Racism in America/Ferguson - Article Example

Racism in America in Awake of Ferguson Tragedy The African American history of the struggle for equal rights and overall end of discrimination against the blacks has existed for ages now. The journey has culminated a number of achievements and some few tragedies if the Fergusson incident is anything to go by. In line with the recent Ferguson incident, this article is an expository paper on how the ethnic and racial classifications have continued to evolve in United States. Consequently, I describe the related effects of this classification that include prejudice, stereotypes, racism, scapegoat, and discrimination.

The main orientation for much of this article is from Diana Kendal’s book that draws distinguish between different sociological perspectives about these classifications. Final part is the description of how segregation, lynching, and persistent discrimination have continually affected the African Americans experience in the US.Keywords: Change, Discrimination, and ClassificationThe recent wake of racism in the US’s Ferguson incident ultimately comes as a reminder of the journey in the fight by African American to end racial and ethnic discrimination, together with the way people perceive racism today.

The case has sparked a considerable attention from within the U.S. and abroad after civil unrest and protests ensured after the white Ferguson policeman, Darren Wilson shot an 18 year old African American, Michel Brown. Moreover, this has sparked a heated debate about the relationship of the African American and the law enforcers’ use of the doctrine of force. Nonetheless, despite the unfortunate Ferguson tragedy, the struggle by the African American to bring equality and end of racial and ethnic bias has come a long way with several triumphs and tragedies (McWhorter, 2014).

Many changes have surfaced, some of which prevalent in education, sports and marriage (Kendal 277). In discussing these changes, I seek also to include the understanding of sociological perspectives on race and ethnic relations.Education has evidently been transformed from a racial based system to the current multiracial system in terms of selection to campus and with opportunities available. Today’s US campus is a manifestation of the paramount transformations that are happening in the both ethnic and racial composition together with the spectacular increase in the number of persons who identify themselves as belonging to mixed race (Kendal 277) .

As held by Susan, the number of students transitioning to college currently comprise of the largest crop of individuals selected to join campus in the United States’ history (Kendal 277).Similar to immense transforming outlook of university, is professional sports that has also grown beyond bounds not only not only in the number, but also an increase in the number of athletes, both female and male who identify themselves as mixed race. For instance, from Diana Kendal’s book, a professional golfer, Tiger Woods is identified as one of the athletes who has received massive publicity for his success in both private and professional.

According to Mixedfolks.com, Woods is one of the best-known “mixed race” athlete notably due to his media exposure of him being one-fourth native American, one-fourth Chinese and one-half African-American (Kendal 277).The third change that defines the current United States society is marriage that has also transformed from people marrying only those they perceive to be of their own race or ethnic to multiracial intermarriages. The country has witnessed a demographic shift due to escalation of multiracial and multiethnic groups, and from the US’s Census Bureau, these groups are increasingly being classified as mixed race (Kendal 277).

According to Kendal’s book, one out of seven marriages in the US today is between spouses of diverse ethnicities or races, especially the precedent two decades (Kendal 277).The classification of ethnicity and race has also drawn controversy among social scientist. For instance, Major usage of race has been founded on the premise that a race is a classification or grouping based on genetic variations. However, biologists and social scientists have disputed the notion that race is a meaningful biological concept rather defines race as a socially constructed actuality, but not a biological reality.

As with ethnicity, an ethnic group is a collection person classified by others or themselves on the premise of nationality and cultural grounds. The effects of these sorting are prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, and scapegoat.Prejudice has a down beating attitude, for it involves having bias against a particular ethnic or racial affiliation on the basis faulty generalization. The same is with stereotypes that are the over generalization about the look, behavior or traits or other traits of a particular group (Kendal 283).

Whilst prejudice is an attitude, discrimination engrosses acts or doings of the dominant individuals that have the detrimental influence on minority groups, and “scapegoat” being an attitude of shifting blame (Kendal 284). The above racial and ethnic-based attitudes and action have dire effects on society that include slavery, lynching, segregation, and unrelenting discrimination. The effects also include unfortunate deaths such as the Ferguson incident, loss of friendship and suspicion among the white and black Americans (McWhorter, 2014).

References Kendall, D. (2012). Sociology in our times. C_engage Learning.McWhorter, J. (2014). Ferguson Is the Wrong Tragedy to Wake America Up. TIME. Retrieved 29 November 2014, from https://time.com/3594636/ferguson-is-the-wrong-tragedy-to-wake-america-up/