In Between Fear and Hope: Globalization and Race in the Unitized States - Essay Example

The worldwide dominance resulted in the expansion of the markets, productivity and profits of the nation during the 1950s and 1960s. The economic growth of the country resulted in relatively consensual distributional decisions, which satisfied several different constituencies and brought an end to the class struggle and political conflicts in the nation. The government’s adoption of several strategies like hiking the wage, raising the benefits, retirement funds, social insurance program, educational and housing subsidies helped in transforming the American’s acceptance of the fundamental regulations of the society.

The so called fading away of the Jim Crow system did not end the racism, on the contrary the post second world war era witnessed a different kind of racial dictatorship where the capitalist empowered by the free market system could hire anyone at a lower wage. In the decade of the 1950s and 1960s the prevailing racism was mobilized with the networks of education and place and jobs and it no longer needed the state backing. The present racism in the nation is more embedded in the social structure, which is being mobilized by protecting the institutionalized patterns of everyday life.

(The Best and the Whites: racism and the middle class social order, 1945-1975, 47-50) Opinion The existence of the racism is a characteristic of every society and America stands no exception to that. The only difference being that the racism in the country was always backed by the state and the now after the Second World War it is being defended by the institutionalized structure of the society. What is worse is when the classes being oppressed do not get the support of the authority; on the contrary the racism can be shielded.

The emergence of the middle class did blur the class lines but the middle class comprised the whites only. An oppressed class who were under privileged from the initial stage it is evident that the change in policies and strategies would not help them much. The subsidies education and housing policies will not be of any help to them as their fight is for the basic necessity of the life. The Jim Crow system precipitated through decades with the emergence of the middle class that was again caked with incentives like government jobs and education security.

The suburban areas were flocked with the middle class families who derived the public benefits whereas the African American was in no way benefitted by the State policies. The prevalent practice of racism in the country have gone on encouraging racism and in the present scenario it is helping in intensifying the practice by defending it structuring it in the daily life. The whites still keeps on benefitting from the white collar and blue-collar jobs while the non-whites remain oppressed till date.

(The Best and the Whites: racism and the middle class social order) Chapter 3 Summary The chapter mainly talks about the capitalism and globalization and how it has related itself with human beings by either enslaving them or transforming them into labor wages or through trade practices. Globalization has imposed a cosmopolitan structure to the major cities of the world and brought with it a free market structure. The chapter harps on the fact that quite a time the word globalization is being used as a synonym to “Americanization.

” The truth of the matter cannot be verified but at the time when the global