The United States of America has come a long way on the topic of racial equality. Our nation started with the problem of slavery and a civil war based on the issue of abolishing slavery. Next after slavery was abolished, the United States had an extended time of unquality of colors. Jim Crow Laws and racial segregation tried to keep minorities of color as the “lesser” of society. African-Americans weren’t allowed the same education and opportunities as White citizens had. Different schools, bathrooms, drinking fountains, restaurants, and seats on the public bus all included ways that African-Americans were being treated unjustly. But, through all the immoral and unjust treating of the African-Americans, we see progress and sheer determination
We see abolitionists, underground railway members, public speakers, politicians, athletes, and many more who helped pave the way to equality. Figures like Harriet Tubman, Elijah Lovejoy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Jackie Robinson all were influential in a time where segregation and racism were the usual. The list doesn’t end there however, thousands participated in their own different time and way to pave the way to equality. Then, equality seemed to finally be achieved in 2008. In 2008 our nation’s people elected the first ever African-American president, Barack Obama. Surely, this seemed like the pinnacle of equality for all in a nation that stands for freedom and justice. There didn’t seem a better way to show that all men were created equal, then by having a government and a country run by an African-American. The nation’s minorities, who had gone hundreds of years facing social injustice, rejoiced with the election of President Obama. But after eight short years, among disbelief, racial equality seems to have sprinted in the opposite
Gladwell explains this contradiction in his podcast Revisionist History: The Lady Vanishes (2016). In this podcast, Gladwell gives several examples of how society in the past has shown progress, and achieved something spectacular. The first example he shows Elizabeth Thompson, a British painter. Thompson was an artist in a time when women weren’t really understood and acknowledged to be gifted artists. Above all disbelief, Elizabeth Thompson’s painting “Role Call”, was accepted into Britain’s most prestigious art show. This progress for women’s rights in Great Britain seemed to be a milestone. But, Gladwell goes on to explain the contradiction that we see in Britain with Elizabeth Thompson and the same contradiction we see in 2008 with the election of President Obama. After what seemed to be an open door for women’s rights as capable artists in the most prestigious gallery in Britain, Elizabeth Thompson fell off the face of the map as an artist. She was no longer recognized as someone of importance and all hope of her achieving more on the behalf of woman slowly disappeared. Gladwell even discusses how her own husband didn’t even mention anything about her in his
Since the election of President Barrack Obama in 2008, many people have started to believe that America is beyond racial inequalities - this is not the reality. Rather, we, as a society, chose to see only what we want to see. Discrimination is still rampant in our nation. Michelle Alexander explains that since the Jim Crow laws were abolished, new forms of racial caste systems have taken their place. Our society and criminal justice system claim to be colorblind, but this is not the actuality. Michelle Alexander explains:
In 1964, Linda Brown along with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) challenged the Separate but Equal doctrine, and won (Askew). Discriminatory laws that lasted for 99 years, starting with the Black Codes, moving to the Louisiana Separate Car Act and Plessy v. Ferguson, to everyday laws, finally became overturned. They permanently hindered a large group of people as seen by literacy rates, household income, and household ownership, but those numbers became more equal as time went on. Unfortunately, due to humanities extreme ignorance, we don’t see these issues recurring today. People discriminate against homosexuals, for example, and they don’t get equal rights. People must look to the past and use the knowledge of their mistakes to never make those same mistakes again.
The election of Barack Obama to the presidency was a fundamental symbol of unity for all races in America. It highlighted the Americans’ willingness to traverse racial boundaries. In the article, there was a comment by an African American woman who stated, “As an American citizen, I am proud that this country has elected a bi-racial president” showing renewed hope in the issue of racism.” There was also a comment by a white female American citizen who stated, “I was deeply moved by his acceptance speech and I 'm proud of our country for finally getting (at least somewhat) past the race issue” highlighting elation at the thought of having a black president. It is clear that the election of Barack Obama acted as a unifying factor for both the white and the black communities as a whole. The movement tends to be seen as a stride towards the end of
1. What is the difference between a. and a. Inequality became instrumental in privileging white society early in the creation of American society. The white society disadvantaged American Indians by taking their land and established a system of rights fixed in the principle that equality in society depended on the inequality of the Indians. This means that for white society to become privileged, they must deprive the American Indians of what was theirs to begin with. Different institutions such as the social institution, political, economical, and education have all been affected by race.
Affirmative action was created to allow minorities to have more opportunities in the workforce and in education. It still remains to be a debate whether affirmative action should be a necessary route even though we have made progress towards greater equality. The argument over Affirmative action has been going on for some time with two opposing sides. There is one side who finds Affirmative action as an opportunity to the less fortunate; those who are against have the belief that it promotes less qualified individuals rather than a person own merit.
Racism has been around since the dawn of human existence, coming in many forms and effecting all types of people. In the twenty-first century, racism still plays a part in ever society on the plant. But instead of overt racism people find different ways to disadvantage certain groups. The current American culture views overt racism as unfair, rude, and wrong, but that does not stop people from using unconscious racism. Unconscious racism is when the offender disadvantages another based on race without being out right racist to the person. From not giving a job to a person based on the color of their skin to calling out the president for not being born in the country, racism effects people at all status levels. Starting when the first settlers arrived to internment camps to modern day unconscious racism, racism has token many forms and changes according to the time. The key factors that help unconscious racism thrive in our society are the changes to the policy that determine what is a racist act, the formations of stereotype through the concentration of ethnic groups population, and the negative effects of Affirmative action all played a part.
Read Chapter 3 Ethnicity: p. 31-47. Familiarize yourself with the vocabulary for Chapter 3 and use these words in your discussion board and in your writing.
Why does racism continue to take place in the United States today? According to the sociology textbook Our Social World, minority groups are ones that differ from the dominant group, which is why they have less power, fewer privileges, and are discriminated against. The textbook also explains how there are numerous ways for dominant and minority groups to interact. Genocide is the killing of the minority group by the dominant group, while pluralism is the complete opposite whereas different ethnic or racial groups accept one another’s beliefs and values, and manage to respect each other. Multiple strategies to cope with prejudice, discrimination, and racism are used by minority groups to deal with their statuses: passing (blending in with dominant groups), acceptance, avoidance, and aggression. In America, racism against minority groups has improved, but is nowhere near ending. To determine people’s opinions on racism and why it exists, I
Over the past four-hundred plus years, racism has plagued the history of American society. The idea that one person is inherently better than another because of the color of their skin has always been present from our founding to today. During the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1900’s, racism was repeatedly being dealt blows by those brave enough to stand up for the rights they felt belonged to citizens of all shapes and colors. One important event that led to progress for people of color was the desegregation of the schooling systems. From young girls walking into all-white schools to black men being selected to participate in different academies, the Civil Rights movement to desegregate schools was influential in how progress
We can see that African Americans were still struggling for equality even after the emancipation and the abolishment of slavery. They still did not get the equal rights and opportunities compared to whites. This had been reflected in the first essay in Du Bois’s book with a title Of Our Spiritual Strivings that indicates blacks were denied the opportunity that were available to the whites even after emancipation. During the days of Jim Crow, people of color received unfair treatment from almost all aspects of their lives. At that time, not all people were brave enough to express and speak up their desire for transformation. Two most influential black leaders that were known to have the courage to speak up their beliefs in social equality were
After writing my newspaper article on the NAACP, I realized that the African American community needed a renewed sense of belonging, like all the other communities have in this day in age. This sense of being is better known as equality. Webster’s dictionary defines equality as having the same rights, social status and opportunities as others. The African American community has yet to reach a plateau were they are seen as equals. Equalities for African Americans are still a foreign subject, but hopefully will progress in the future.
Racism in the United States made it very tough on multiple races. It was hard for people that weren’t white to live out there dreams or to make a living. Racism had an affect politically and in society. There were three races that dealt with racism. These races were African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. When people hear the world racism they immediately think African Americans and slavery. Although blacks probably had it a lot worse then most races there were still some other races that were not treated equally. Racism has always been around and it is still around today. It is something that will never go away. After the Civil War, racism in the south rose higher than it ever had before.
Racism can take on many forms that plague the brain with irrationality that affects an individual’s thoughts and actions. Racism can be a physical form, through an external action, or can branch off into unethical thoughts. This is more known to be a discriminative thought, judging a person based on impressions. This social problem can also be ignored by the oblivious persons of the crowd. Many individuals speak out about how racial tension is long gone and forever forgotten ever since the first African-American was elected to be president in 2008, but this can be evidently proven false. Racial tension is still here to target the minorities in the forms of affirmative action and Ferguson conflicts.
Broadly speaking, race is seen or is assumed to be a biologically driven set of boundaries that group and categorize people according to phenotypical similarities (e.g. skin color) (Pinderhughes, 1989; Root, 1998). The categorical classification of race can be traced back to the 16th century Linnaen system of human “races” where each race was believed to be of a distinct type or subspecies that included separate gene pools (Omi & Winant, 1994; Spickard, 1992; Smedley & Smedley, 2005). Race in the U.S. initially began as a general categorizing term, interchangeable with such terms as “type” or “species”. Over time, race began to morph into a term specifically referring to groups of people living in North America (i.e. European “Whites”, Native American “Indians”, and African “Negroes”). Race represented a new way to illustrate human difference as well as a way to socially structure society (Smedley & Smedley, 2005).
Civil Rights activities are believed to have led to the Affirmative Action being pioneered in the United States. The sixties era was full of Civil Rights movements and the search for minority equality. In 1961 President John Kennedy issued an executive order for the government to employ more minorities. This was the Committee on Equal Opportunity’ task to administer. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Trying to create equality President Johnson then unintentionally created reverse discrimination. In 1969 President Nixon passed the Philadelphia Order. This order was to ensure equal opportunity hiring in the federal projects that required construction workers. In 1978 the Supreme Court placed boundaries on affirmative action to ensure while providing opportunity for minorities it was not at the expense of the majority in the landmark case of Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke. In 1980 the Supreme Court again ruled that 15 percent of government contracts be held for minority contracts and that this was perfectly constitutional.