The Role Of Racism And Sexism In Society Today

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One of the phrases used to describe America is, “The land of the free”. However, is there truly freedom and equality for all? Tensions still appear between minority groups and the privileged society as the minorities struggle to gain equal access to the freedoms and opportunities of others. Modern racism and sexism still exist as barriers preventing people from fully integrating into a free and equal society. The following examines issues of institutionalized racism and sexism to demonstrate inequalities still prevalent in society today. Many people believe that racism is in a downward trend and no longer presents itself as an issue. However, while overt racism may no longer be apart of modern culture, a more subtle and ambiguous form of racism has taken its place “ Modern racism, a subtle form of prejudice that tends to surface when it is safe, socially acceptable, or easy to rationalize”(Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2013: p156). This can be seen when looking online at sites such as USnews.com, which gives statistics such as “A black man is three …show more content…

This is seen in several forms whether between males and females, straight people and homosexuals, or other forms of sexual identity that is outside the societal norm. A very recent example of this is seen in the media on people.com when a voice record of Republican nominee Donald Trump was released with verbiage of him talking quite degradingly about women (Petit, 2016). This form of sexism is known as ambivalent sexism “Ambivalent sexism consists of two elements: hostile sexism, characterized by negative, resentful feelings about women’s abilities, value, and ability to challenge men’s power” (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2013: p167). For many, the blatant forms of sexism may be removed from society, but there is still a glass celling many people run into when it comes to their career progress or people’s perceptions of role

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