Personal Reflection On Racism

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This semester was, for the most part, a reaffirmation of the set of beliefs that I came into the class with, but there were several things that changed. There is one that stands out especially well which is that not every agrees, even on issues that seem to be near-universally agreed on. Specifically, I was taken aback by the fact that Brett does not seem to think that racism as at all institutionalized – there seems to be a bipartisan understanding that there is racial inequality in the law, but evidently some disagree. I was surprised on two fronts – one, that he feels this way, and two, that I understand where he’s coming from. Though I still believe that there is institutionalized racism, because it’s pretty obvious statistically that the …show more content…

It was said that it is individualistic – that racism is not built into the law as it was in the Jim Crow era, but individuals, acting on their own beliefs, that create any racism that goes on within the law. I agree to some point – individual police officers, for example, are the ones who may act on racial biases. However, I disagree in that the law actively creates a situation that enables organic and inorganic barriers (socio-economic, unequal charges for the same drug, etc.) which essentially harbors racism. So while I was surprised to find myself agreeing (to some degree) that active racism is not a practice utilized by the legal system, I still continue to object – racism is effectively institutionalized. Even Shelby Steele, one author Brett has noted he agrees with, recognizes institutional inequality when comparing affirmative action policy results with the general population; “Too often the result of [affirmative action] on campuses (for example) has been a democracy of colors rather than of people, an artificial diversity that gives the appearance of an educational parity between black and white students that has not yet been achieved in reality” (Steele 1997,

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