Institutional Racism And Ethnicity In The United States

955 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Immigration effects on latinos essay

Race refers to a classification of human beings according to their physical characters, ancestral and genetic factors, but it is more connected to the feeling of superiority of one race to others concerning intelligence and behavior. Ethnicity is the distinguishing cultural identifier that categorizes people according to their origin, cultural factors and sharing of beliefs and languages. Racism and ethnicity give rise to two groups of the people with differences that are the minority group, dominant group and subordinate group (Seidman, 2004). Racism, however, asserts a rank of a superiority of one race over another or others, while seeking to dominate other races through the use of policies, languages, complex systems of beliefs and behaviors. Racism stretches wide across many lines ranging from a personal and individual level to corporate and institutional levels and even religious practices and doctrines. In the United States of America, where in times past, has been branded as “…the land of the free…” races of all kinds try to thrive at least comfortably in a population that is dominated by whites, where people of color are looked at as inferior. The proof of the latter point is shown daily all throughout society in ways that I shall describe in this paper. In …show more content…

white Americans charging high taxes to black America’s. It refers to how racial distinction has organized policies, judicial and economic institutions. The white Americans produce differences among other races, defining what non-white Americans can and cannot do, continuing to strive for inequality in all other races. The statistics from the 1995 Glass Ceiling Commission show that white men not only dominate 43% of the workforce but also control the upper-level executive management by 95% in American industry. There is no way around seeing that this is unbalanced and

Show More
Related

  • Tax Laws In Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's Racism Without Racists

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    If nothing else, Bonilla-Silva has shown that racism may not be completely eradicated from society, but its structure can change based on political and social events. Racism in the United States today is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. One would be hard pressed to find a self-proclaimed racist, however, upon further inspection, most people harbor more racist beliefs than they are willing to admit. If tolerance and equality are the goals of racial education, book such as this are partially effective. By identifying some of the main ways that colorblind racism is shown, this book can generate discussions on racial inequality, as it exists in America today. However, the biased methodology and result reports do not encourage tolerance of different

    Read More

  • Racism and Discrimination in the US

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    “…Everybody jumped on him, and beat him senseless… Everybody was hitting him or kicking him. One guy was kicking at his spine. Another guy was hitting him on the side of his face… he was unconscious. He was bleeding. Everybody had blood on their forearms. We ran back up the hill laughing… He should have died… He lost so much blood he turned white. He got what he deserved…” (Ridgeway 167). The skinheads who were beating this man up had no reason to do so except for the fact that he was Mexican. Racism in this day and age is still as big of a problem as it was in the past, and as long as hate groups are still around to promote violence, society is never going to grow to love one another.

    Read More

  • Institutional Racism in the United States

    1700 Words  | 4 Pages

    The history of the United States is one of duality.  In the words of the

    Read More

  • Racism and White Privilege in the Education System

    3421 Words  | 7 Pages

    Many people in the United States society believe that people of all cultures, races, and ethnicities are now on an even playing field. People with this belief support their logic with the argument that since equal rights for people of color and women have been required by law for some time now, we are all inherently as equal as claimed in the Declaration of Independence. Many believe that race is no longer an issue, a viewpoint frequently referred to as color-blindness. National polling data indicated that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists. (Gallagher, 96) Color-blindness allows a white person to define himself or herself as politically and racially tolerant and then proclaim their adherence to a belief system that does not see or judge individuals by the “color of their skin.” (Gallagher, 98) Many Caucasians in particular are of the opinion that because they listen to hip-hop or cheer for their favorite black, professional sports player that they are not racist. Still others believe that because they have a black president, we see black people in the commercial of products we consume, or enjoy television shows with black people that they are actually acknowledging race. In order to examine and dismantle this series of misconceptions, we will turn to the work of various scholars of social justice and privilege, including Peggy McIntosh, Patricia Hinchey and Johnathon Kozol as well as the story of Patricia J Williams. Through a careful examination of these works with the support of some key statistics, it is the goal of this paper to demonstrate the existence of a privileged and unprivileged America, despite the color-blindness many may profess to have integrated into their p...

    Read More

  • Racism In America

    1597 Words  | 4 Pages

    Racism (n): the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other race (Wordnet search, 1), a controversial topic in today’s society, a subject that many people try to sweep under the rug, but yet a detrimental problem that has been present in America since the colonial era. Will this dilemma come to a halt? Can all Americans see each other as equals despite their skin color and nationality; and what role has it played in past generations versus today’s generations and how will it affect our future? Has this on going way of thinking gotten better or worse? These are questions raised when many think about the subject; especially members of American ethnic groups and backgrounds, because most have dealt with racial discrimination in their life time.

    Read More

  • Race: Biological or Cultural?

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through research of DNA samples, scientists have been able to declare that race is not biologically constructed due to the similarities between human genes. Nevertheless, in reality, people still emphasized on biological aspects such as skin color, or hair texture to categorize others into different races. This in turn, denied the true identity of race, which it is culturally constructed. Ethnicity, by definition is also culturally constructed, therefore it greatly resemble race. There is no real clear line to distinct the two.

    Read More

  • Racial Bias and Institutional Racism

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year old African American boy who was murdered in Money, Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Since he was from the north, he did not know that he was not allowed to talk to a white woman in the south. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till's great uncle’s house. They took the boy away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river. Roy and Milam were acquitted of murder because of the all-white, all-male Mississippi jury. At the same time, Sheriff Strider booked Levi "Too Tight" Collins and Henry Lee Loggins into the Charleston, Mississippi jail to keep them from testifying. Both were black employees of Leslie Milam, J. W.'s brother, in whose shed Till was beaten. Therefore, racial bias effects jurors’ ability to give an impartial trial.

    Read More

  • Race: biological or cultural

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Race, in the common understanding, draws upon differences not only of skin color and physical attributes but also of language, nationality, and religion. Race categories are often used as ethnic intensifiers, with the aim of justifying the exploitation of one group by another. Race is an idea that has become so fixed in American society that there is no room for open-mindedness when challenging the idea of racial categories. Over the years there has been a drastic change with the way the term "race" is used by scientists. Essentially, there is a major difference between the biological and sociological views of race.

    Read More

  • Race And Race Relations

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    The United States of America was formed on the basis of freedom for all, but the definition of “all” is very arbitrary. Racial adversity has been an ongoing factor throughout the United States’ history. However, from 1877 to the present, there have been many strides when trying to tackle this problem, although these strides were not always in the right direction. All the books read throughout this course present the progression of race and race relations over the course of America’s history.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Racial Inequality In Society

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    Firstly, ethnicity is a concept referring to a shared culture and way of life. This can be reflected in language, religion, material culture such as clothing and food, and cultural products such as music and art. Ethnicity is often a major source of social cohesion and social conflict. Secondly, racism can be defined as a system of dominance, power and privilege based on racial group designations; rooted in the historical oppression of a group defined or perceived by dominant-group members as inferior, deviant or undesirable; occurring in circumstances where members of the dominant group create or accept their societal privilege by maintaining structures, ideology, values, and behaviours that have the intent or effect of leaving non-dominant group members relatively excluded from power, esteem, status and equal access to societal resources. Harrell, 2000, p. 78.

    Read More

  • Race As A Social Construct

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.

    Read More

  • Racism in America

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism is one of the most revolting things within the vicinity of humanity. Many times it haunts our past, degrading our future. However, a good fraction o...

    Read More

  • The Development of Racism

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racism can be defined as "any set of beliefs, which classifies humanity into distinct collectives, defined in terms of natural and/or cultural attributes, and ranks these attributes in a hierarchy of superiority and inferiority" (Blum 5). It can be directly linked to the past and still, centuries later, serves as a painful reminder that race continues to be one of the "sharpest and deepest divisions in American life" (Loewen 138). What are the causes of racism? How did it develop historically? In order to answer those complex questions, I plan to examine the conditions of America's history, from colonialism to present day society.

    Read More

  • Racism in America - Past and Present

    2883 Words  | 6 Pages

    Racist and racism are provocative words in American society. To some, they become curse words. They are descriptive words of reality that cannot be denied. Some people believe that race is the primary determinant of human abilities and capacities and behave as if racial differences produce inherent superiorities. People of color are often injured by these judgements and actions whether they are directly or indirectly racist. Just as individuals can act in racist ways, so can institutions. Institutions can be overtly or inherently racist. Institutions can also injure people. The outcome is nonetheless racist, if not intentional (Randall).

    Read More

  • Race And Ethnicity Essay

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    Race and ethnicity are two terms that are constantly used in today’s society. Understanding these terms can help people to recognize that color of skin or color of hair does not define a person. These terms connect with history, social interaction, and the overall make up of a person. However America is constantly obsessed with labeling people by the way that they look or the way that they act. America seems to encourage the terms race and ethnicity and continue to divide people into categories. It is interesting to comprehend these terms because they are not going to disappear any time soon. Race and ethnicity are apart of America’s history and will be a part of the future.

    Read More

More about Institutional Racism And Ethnicity In The United States

Open Document