that being black is inferior, and this is an example of structural racism operates. Structural racism is a system of forces that keeps people of color in a permanent second-class status, and it is the foundation of racism in our society. Society is structured in a way where the hierarchy of white people oppresses Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, etc and has
The world has lived through generations of racism and racial profiling. After the days of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Civil Rights Movement, the American people thought they had passed the days of hatred and discrimination. Although Americans think that they live in a non-racist society, minorities today still live in the chains of oppression and prejudice through sports, schools, and social media.