Teirrah Dumas-Shell
Professor Claudia Moreno
Social Movements & Social Justice
October 9, 2017
Critical Thinking Assignment #2
Chapter #4:
1) Racism can be manifested in many forms, including poverty, housing problems, underemployment, unemployment, wage differences, lowered educational opportunities, high crime rates, and welfare dependency. What are the causes of racism. Describe the primary cause of individual and institutional racism. How are these factors dealt with by society? It has become common to live in an environment where people think white people are superior to people of color, or that there is only privilege for whites. Other factors that are causes to racism are, peer pressure, upbringing, stereotypes, personal experiences, and unfamiliarity. Many of these examples occur when we live a system that is constructed in a way that supports these beliefs. As far as institutional and individual racism, there is demographic data that explains the division society along the lines of white and people of color (Pearson, 53). In todays society we see many people being discriminated due to these factors, leading to poverty, poverty programs, and income maintenance (Pearson, 88). It is vey common in our society to be structured to follow institutional racism. Without personally having power or being culturally aware that they have power or that they are in a situation of privilege. The result in today society based on racism in America, most Americans naturally
Explain how institutional racism could result in internalized oppression for members of marginalized populations. Provide examples relevant to a specific minority group, based on the chapters you selected.
Do you ever believe that you have been a victim to a microaggression and there was nothing ever done about it? A victim of institutional racism that made you feel doleful and surly? Institutional racism happens a lot, but not as much as microaggressions, but a lot of people wonder why they get this type of vibe from white supremacist. These are the same people in the same country, with the same daily schedule but somehow they judge people based on their skin color. Some reason you aren’t allowed to lead this country if you are any other skin than white. There's a lot of racism in America, and a lot of people really wonder will the microaggressions, microinsults, the institutional racism will ever stop. People look at our president Donald J. Trump with his campaign of “Make America Great Again” does he mean the bad times for the African Americans? The bad times, for the Asian Americans? Do white people in general categorize all cultures/ ethnicities other than white as minorities? There are two articles that come together, to grow on this idea, to answer the questions above and to explain in full detail. Both of these articles, compare on what and how plenty of “minorities” feel in America. The speech essay “Analyzing Some Thoughts On Mercy” and the argumentative essay “6 Reasons We Need to Dismantle the Model Minority Myth of Those ‘Hard-Working ‘ Asians” by Ross Gay and Rachel Kuo deal with the problem with racism shown by white supremacy. Through these texts the
Racism is a concept that has been around for centuries of human history: The act of a privileged party oppressing, demeaning, and committing genocide of another race. However, scientifically, humanity is only made up of a single species: homosapiens. The idea of race as it is known (groups based on skin pigment and cultural descent) is a social construct created and ingrained into society. Just because race is socially constructed does not mean racism is not real. Social constructs are not physical entities, but are certainly “real” to humans of a society. One concept that has been created along with the idea of race is the inequality of said races. Caucasian people in many societies (including North American and European) have become the “norm”, meaning they are the standard and expected. Because of this, Caucasian people receive benefits, often known as white privilege, which is “A collective, implicit acceptance of whiteness as virtuous, normal, unremarkable, and expected.” (Jeffries, 2013). Because race is socially constructed in culture, it has created white privilege and white normativity. This privilege can be seen in the media created and consumed by North Americans, and in the justice system and law upheld in North American countries.
Institutional racism exists within American society, the education of nurses and the profession itself is not immune from such a powerful social issue (Lancellotti, 2008). This post will focus on the training I have received in culturally-competent care and social justice training.
Racism has been a huge social issue for as long as I can remember. Not only does racism exists between whites and African Americans it exists between all different races all over the world. Although racism has changed a lot it still exists in many places all over the world. You would think that after so many years that people would learn that everyone is equal but some races still seem to think that they are superior to other races.
When examining the timeline of slavery in the United States of America, it can seem like
Even though it has gotten better over the last couple of decades, it is still prevalent in America. One of the main reason why it is still common in today’s culture is that racism is still being taunt to the young children in our country. A great majority of the time, these children are influenced and taught by their own family members. These same parents who were taught their bias from their parents go and share the same opinion to their kids. The kids at the younger age will believe just about anything thing their folks will say and mimic the actions they do. This starts the deeply rooted bias in another generation and continues to spread. Another example is through popular media. The news that comes on in the morning, afternoon, and late at night just about always has the same topic of this man of color killed, robbed, or injured another man or woman of color. With these headlines and others it creates bias within us viewers and we never forget it. It will create views on whether or not we should be scared of this person or go around a certain area that has a lot of crime. We then go and spread the news that these cases are happening and we have now set more roots of bias in another
Social Inequality has existed since the start of humanity, to be more exact it “begun over, 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era”(1) and we have grown with it as a civilization. It all started at the stone age and has gradually grown and evolved over time where other factors such as skin, race, culture, religion, and sex all take part in social inequality. In the Americas there is a great deal social inequality among the entire country where we know a bit about. Racism is something that was created by humanity and started in Europe as a way to create a hierarchical view while keeping those in power in power. According to “Race and Racism” “Race is a social construction, and ideas we endow with meaning through daily interactions”(2) and by doing this we prefer one over the other. We use stereotypes to greatly influence racism where one or the other has an economic advantage over the other. The race that has benefited the most from this are the whites, who receive unearned privilege over other non-white races. White Privilege has a huge impact in the economy, in who gets the job, who goes to the top, who gets housing, a head start, and other benefits of essentially being white.
These people are correct in a sense; loud and public acts of racism are no longer prevalent in the US as they were in the past. However, today racism is stealthy and unspoken, and often deftly covered up with fabricated cover stories to legitimize the discrimination. This new breed of racism is perhaps even more difficult to fight against than its more egregious past self; its subtlety allows its perpetuators to claim ignorance of any discrimination, and its lack of media attention lulls Americans into complacence and acceptance of the current system. Further disturbing is the prevalence of “covert racism”, also commonly called “subconscious racism”. Many white Americans may actively stereotype and discriminate against blacks without even being aware of their actions and thought processes (BlackYouthProject). This phenomenon is a sad consequence of being raised a subtly racist society which perpetuates discrimination, even if never openly. Many subconscious racists may also be unwittingly subscribing to “symbolic racism”. In J.H. Moore’s book Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, Henry Sears characterizes symbolic racism as the endorsement of four specific beliefs:
Just fifty years ago, America was a society of segregation and racism. The dictionary defines racism as “the belief that a particular race is superior to another.” Although it is clear times have changed, racism is still seen in modern american society. It’s also clear that relationships between African Americans and whites are generally better than they were in the forties and fifties. Today, it is rare to witness a black man walk down the street and step off the sidewalk to let a white man walk by, or to see a black man sitting on a different section of the bus or train because a white man told him he has too. But superiority of races is still happening. A lot of this has the do with the ignorance of others. Passed down generation to
It’s 2017 and every day people of color are discriminated against, targeted, and killed for simply not being white. However, there are still people living in the United States who are under the impression that we are all equal. But is that just an illusion, or is that a way for people to deny the fact that deep down they are much more prejudice than they care to admit? It happens more often than we would want it to, the constant overlooking of the racism in our history. It makes one wonder if this a result of systemic racism not only in the police force, but in our daily lives as well.
Institutional racism has solidified its position into various aspects of American society. It has installed itself into employment practices, all levels of education, healthcare, housing, politics and the criminal justice system. Institutional racism has made some subtle changes to replace the boldness of slavery and Jim Crow. However, in educational institutions the effects of racism and discrimination are so delicate they typically go unnoticed by students of color. Individual racism usually happens on the personal level where the prejudice is expressed either consciously or unconsciously while there is some form of interpersonal encounter. When it comes to institutional racism it is similar to the individual concepts, however policies and practices are associated with with the belief of racial dominance of one group over another. It is a powerful system that use race to determine power and privilege(Reynolds et al., 2010). Even after the desegregation of school, educational institution are still separated. In Shelby County where I have lived since 1999 there are schools for minorities, and there are schools for whites. The schools for minorities in the city of Memphis have police officers walking the halls and there no books for learning. There are higher numbers of Whites students enrolled in private, charter, and magnet schools in the more affluent segments of the county. They will be exposed to the advantages of a proper education because of their race and privilege
Throughout history in America there has always been the idea of racism. When Americans think of racism, they usually think of slavery and that racism is no longer a problem in America. However, this is not the case. Racism is still very apparent in America. It is true that since the end of slavery, the U.S. has made great strides towards becoming a less racist country. In reality, racism will never be extinct. In today’s society, all American citizens of all races have the same rights as one another, yet there is still racism. Racism can be linked directly to stereotypical mindsets of certain groups of people. It is human nature to make conclusions about other people, this is what leads to racism. Today’s racism is not limited to whites
(Andersen and Taylor 234-243) These family ties are the believed reasoning to minority’s imperfections. For example, history’s patterns of slavery and discrimination are said to be the foundation of many social problems. Even after slavery was abolished, people still continued to see those certain groups as slaves. The reasoning being groups of people who feel they were once “superior” to others often continue to hold these beliefs. Things such as high divorce rates, children born out of wedlock, welfare dependency, and female-headed households are many times seen as a result of the slavery and discrimination that people once heavily dealt with. However, this explanation concentrates on blaming the victim and disregards the flaws in society’s structure. (Lauer) Yet, this belief is still a common perception among the American society. A third explanation concentrates on the use of racism on the majority of society whom hold prejudiced attitudes. This bias explanation suggests that Caucasians generate institutional and individual racism to preserve their placement in the social stratification system. Their hatred based on actions and standardized perceptions are a reaction to the struggle of resources and jobs between races. However, prejudiced attitudes can’t be the sole underlying explanation behind racism. Many white
What are the 2 kinds of systemic racism? Describe them in detail and provide an example of each.