SOC268

.docx

School

Northern Virginia Community College *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

268

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Apr 3, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by SargentEchidnaMaster1413

According to the Commonwealth of Virginia Statutes, the Racial Integrity Laws (1924-1930), and the revision made, whiteness was legally defined as having “who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian”. This definition is aimed to establishing a complex boundary around the concept of whiteness, highlighting the purity of Caucasian ancestry. People without any non-Caucasian ancestry was to be excluded from becoming classified white under the Racial Integrity Laws. However, exceptions were made for individuals with very little amounts of non-white ancestry, for example the “Pocahontas Exception”, which allowed people with less than one-sixty fourth part Indian and no African American Heritage to still be considered white. It is these exceptions that catered to the elite and wealthy individuals that had an ability to trace their ancestry to key past figures such as Pocahontas and John Rolfe. The general legal definition of whiteness during this time was constructed on the absence of non-Caucasian ancestry and was enforced through strict racial classifications and regulations. The definition of whiteness that was outlined in the Racial Integrity Act and its revisions has many faults. The first fault is that it relies on pseudoscience and the notions of racial purity and disregarding human ancestry. The second is it doesn’t include the individuals with any trace of non-Caucasian ancestry from being identified as white and allows for vague and discriminatory barriers. Third, the definition mirrors the white supremacist ideologies of the time, maintaining racial segregation, and privilege. Lastly, the Racial Integrity Act fails to account for the diverseness

of an individual’s ancestry and the background identities of individuals who are mixed race. Its this strict enforcement through laws and regulations that marginalizes the individuals who do not fit within societal barriers. The definition that is used in the Racial Integrity Act established and supports the systems of oppression and racial hierarchies. And it becomes more and more important to understand how race is constructed and its intersection with power and privilege. The first problem that whiteness and white privilege present to minorities in the US is systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system. Research consistently shows that the people of color, particularly African American and Latino individuals, are excessively targeted, arrested and detained when directly compared to white individuals for comparable offensives. The racial bias preserves the cycle of inequality, as minorities can more frequently face harsh sentencing, increased probability of wrongful convicts and limited access to legal representation. This systemic discrimination contributes to the unequal representation of minorities in jails and prisons as well as maintaining the racial disparities in incarceration rates. The second problem is the economic inequality that becomes aggravated by white privilege, which obstructs the opportunities for minorities to become wealthy or to even achieve financial stability. Throughout history racial injustices such as slavery, segregation, and

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version