Racism in the United States of America - Coursework Example

Racism in the United States of America Introduction Racism is the view that a group of people with a particular biological characteristic is more superior to other groups with different characteristics. The group supposed to be superior is allowed to obtain economic power and social supremacy over the other groups deemed inferior. Racism is said to be more than personal hatred because it has been fostered by institutions and government, although inadvertently (Wise, 2013). America’s history of racism that has infiltrated many aspects of its society is very long, and it does not show any sign of fading. From the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, student sit-ins, and the march led by Martin Luther King, many non-whites still feel that racism still exists in the world’s superpower. With one step forward to curb the vice, America has appeared to make another step behind in the matters concerning racial understanding (Wise, 2013). In the last century, the face of racism was largely whites against blacks, but today racism is multi-colored and has a multicultural face; it has expanded to include antagonism among people of different cultures. Americans made history by electing Barrack Obama as the President of the most powerful nation on the earth. Obama defied expectations in the campaigns by influencing the citizens with his call for hope and change. Since the country chose a black President, some quarters have suggested that racial barriers have been broken. They claim that the long-standing social chauvinism against blacks is a thing of the past since Americans chose a black person to govern them. Some events in the recent past indicate that America has a long way to go so as to have equity among all races (Wise, 2013). Statistics about racism in America The number of people arrested and jailed in the last few decades has increased in America. A majority of the arrests has been associated with the fight against drugs. Although both the whites and blacks have been involved in the illegal activity, the blacks comprised the majority of the people who got arrested. A report by Human Rights Watch in 2008 indicated that although the blacks comprise 14% of the of drug abusers, 37% of the individuals arrested for the offense were black Americans. Consequently, blacks, who comprise 13% of the American population and about 15% of drug abusers, are 37% of the offenders put in custody because of drug crimes (Miah, 2010). Statistics indicate that the police check blacks and Latinos at a higher rate when compared to the whites. In the city of New York, 80% of the police stop involved blacks and Latinos, and when whites were stopped, just 8% were searched. The NYPD report shows that when the police stop blacks and Latinos, 85% of them were searched (Miah, 2010). In a study conducted in California, the ACLU discovered that the chances of African Americans to be stopped by the police are three times higher than whites. The New York state division that is responsible for criminal justice carried a review of inequalities in processing arrests. The review pointed out that in some parts of New York; African Americans are 33% more likely to be confined as they await trial than whites who are facing similar trials. The American Bar Association reviewed the public defender system of America in 2004 and found out that the fundamental right to a lawyer in America may not exist for many people in the country. In addition, blacks are regularly illegally denied criminal jury services according to a survey by the Equal Justice Initiative. The 2010 study revealed that in Houston County, Alabama, 80% of blacks qualified for jury service were denied a chance to serve in cases related to the death penalty (Miah, 2010). The United States Sentencing Commission gave a report in 2010 that showed that in the federal system, African Americans offenders received that were 10% longer when compared to white offenders for similar offenses. The report pointed out that blacks are 21% more likely to get mandatory minimum sentences when compared to whites. In addition, the blacks are 20% more like to be jailed whites who engage in trading or using drugs. The longer the sentence of a judgment by judges, the higher the chances of it being a non-white person being sentenced. The Sentencing report of 2009 pointed out that about 66% of life-imprisoned persons in America are non-whites while in the state of New York, the percentage stands at 83% (Miah, 2010). The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that the possibility of an African American young person born in 2001 of being imprisoned is 32%. For young males of the same age, Latinos have a 17% chance while whites have a 6% chance; black boys are five times and Latinos almost three times as likely as whites of being imprisoned. While blacks’ juveniles contribute 16% of the population, they make 28% of juvenile arrests. Additionally, they make up 37% of juvenile jails and more than a half of the young persons who join adult prisons (Miah, 2010). When inmates are let free, race continues to dominate as it is very hard for black applicants to get jobs. A research by a professor at the University of Wisconsin revealed that 17% of whites who were once incarcerated and applied for a job were called back by employers. Only 5% of black job applicants who were once imprisoned received call backs (Miah, 2010). The study revealed that racism is very rampant such that whites with criminal records received better treatment when they look for jobs compare to blacks who do not have criminal records. Racism in Modern America The current century has witnessed many changes in the American society that has helped to reduce racism. There are legislations and memoranda that fight discrimination while affirmative action has been used to ensure that all races get an opportunity to be employed and get accommodation among other essential services. Television programs have been changed to avoid biases against any race or gender. However, the society still maintains its views concerning different races. Some of the ancient barriers are still in existence because people believe that it is hard to gag the hearts of people. In most circumstances, there will be people who will fight for change while others will try their best to have the status quo prevail. The issue of race is common in places of employment as qualified professionals who are black, and with equal or better qualifications than whites fail to get jobs. Although the fruits of civil rights movements and the election of Obama as president were supposed to help African American to enjoy equity, the case is not the same. The New York Times published on December 1st, 2009 noted that many African Americans were changing their names so as they can sound white in order to secure jobs (Russo, 2014). In the year 2009, the unemployment rate in the US for white men with degrees stood at 4.4% while that of black Americans was 8.4%. For people with high school diplomas, the rate of joblessness for white men stood at 10% and 16% for African American men. For those people with less than a high school degree, it is 13.9% for white and 24.2% of Black men. The statistics among women was the same, at 4% for white women who had degrees and 7% for black ones. For women with high school diplomas, 7.4% were whites while 11.4% were blacks. At the same time, the rate of unemployment for Black women with less than a high school degree was 18.3% and 13% for white women (Wise, 2013). Although Arab Americans benefit from the same rights that other Americans enjoy, many of them have experienced discriminations that infringed their rights. American foreign policy and public ignorance have led to negative stereotypes of this population in the recent past. The Arab characters in the American movie industry are depicted as terrorists or sometimes barbarians. In a span of a few days after the Oklahoma City bombing, many hate crimes were directed towards Arabs and Muslims living in the US. The same scenario happened after September 11th attack on America. After 9/11 incidence, anti-terrorism policies of airlines have excessively affected Arabs and Muslims in general (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). Some passengers were taken off planes while others could not board because of their race. Anti-terrorism policies that segregate people of Arab descent have led to the creation of prejudice in the eye of the public eye. There is also fear of police and fear of reporting hate crimes among the Arabs (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). Since the terrorist act of 9/11, the US’s most visible racial profiling actions have been seen in the immigration. The government came up with immigration law that mainly targets Arabs, South Asians, and Muslims. One of the most notable programs is called “special registration” that was initiated by the Department of Justice in order to record immigrants from different countries (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). The program required some immigrants, from 26 countries that are mainly Muslim countries, to register and submit themselves to interrogations. When these people offered themselves to interrogations, some of them were arrested and locked up for some time. Many prisoners were treated harshly, although a majority of them had not committed any crimes. In addition, the Department did not call immigrants from non-Muslim/Arabs countries for registration (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). The discriminatory enforcement against Asians (mainly Arabs) of pre-existing immigration laws is one of the government’s infringements of the rights of people from that region. In 2002, the DOJ announced an initiative that was meant to locate and deport more than 300,000 undocumented individuals who have disregarded court orders to go to their countries. Although the measures were applicable to every immigrant, it was announced that the program would start with 6,000 immigrants from Muslim nations though they contributed a small portion of violators (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). In some circumstances, the government depended on ambiguous and unenforced immigration rules and applied them to people known to be Muslims. Approximately 64% percent of Arab American adults are employed while 5% do not have jobs. 73% of Arab Americans have been hired in the following fields: management, technical, sales, technical, or administrative. A majority of Arab Americans work in the private sector while the government has employed 12% of them. The September 11th terrorist attack negatively impacted the employment sector by worsening a problem that has been in existence. Pestering of Arab Americans in places of work, it seems, that had become patriotism actions for a section of their colleagues (Abdulrahim et al., 2012). Some comments became ever more threatening by use of terrorism references and linking people of Arab background with terrorism. Recent events such as Supreme Court rulings indicate that America has a long way to go to ensure that its citizens can have equal rights. For example, in giving Michigan’s white majority a complete discretion to nullify the use of legal affirmative action by universities, the court gave a blow to continued efforts to ensure that there was elimination of racism. Some of the Supreme Court rulings threaten to affect the foundation of laws that do not discriminate (Yeomans, 2014). In Schuette case, the Supreme Court gave thumbs up to a referendum in Michigan that supported the change of Michigan’s constitution to prevent consideration of race in making decisions. The results of the poll revealed that White voters voted in large numbers to deny minorities an advantage they enjoyed. On the other hand, minority voters voted against the proposals, although their opposition did not matter since democracy dictates that the majority take it all. A court of appeals had rightly ruled against the referendum because it made it hard for the minorities to have a say. Before the passage of the proposal in the referendum, the minorities used to plead with the state universities to have racially inclusive admissions, something that is not possible at the moment (Yeomans, 2014). The Supreme Court in its wisdom shocked the minority by removing the method used to determine the jurisdictions that had to submit changes in the procedures for voting for federal approval. In Shelby County v. Holder case, the Court ignored the legislative record (15,000 words) that Congress had piled up in 2006 (Yeomans, 2014). The Congress had discovered that there was significant voting prejudice and that preclearance of voting changes was needed to offer protection to minority voters. Shockingly, the chief justice while speaking for the conservatives of the court just replaced the findings with his judgment. There have been many complaints concerning American corporations that have continuously shown discrimination. The Coca-Cola Company agreed to pay $192.5 million to bring to an end litigation brought by Black employees. In the settlement, the soft drinks manufacturer agreed to a sum of $113 million to the afflicted black workers. Another $43.5 was set aside million to increase the wages of Blacks in order to have the same amount as whites (Curry, 2000). As the case with these types of litigation, the company did not admit of being involved in racial discrimination. Although the company failed to admit, it is obvious that no person or corporation can pay money without knowing where the blame lies. Ten Starbucks former workers filed a lawsuit against the company for wrongful dismissal. The employees claim that they got dismissed after supervisors argued that their store had too many black people. The complaint claimed that some black employees were fired last year and replaced by whites. The supervisors while dismissing them said that the black employees did not fit the profile (Avey, 2015). General Electric was put under fire in 2010 when some black employees filed suit against the corporation for racial inequity. The African Americans accuse the company’s supervisor of referring to them by words such as “monkey” and “lazy.” The workers claim that the supervisor did not give black workers bathroom breaks and medical attention. He is also accused of firing African Americans because of their race. Additionally, the suit asserts that the top management of the company knew about the actions of the supervisor, but was not willing to investigate the issue. Earlier in 2005, the company had faced another suit where it was accused of discriminating against black managers (Avery, 2015). The company faced allegations of paying black managers less salary when compared to whites. More than 4,000 black truck drivers who had applied for a job at Wal-Mart Inc. between the year 2001 and 2008 filed a suit against the company, accusing it of racism. The truck drivers said that the company dismissed the blacks in disproportionate numbers. Although the corporation denied doing anything wrong, it decided to settle for $17.5 million to be paid to the drivers. Again in 2010, some employees from West Africa sued the company for firing them in order to give the works to the locals (Avery, 2015). Conclusion America has made progress in matters concerning racism. The super power has ensured that there is no discrimination in voting, access to essential services, and security for all. Although milestones have been achieved in the process of eliminating racism, the country still faces the same challenges. The US Supreme Court has appeared to erode some gains the country has gained by making judgments that suppress further the rights of the minority. The security sector faces accusation of profiling people associated with Islam by exposing them to searches and arrests. The American companies have also received criticism for favoring the whites at the expense of the blacks. References Abdulrahim, S., James, A., Yamout, R., & Baker, W. (2012). Discrimination and psychological distress: Does Whiteness matter for Arab Americans? Social Science & Medicine, 75(12), 2116-2123. Avery, D. R., McKay, P. F., Volpone, S. D., & Malka, A. (2015). Are companies beholden to bias? The impact of leader race on consumer purchasing behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Curry, G. (2000). Racism costs corporate America. Retrieved on April 23, 2015 from http://www.georgecurry.com/columns/racism-costs-corporate-america Miah, M. (2010).Race and Class: Blacks Still Taking the Hit. Retrieved on April 23, 2015 from http://solidarity-us.org/node/2604 Russo, C. (2014). Beyond black: celebrity and race in Obama's America. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(5), 923-924. Wise, T. (2013). Between Barack and a hard place: Racism and white denial in the age of Obama. City Lights Books. Yeomans, W. (2014). How Supreme Court rulings encourage racial discrimination. Retrieved on April 23, 2015 from http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2014/05/20/how-supreme- court-rulings-encourage-racial-discrimination/ Read More