Racism in the United States - Coursework Example

Racism in the United s Racism is seen when one person has a bad feeling over someone of a different skin colour. Racism is an historic thing that began in America way back during the slave trade and the use of slave labour. US is a many races with almost every race in the world being represented. The law does not allow people to be racists. But, people are treated in a bad way because of their color. Recent news stories have shown a lot of many racially discriminative incidences. The mid-20th Century saw a major decline in racism in the United States; this was courtesy of the efforts of civil right movements, court rulings and individual motivations such as that of Martin Luther King Junior. Today, US stand at a better position when you talk about the whole issue of racism. The American society still struggles with racism, the fight remains to be won despite the steps that have been made this far. In United States all the people of the world are here. Many people come from their countries to US when looking for better opportunities. Since its discovery, many groups of people have found their way in this wonderful country. There are the African Americans, the Native Americans, the European Americans, the Asian Americans and the Latin Americans. Before we became independent, the civilized European Americans advanced racial discrimination against other races hence forming the basis of racial discrimination in the US. They took most of the privileges; they took slaves from Africa and Asia who served them. During the course of time, racism was advanced through slavery, intermittent camps, reservations for the Native Americans, and segregation (Morris, 2012). On the other hand, the Indian wars were a major characteristic of the racial discrimination at the time. Racism is bad and has taken long time to reduce it. Abraham Lincoln stood against forced labour hence people of all colours felt better. In the 19th century, Jim Crows Laws brought the doctrine of “separate but equal” which took almost a century to be have its meaning known. In a 1954 Supreme Court ruling (Brown v. Board of education), segregation among students from various racial backgrounds that existed was abolished. The fight was not won, a terror gang that is still in existence Ku Klux Klansmen (KKK) that advances racial discrimination was linked to the burning of a Birmingham church killing four black girls. Civil right activism against racism arose; martin Luther King Junior started mass protests. These saw the establishment of the new laws such as the Civil Rights Act (1964), and voting Rights Act. Despite the decline in racial discrimination through enactment of laws, racial parity in the access to jobs, banking services, insurance, and healthcare among others was evident. The Fair Housing Act as well as the Community Reinvestment Act provided a major milestone towards reduction of racism in the United States in the 1970s. All including the government of America has contributed to making people racial. The major aspects that have making it difficult to root out racism have been the feeling of being better than the other person, wanting to have an advantage over the other person, and unfairness. In the Pigford v. Glickman case, the US Department of Agriculture paid the black farmers for being not being fair to them. Between 1981 and 1997, the federal agency provided only white farmers with loans and neglected the black farmers (Hughey, 2012). People see the racism in many ways. Some, it stopped while some others it is there. Some writers have argued that racism is not a major issue in the society in the US while others argue that racism has taken a new shape but it is still there. However, having a closer look of media coverage showed that racism is still available in the American society despite the fight having taken centuries. One of the major contributors of the racial discrimination today is the social status in the society. Most of the white Americans had formal education and have occupied most of the top positions. On the other hand, making all people the same gong process that has not reached its full potential. Most African Americans live in poverty and some of them have had no access to school. Despite the embedded racial discrimination in the society, the election of Barrack Obama was a major breakthrough towards ending racism. The majority of Americans who are whites supported Obama’s presidential bid in 2008 despite him having a black background. The blacks demonstrated a huge support for the candidate while on the side of the whites he performed even better than the one who vied using democratic ticket John Kerry did. This was a major step towards rooting out racial discrimination in America. Some people are said to be have in a certain because it is believed that their races do so. The blacks have been depicted as lazy people by some quarters of the whites (Wong, 2013). This creates an impression that all the blacks are lazy. On the other hand, the whites have associated other races with being behind and unable to do well. The ways that the races have against each other influence the capacity to freely interact. They do not want to communicate while hiding some of the information across the racial divide. In a study of movie characters, majority of the characters demonstrated as offensive and are shown to swear are the blacks while the other races are fewer. These biasness continue to make it hard to ensure no racism in the United States. Not are only are the people mentioned to have characters of their race advanced to the whites and the blacks, but also the Asian Americans and the Latin Americans also confront the same issues. Poor people and social differences make racism to be stronger. As pointed out by Arnade (2014), the character of the black neighbourhoods has not really changed. Poverty has made individuals to live in shanties and the situation has remained to be almost the same year in year out. He points out that racism is still entrenched in the society with “the laws on the books claim otherwise” (Arnade, 2014). Poverty creates a huge divide among the citizens and ensures that the people remain backward. The common phenomenon in the black neighbourhood that existed years ago are still prevalent. Racism may not be advanced directly in this scenario but the country abhors relics of racism. Recent incidences have demonstrated that the society is still has not healed from the hangovers of racism. Citing two incidences Bouie (2013) demonstrates how the society has not recovered from racism even after the many interventions developed to end racism. In the first incident, police are said to have arrested and detained three African American students waiting for a school bus that would take them for a game. Despite the intervention by the coach, the police could not give a damn. In another case, two African American dancers were implicated for having a thirteen-year-old girl that they were training. Despite them showing the police a letter showing full guardianship, the police failed to heed to their pleas. These are a few of the many incidences that have been witnessed in the American society on the basis of racism. The African Americans have been shown to be the easy target. On matters relating to criminal activities they also lead the park irrespective of their innocence. The authorities have made user of the socio-economic disparity to advance racism. In conclusion, the fight against racism is not here won. The steps made may be deceiving that America has defeated tribalism. However, this is not the case. The reported incidences of racial discrimination are a good evidence of racism. The socio-economic difference that exists among the races also provide a platform for racism to be advanced in the US. Despite the fight not yet have been won, there is a clear we can forget that some changes are there. At some time of the middle of the 20th century US was able to reduce racialism. References Arnade, C. (January 12, 2014). America is Still a Deeply Racist Country. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/12/america-racism-subtle-dangerous-new-york Bouie, J. (March 12, 2013). Racism not a problem anymore? Don’t be ridiculous, its still a big issue. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/03/racism-not-a-problem-anymore-don-t-be-ridiculous-it-s-still-a-big-issue.html Hughey, M. W. (2012). The myth of post-racial america: Searching for equality in the age of materialism. Contemporary Sociology, 41(1), 93-94. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1026801272?accountid=45049 Morris, A. (2012). State of white supremacy: Racism, governance, and the United States. Contemporary Sociology, 41(5), 650-651. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1041084966?accountid=45049 Wong, J. (October 29, 2013). Racism in America hasn’t disappeared. The HeraldSun. Retrieved from http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/guestcolumnists/x2082476610/Racism-in-America-hasn-t-disappeared Read More