The Real Fault INTRODUCTION: “On his show Monday night, Sean Hannity spoke with Ann Coulter about the racism and the narrative she said the media is pushing in order to avoid discussing difficult issues. Everyone would be better off without “white guilt,” Coulter argued — decrying that all liberals want to talk about is racism.Rattling off a list of foreign policy concerns, Hannity noted that Democrats aren’t talking about any of those issues, “because all they can do is accuse Republicans of racism.” We’ve gotten to a point where everything is deemed racist, he and Coulter agreed. At that point, he aired a montage of “Democrats playing the issue hard.” These “tactics,” Hannity said — citing “class warfare,” “scaring granny” and the “race card” — are proving effective to a certain extent” (Vamburker). In Age of White Guilt, Shelby Steele writes to both whites and blacks to express concern and shed light on the injustices he feels African-Americans are placing on whites. Steele’s purpose of his essay is to address White Guilt, which he defines as “...not a personal sense of remorse over past wrongs. White guilt is literally a vacuum of moral authority in matters of race, equality, and opportunity that comes from the association of mere white skin with America’s historical racism”(Steele 39). Steele goes in depth about the deindividuation of blacks and the conformity that he feels is happening throughout the black community as a result. Throughout the essay, Steele appeals to ethos by not only providing facts to support his claim, he also uses his first hand account, detached from the emotion, to build his credibility. Many of Steele’s points are valid and give the audience food for thought, but at the same time most of his argumen... ... middle of paper ... ...t their is a power in numbers, yet we are taught from a young age that the purpose in life is to find who we are and to be proud of ourselves. How can we fulfill this goal if we don’t ever take a step away from the group and focus on ourselves? It is important for one to know when the time to conform is, and when it is time to be oneself and have the power within be the power that guides. Works Cited Andre, Claire, Tim Mazur, and Manuel Valesquez. "Affirmative Action: Twenty-five Years of Controversy." Santa Clara University. Santa Clara University, 03 Mar. 2010. Web. 6 May 2014. Smith, Alexander T. Black Anxiety, White Guilt, and the Politics of Status Frustration. Post Road West: Greenwood, 1997. Print. Vamburkar, Meenal. "Ann Coulter Rails Against Liberals’ Race-Baiting ‘White Guilt’ Narrative On Hannity." Mediaite. Mediaite, 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
For a moment be any black person, anywhere, and you will feel waves of hopelessness” is a profound notion that highlights William Grier and Price Cobbs’ work in Black Rage. With astonishing information backed with real case studies, from previous black patients, they explore the terrain of the black experience in America. The unearthing critique of America they developed in the late sixties remains relevant in today’s turbulent times. Grier and Cobbs (GC) paint a very valid picture of black rage from its inception to its impact in the lives of black people.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
Gary Gerstle attempts to reinterpret twentieth-century American history in light of the power of race (and to a much lesser extent, or even not at all, class and gender). The American Crucible conceptualizes American liberals as well as whiteness scholars’ synthetic historiographical interpretations on mainstream Americanism like Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt- Theodore Roosevelt especially, due the author’s attention to the meaning of the liberal state and liberalism. However, above all that, Gerstle argues that inherent tensions between two powerful types of nationalism- racial and civic- have decisively shaped American history, policy-making and political debates in the twentieth
...sm: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler Anti-Black Ideology.” Pp. 15-44 in Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, edited by S.A. Tuch and J. Marten. Greenwood, CT: Praeger.
Discrimination is still a chronic global issue, and drastic inequalities still exist at the present time. Thus, the Affirmative Action Law is an important tool to many minorities most especially to women, and people of color, for the reason that this program provides an equality on educational, and professional opportunities for every qualified individual living in the United States. Without this program, a higher education would have been impossible for a “minority students” to attain. Additionally, without the Affirmative Action, a fair opportunity to have a higher-level career...
---. “White Man’s Guilt.” 1995 James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998: 722-727.
In Michelle Alexander’s article The New Jim Crow, she addresses the importance of educating people on the harsh reality of racial caste in America. As a civil rights lawyer and with previous work experience at the ACLU in northern California, Alexander knows the importance of getting relevant information to the public in order to inform them of important information. In The New Jim Crow Alexander uses a specific wring style through rhetorical devices to convey her message that the US justice system is turning into the modern day laws of Jim Crow, outlawing African Americans and taking away their basic natural rights while creating a new racial caste system and the possibility of the system to change.
Today there is considerable disagreement in the country over Affirmative Action with the American people. MSNBC reported a record low in support for Affirmative Action with 45% in support and 45% opposing (Muller, 2013). The affirmative action programs have afforded all genders and races, exempting white males, a sense of optimism and an avenue to get the opportunities they normally would not be eligible for. This advantage includes admission in colleges or hiring preferences with public and private jobs; although Affirmative Action has never required quotas the government has initiated a benefits program for the schools and companies that elect to be diversified. The advantages that are received by the minorities’ only take into account skin color, gender, disability, etc., are what is recognized as discriminatory factors. What is viewed as racism to the majority is that there ar...
Whitehead, John. "OpEdNews Article: The Myth of a Post-Racial America." OpEdNews, 2013. Web. 30 Jan 2014. .
“Don’t think that was an uppity Negro woman… That was the whole colored race which will no longer take your condescending pennies.” (O’Connor, 419)
This understanding marks the last shift in the essay. Steele is more sure of himself and his solution in this portion than earlier on in the text. This is perceived through diction like “we must” and “necessity” (610-611), these imperative words develop a strong opinion. This adds to the argument because an audience will tend to adhere to someone who is confident in themselves and what they are saying. Steele’s solution entails that people must begin to individualize themselves. As mentioned earlier, the black community became a singular people and although unification can be a positive idea, with unification comes division, which leads to seclusion. This is because unification is created by a group sharing a common trait, however, there will always be those that do not have this trait and that is where division occurs and eventually seclusion is created. For this reason, Steele encourages his audience to move beyond “Race-as-identity”. He explains that individualization can be beneficial because it prevents general associations from being formed and without these associations people will feel less compelled to conform to them. Moreover, he wishes to rid society of the victim-focused black identity because it “encourages the individual to feel that his advancement depends almost entirely on that of the group…[and] reimposes limitations that can have the same oppressive effect” (610). Writing “On Being Black and Middle Class” was Steele’s way to work through this issue that society has. Steele clarifies the issue and comes to the conclusion that the contradictory norms of being black and being middle class puts a strain on those who are both and the only way to lift this burden is for all of society to focus less on victimization and concentrate more on
Boser, Ulrich. "The Black Man's Burden." U.S. News & World Report 133.8 (2002): 50. Academic
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
Tim Wise’s book White Like Me provides a picture of what it is like to be white in America. A main topic covered in White Like Me is white privilege. On pages 24 and 25 Wise illustrates what white privilege is and shares his opinion regarding how to address white privilege in society today. Wise’s plan for addressing white privilege is one not of guilt, but of responsibility, a difference Wise highlights. The concept of feeling guilty for white privilege lacks reason because white privilege is something built up through generations and its existence is not of any one person’s fault.
Jones, Ed. “Is affirmative action necessary? NO: It’s time to judge on merit.” Denver Post 24 July 2003: B,07.