Recent political developments that have penetrated Western European and American politics seem to have manifested themselves in permutations inspired by everything from flagrant fascist ideology to altered forms of leftist liberalism. Donald Trump’s win provides a pertinent example of such worrisome political developments. Yet, although his win involved other factors besides his campaign’s concentration on the white middle class, the ubiquity of more extreme politics in the West could signal impending political tail risk. Trump’s win could have been a relatively benign cyclical political event or an inflection point in world politics. The middle-class appeared to be the critical point of electorate influence in multiple elections during 2017 …show more content…
Trump’s platform echoed James Baldwin’s assertion that “In the South an essential element in the identity of each race was they weren’t the other” (A Rap on Race, excerpt 9). Trump’s brand of populism attracted his discontented base of white middle-class voters who could, partly, at least, be defined by what they were not, namely immigrants and people of color. Thus, Trump lambasted immigrants and minorities to appeal to his base. As Ho points out, “economic populism mistakenly organizes around the fake culprit of reverse discrimination and special rights” (Ho 2018, 150). Populist sentiment united the Trump base by making them feel they had not had bad luck but had been ‘cheated’ out of opportunities. According to Ho, this proves problematic because many of Trump’s voters who believed other groups of people had an easier time getting hired are more likely to be racist towards these groups. As antagonisms between people of different identities and backgrounds increases, populism will continue to …show more content…
Ho provides the example of the American housing market to prove that even markets that are considered “neutral” like the housing market actually favor some market participants (white men in particular) over others (people of color). She calls markets “elite white racial fraternities,” highlighting the extent to which opportunities are limited to certain groups of people (Ho 2018, 150). Ho posits that housing opportunities heavily favored white men because of “massive federal subsidies” and loans that were “offered only to white men across class backgrounds” effectively “created a majority middle-class founded in whiteness” (Ho 2018, 149). Systemic racism throughout private and public sectors have excluded certain groups from the middle-class, and now certain members of the middle-class have less social mobility. Such systemic racism is not only difficult to fix but also keeps certain groups down and propagates wealth inequality. If, for example, an African-American cannot get a loan to buy a home, he or she has a lower chance of building wealth compared to a white person who could get a loan. As Ho elucidates, “cultural norms… ensured that the “economic” principle of supply and demand in housing was in fact centrally structured by race” (149). Thus, wealth inequality is not only growing between the richest and the poorest but among white people and people of color. As wealth
In Thomas Shapiro’s “The Hidden Cost of Being African American”, Shapiro goes in depth on how wealth in America is disproportionately dispersed between different nationalities. Mainly between Caucasians and African Americans. Shapiro has helped paint the image of wealth inequality and has shown how this is even more staggering than the wage gap between African Americans and Caucasians. Some of the theories he indirectly uses in his book and that I will be exemplifying are generational wealth and support systems, education, and the idea of how poverty only begets more poverty.
Lipsitz uses practices of the housing market to illustrate how the diverse practices provide the privilege to white people in the current institutional arrangements. The capital resides in suburban houses has proven many white families’ economic mobility, although few white Americans recognize that segregation has historically been the guarantee of suburban real estate values. Housing policy and real estate practices, banking and finance, education, tax codes and subsidies, the behavior of the courts, and the norms of urban policing are all heavily inflected by a racialist logic or tend toward racialized consequences. Lipsitz delineates the weaknesses embedded in civil rights laws, the racial dimensions of economic restructuring and deindustrialization, and the effects of environmental racism, job discrimination and school segregation. Lipsitz describes the centrality of whiteness to American culture, and explains how the whites have used identity politics to forward their collective interests at the expense of racialized groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos.
The effect of these policies may have afforded an array of opportunities to white Americans, but they had a very different effect on the African American population. The establishment of these policies contributed to a state of unequal and segregated housing among African Americans and whites referred to as the dual housing market. In a dual housing market, the price of any given home was assigned two separate prices depending on the race of the buyer. White families were being given substantially lower prices and more options by realtors for homes than African American families were. Realtors were at the root of this problem, “Chicago’s realtors were thus instrumental in the creation of a dual housing market both locally and nationally- that is, a “white” market of low
In order to support his opinion, the author uses historical references to the enormous impact of racial inequality on African American lives. Additionally, Desmond names a set of historical data and rates of the poor African Americans in cities to enhance the reader’s understanding of this complex situation. African Americans were also more likely to get the apartment with broken furniture, windows, and other facilities that confirmed the existence of racial inequality (Desmond, 2016, p.249). To reassert his position, Desmond provides offensive statistics that millions of people are evicted from American homes, and most of them are African American (Desmond, 2016, p.293). As a matter of fact, the author proves that housing discrimination based on race is the primary cause of
The readings for this week fall under the umbrella of “Issues in Housing Policy”, more specifically race, discrimination and segregation. Looking at this topic with the naked eye may lead one to conclude that these issues are age-old, but by looking at the occurrences within the housing policy we can very much conclude that these drawbacks still remain and are salient to the present. To begin, the Schwartz piece highlights that housing policies are mandated to condemn the discriminatory practices that plague real estate and mortgage markets, where African-Americans and other minorities are at a “decided disadvantage”. However, the federal laws passed, such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, prohibiting racial discrimination by real estate
Donald Trump’s nomination can be clearly seen as not the result of electoral flubs or the chance of history, but the result of a decades old movement. In campaign after campaign there have been candidates appealing to the same nativist tendencies, and voters who support them. It further shows another instance of a movement building within and without a party ultimately capturing the party and nominating one of their own. In Bryan’s, Reagan 's, Clinton, and Trump’s cases political commentators at the time were stunned that the party bosses could be so
Rough Draft & Thesis Statement Minorities are faced with housing discrimination on levels much higher than that of white people which is considered white privilege. Residential segregation has been strategically planned and carried out by multiple parties throughout history and persists today ultimately inhibiting minorities from making any of the social or economic advances that come from living in affluent neighborhoods and communities. From our research, the scholarly sources have depicted multiple causes of racial disparity. Housing segregation perpetuates negative circumstances for people of color, as looked at through history, laws, segregation, real estate, and ... The end of the Civil War and the start of the Industrial Revolution and
With this intention, banks and real-estate agents will no longer be readily available in urban communities, but in suburban regions. The reasoning for this stem back to the overall goal of keeping African-Americans separate from whites. Now, however, without banks and real-estate agents, urban communities do not have the same privilege as someone from a suburban household. This is viewed through the concepts of social inequality and Eurocentrism because of the unwillingness of whites; there is an unequal distribution of prestige regarding African-American rights.
After a long history of toying with the idea of running for election, Donald Trump’s announcement speech this June was enough to get the nation talking. Not only because he was finally making good on a decade’s worth of promises, but also because his offensive declarations were unprecedented in the world of ‘P.C.’ American politicians. Trump’s claims of Mexican rapists, drug lords, and criminal cartels flooding over our borders seemed completely outrageous coming from a man running for President. Accordingly so, it wasn’t long before the Trump campaign
One legacy of discriminatory policies is that African American families today are more vulnerable to foreclosures, which destroys a large amount of their wealth. According to a study by Shapiro et al. of Brandeis University in February 2013, “Homes are the largest investment that most American families make and by far the biggest item in their wealth portfolio. Homeownership is an even greater part of wealth composition for black families, amounting to 53 percent of wealth for blacks and 39 percent for whites. Yet, for many years, redlining, discriminatory mortgage-lending practices, lack of access to credit, and lower incomes have blocked the homeownership path for African- Americans while creating and reinforcing communities segregated by race. African-Americans, therefore, are more recent homeowners and
Racial oppression and racism have been an issue seen throughout the history of the United States. During the 60’s the era of the Civil Rights movement Americans saw advances in racial equality. This seems to have created a notion throughout the United States that racism was not an issue for many years. Yet racism still seems to be engrained in American society, it is just hard to realize when it is happening. Recently racial controversies surrounding the United states Justice System have been making the news headlines. What Americas are seeing is institutional inequalities that are creating racial conflict. Institutional inequalities have lead to racial oppression do to the power structure in the United States. Critical Race Theory provides an explanation showing that race is imbedded in American society today; can the theory explain why racial inequalities between the United States Justice System and citizens of different colors seems to be a reoccurring cycle.
Therefore, I’m going to justify this information I have acquainted you with.First thing, you need to know is that I’m not against anyone I’m neither racist or bias.I was born in a city of diversity which is called New York City. However, the things I’m about to tell you may be uncomfortable or maybe even interesting.Digging deep into America’s seventeen trillion dollar economy and you’ll find fractures beneath the surface.The spoils are split unevenly between men and women, old and young. But, one of the most massive disparities is only skin deep.Everything you own houses, stocks, and cars are your wealth. According to “Blacks still far behind whites in wealth and income” by Tanzina Vega, In 2011 the wealth of the median white household was over $110,000. African American on average was 17 times less just over $6,314.” Housing has a lot to do with this massive separation.For the average American, their home is the most valuable
With Donald Trump’s election into the White House, the rightwing of American politics gained power like they’ve never had before. As their power progresses, it is incredibly important that both Democrats and Moderate Republicans devise a strategy to hinder the spread of these ideas and limit their power. The most important ways in which these individuals should resist the growing influence of these rightwing groups include: focusing less on social issues and more on economic policy, calling out rightwing anti-race rhetoric and dog-whistle politics, and by staying away from becoming an extremist group themselves. It is only through these methods that we can oppose rightwing politics and take the power away from the groups that currently have
During Barack Obama's presidency, some American's thought that the country had entered a post-racial era in which, racial prejudice and discrimination had ended in the United States. This idea now is destroyed in Trumps presidency by Trump showing his true whiteness in discrimination and through racism. In "The First White President: The foundation of Donald Trump's presidency is the negative of Barack Obama's Legacy," Ta-Nehisi Coates, an American author, journalist, comic book writer, and educator, writes how discrimination and racism still stand through politics. Coates presents a convincing argument that Donald Trump's presidency is a reflection of racism in the United States through birtherism, bondage, and the voting rates.
Confessing one 's political identity in 2016 truly embodies the phrase “walking on eggshells”. Whether you’re a liberal or conservative, owning up to your political resolutions sometimes comes with some intense backlash. In this years’ presidential election we have an intense candidate with very radical views, and if you don 't know who I’m talking about you should probably move from the rock you are living under. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has gained a immense popularity amongst not only the American public but Internationally as well. His chauvinist rhetoric, egotistical outlook, and how he continuously fabricates lies upon lies has truly brought him into the public eye. Hearing Trumps incredibly horrifying agenda makes me proud to admit that I am a Democrat, a solid liberal to be exact. As a solid liberal I believe in the power of the people and that means all people.Whether you are rich, poor, black, white, gay, or straight building and creating a nation that caters to people inherently means doing right by the economy and when we do well for the economy we do well for everyone.