Racism and Its Economic and Political Impact on Society - Term Paper Example

Racism And Its economical and political impact on society Introduction Racism is any form of bigotry, prejudice, violence, oppression, stereotyping or other socially divisive practice whose primary basis is the concept of race. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, racism is a belief or ideology that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as being either superior or inferior to another race or races. As an ideology, racism first appeared during Early Modern Europe, in Spain during the Reconquista. Racism has been a motivating factor in social discrimination, racial segregation, hate speech and violence. Racial discrimination is illegal in many countries. Racial discrimination Racial discrimination is treating people differently on the basis of race. In famous case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,* by overturning its earlier rule the United States Supreme Court, declared that the establishment of separate public schools for black and white students inherently unequal. This victory paved the way for integration and the Civil Rights Movement. The same decision was repeated in the Bolling v. Sharpe's** case also. Now let me explain the concept of racism in the light of socio economic effect. Socio economic impact of racism Racism produces its effects through segregation, socioeconomic stratification, and marginalization as well as through the individual experience. Institutionalized racism produces discriminatory effects on health through public policy, the physical environment, social and medical services and preventive health policy. Perceived inequity and frustrated goals combine with policies that make the urban environment physically or psychologically hazardous to affect the family, sense of self and sense of community. This affects social buffers and supports while increasing the chance of experiencing a life event. Decreased social efficacy combined with a decaying physical environment promotes "alternative" lifestyles and economies, these can overcome the resilience of a community and undermine their buffering effects. The impact of racism on the individual, family, community and physical environment may --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Brown Vs Board of Education of Topeka 347 US 483 (1954)** Bolling Vs Sharpe 347US 487 (1954) 2 lead to psychological and physical harm to children and so produce a future generation of problems. The US government has formulated a number of programs for tracing the racist elements which is deep rooted in the society and to find out the solutions to eradicate this ever going problems. Department of Behavioral Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston *conducted a research and found out that racism is the one of the fundamental cause for the racial disparities of health commonly founds in people. According to their opinion the physiological changes which occur when African-Americans encounter everyday racism are thought to lead to poorer health in the long-term. The association between experienced racism and ill health is modified by social status and personal coping strategies. A wider conceptualization of the processes through which racism is linked to ill-health demands an understanding of the effects of racism at a political, socioeconomic, community, and family level. Such effects are as pertinent to illness rates as the experience of the individual. From the above discussion a question naturally arises. It is true that the segregation of the people as per their color adversely affects their life in different manner. But how this affects them more-economically or politically Before I explore this, firstly I shall explain the concept of racism from the American economic and political point of view. Racism and economics ** Equality of opportunity is the central value of the American system because it is the theory used to explain the distribution of wealth and income in the society. It accepts an only slightly modified capitalism as its model for the good society. This is a very conservative doctrine because it declares basically fair the current distribution of income, even though there may be a few inequities remaining. But, because the equality-of-opportunity thesis sanctifies the larger racist society, it is itself an expression of racism. Equality of opportunity is the central value of the American system because it is the theory used to explain the distribution of wealth and income in the society. It accepts an only slightly modified capitalism as its model for the good society. This is a very conservative doctrine because it declares basically fair the current distribution of income, even though there may be a few inequities remaining. But, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Camera Phyllins Jones Center for Disease, control and prevention (CDC) **Garry S Becker The economics of discrimination ,1957 1971 2nd edn. 3 because the equality-of-opportunity thesis sanctifies the larger racist society, it is itself an expression of racism. Unfortunately, the stress on winning the equality-of-opportunity game measured in terms of money and physical attractiveness reinforces personal insecurity. Wealth and beauty, after all, can be very fleeting. Americans usually deny that they are motivated by money and physical attractiveness, but there is obviously a huge gap between what they say and how they act. The common hypothesis embraced by classical economists is that competition in a capitalist economy decreases the impact of discrimination. The logic behind the hypothesis is that discrimination imposes a cost on the employer, and thus a profit-driven employer will avoid racist hiring policies. Furthermore, this means that non-discriminatory employers tend to succeed in the markets. On the other hand, some scholars have suggested that capitalism has played a large role in promoting racism especially socioeconomic racism. The Western hemisphere slave trade and colonialist activities were mostly conducted by the earliest capitalist economies i.e.; Spain, Great Britain, the United States and the Netherlands.* Critics have pointed out that a slave labor economy was the sometimes considered ultimate form of capitalism because the capitalists made pure profits because they free labor.** Racism and politics The practice of racism, both openly violent and covered over in politics, has existed in this nation since it was founded. Martin Luther King Jr.* once said: "The Black revolution is much more than struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its inter-related flaws: racism, poverty, militarism and materialism." The Western world has been underdeveloping Africa including Ethiopia, mainly for economic reason. As a result, politics and racism were used as a method to exploit the people of Africa and to extract its raw materials and minerals on which the western industries are heavily dependent. Therefore, politics and racism played a significant role in the economic interests of Europe. In order to understand this scheme one should look at the historical background of African underdevelopment. Moreover as mentioned earlier,mentally and phycilogically weak African ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Martin Luther King Jr.'s quotes Racism and products News and Letters 4 people who are the victim of the racism hinder their own social status and thereby adverse affect in politics also. Whether racism has its influence in society more economically or more politically From the above discussion it is clear that racism in both fields i.e,economically and politically influence the society alike. Whether it is in the name of equality of opportunity or in the light of political elements Segregation on the basis of caste and creed always prevails in the society in one or other name. Can the reparations possible and justifiable Nowadays it becomes a generally accepted question. All the countries in the world are trying to eliminate the differences in the name of caste, color and creed. But is it possible the total eradication of such discriminations It was the main issue discussed during the Durban Conference. Many African-Americans feel an underlying sense of racism and oppression in today's society. The 13th Amendment, which bans slavery in the United States, became part of the Constitution in 1865. The Civil Rights battle began to rage 100 years later, in the 1960's. Since then, blacks have made dramatic progress in American society. Another of the arguments concerning reparations involves living African-Americans' mental state. The Black Manifesto attempts to show the relationship between slavery and the African-American community today when it states, "the injury survives in the overrepresentation of poverty, and all the pathologies it spawns, within the African American community. Not least of such pathologies is self-hate, lack of confidence, and lack of self-understanding. Thus, many African Americans must be educated to understand the justification and legitimacy of their own claim to reparations. Another concept related to the reparation is "Anti-racism". Anti-racism refers to beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined. By its nature, anti-racism tends to promote the view that racism in a particular society is both pernicious and socially pervasive, and that particular changes in political, economic, and/or social life are required to eliminate it. Anti-racism is implicit in the statement "all men are create 5 equal". Black westerners, like Olaudah Equiano, and even some whites, like Thomas Jefferson, did point this out, though the blacks were often not in a position to do much about it, while whites, like Jefferson, were often unwilling. Eventually, however, that changed. The first great successes of anti-racism were won by the abolitionist movement, both in England and the United States. From aforesaid points we can draw that reparation can be justifiable as this succeed in opposing and eliminating the racism to some extent. But the critic's point of view is that despite anti-racism's successes, however, some people feel that racism is still a powerful force in Western societies. Proponents of the stronger forms of anti-racism point to ongoing differences in quality of life among different races and say that rooting out discriminatory attitudes and practices is a requirement of simple justice. Thus, they argue that racism still drives such phenomena as the drug war, the prison system, ongoing defacto segregation of housing, racial profiling, police brutality, U.S. imperialism, and possibly the immigration reductionism movement. Immigration actions of America after 9/11 incident * The attacks of September 11, 2001, transformed the landscape of global security, none more than borders and immigration. The report of Migration policy institute states that "America's Challenge: Domestic Security, Civil Liberties and National Unity After September 11," examines the U.S. government's post-Sept. 11 immigration measures from three distinct perspectives: their effectiveness in fighting terrorism; their impact on civil liberties; and their effect on America's sense of community as a nation of immigrants. The topography of citizenship, belonging, and suspicion instantly changed for Arab and Muslim communities in the United States. They drew the sharp attention of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence services, and that continues. But the public's focus has swung south to scrutinize the U.S.-Mexican border as a source of insecurity. For the most part, the alarms about immigrants as threats are exaggerated. And the policy choices driven by these concerns-much larger border security measures in particular-are costly in a globalized economy and unnecessary for security in any case. Muslims in America, about equally from South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia, were targeted along with their institutions. Several hundreds or thousands of men were detained for months or longer without being charged *Immigrant Rights and Black politics www.socialistworker.com May 19 2006 pp 5 John Tirman Immigration and insecurity :post 9/11 fear in the US July 28 2006 6 with crimes, and many were deported for minor infractions. Muslim charities were targeted by the FBI, with many of them closed down and a number of them prosecuted. Transnational labor migration was sharply curtailed. Student visas were more difficult to obtain. Mosques were and are under constant surveillance. Many Muslims and Christian Arabs felt intimidated about speaking out on foreign policy and security issues, particularly the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The rationale for the U.S. Government's action was that these people potentially support terrorism. Yet we now know, through the Report of the 9/11 Commission, that there were no domestic conspiracies of any significance at the time of the attacks, and there have been none revealed since. As Nicholas De Genova* " Migrant "Illegality" and the Metaphysics of Antiterrorism: "Immigrants' Rights" in the Aftermath of the Homeland Security State". Conclusion Some opinions that racism is part of human nature--that it's always existed and always will. The second is the liberal idea of racism--that it comes from people's bad ideas and that if we could change these ideas, we could get rid of it. But those who are coming to radical politics--Blacks and whites alike--hatred of racism and a desire to get rid of it is a huge motivating factor. This is in contrast to some of the common assumptions about where racism comes from. But the truth is racism isn't just an ideology but is an institution. And its origins don't lie in bad ideas or in human nature. Rather, racism originated with capitalism and the slave trade. As the Marxist writer CLR James put it, "The conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers hadthat the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race." ************************* *Nicolas De Genova Anthropologist ,Columbia University working the boundaries,race,space,and "illegality" Durham ,NC:Duke Univesity press 2005 References 1. Garry S Becker The economics of discrimination 1957, 1971 second edn. Publ. Chicago university of Chicago press 2. www.race.eserver.org Towards the treaty of racism 3 . www.gateway.nim.nih.giv.com socioeconomic impact of racism 4. www.sociolistworker online.com Immigration rights and Black Politics Read More