Essay On Discrimination In America

From 1865 to 1900 African Americans, despite being presumed free; blacks quickly realized they were only free from was the whippings, break-ups from their families, and sexual exploitation. (Experience History 457) African Americans were still force to live with the hostility of whites. It has taken blacks a long time to be freed from the hatred, and discrimination of white southerners, and after decades’ racism among whites still exist today.

Hate crimes have affected African Americans in more ways than just violence; therefore, our government needs to approach hate crimes differently. Aside of the fact that the United States has elected the first African American president, hate crimes has still occurred before and during his presidency. Of the 7,624 hate crimes committed in 2007 alone, 2,659 of those hate crimes were done on African Americans ("Hate Crimes Against African Americans", 2012). From the history of slavery, lynching, murders, the burning of crosses and churches, to the brutality that police officers have committed on

Stereotyping cannot only cause less of a need to get to know others, but can also become rather dangerous. Sometimes individuals pass stereotypes on certain people or groups that initiate anger and hate due to the origin of the stereotype. For example, the Ku Klux Klan is an organization that has been around for decades. This particular organization had a developed stereotype against black Americans that resulted in the death of hundreds of African Americans beginning in the early 1800’s. Though the Ku Klux Klan

More than hundreds of years, Africans Americans had abided in inhuman lives and were thrown into passivity like lower social positions. Jim Crow laws, lasted from 1876 to 1965, “prevented ex-slave from riding in the same train cars as whites, from eating in the same restaurants, or from using the same toilet facilities” (Roark et al

The institution of slavery was meant to be a permanent condition for Black males. This condition lay the historical outline for structural and societal racism resulting in a degrading formation of identity within Black. Africans were imported to the United States as purchased goods beginning around 1620. By 1770, almost 700,000 people, nearly 18 percent of the Americans were slaves. By the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, that number had exploded to over 4 million Davidson, J., DeLay, B., Heyrman, C., Lytle, M., & Stoff, M. (2011). Blacks were systemically dehumanized for hundreds of years, a practice that had unique social and psychological effects on men. They worked and were whipped in fields like animals. Any resemblance of pride, any call for justice, and any measure of manhood was tortured, beaten, or sold out of them. Most were forbidden from education, which included learning to read and write Davidson et al. (2011).

November 2016 gave America its biggest political upset in decades, perhaps in the history of the nation. Donald Trump became the fifth President to lose the popular vote but somehow manage to win the presidential election. A billionaire businessman who spent most of his campaign bashing his opponents, facing allegations of sexual assault, insulting people with physical and mental handicaps, disputing allegations he was working with Russians to win the election, knocking prisoners of war because they disagreed with him, yelling about his opponent, Hillary Clinton and her alleged emails, supporting openly racist newspapers, news outlets and other organizations, and basically complaining, all of the time, no matter what was happening. He really managed to win. 2016 quite possibly held the ugliest and most upsetting presidential race in history, and will go down as such. Most of Trump’s voters were white and working class, uneducated, white men, (Thrush, White, Hughes, Ratner, Strauss, & Zeitz, 2016). His unraveled tweets, his perpetual television presence and mass rallies made him a hero to his class of voters. Now, 11 months into his Presidency, even those who voted for him avoid the news due to the continual, anxiety driven updates about which world leader our President has most recently upset. It is clear as glass Trump is affecting the moral of the entire country, Americans are more stressed in todays political climate than ever (Sifferlin, 2017) but who is really being affected by him, his administration, and his polices?

John Lewis once said that “The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society." Racism has become a huge issue in people’s everyday life and not many may notice, but that’s because it’s been around for so long that it’s not new to anyone and it is the normal, when in reality that means it is so bad that not many people notice anymore. [African Americans experience racism in two main places their workplace and their education, and in a certain way, police brutality.]

America is known for its freedom. Freedom to speak your opinion, freedom to practice any religion that you choose, and freedom to criticize the government. American’s are able to have the power or right to act, speak, or even think about almost anything they wanted to without restraint from the government or from other people. Migrants from other countries come to the United States to have a chance at freedom. To raise a family away from war torn cities or harsh governments. They come to America in hopes of getting the chance to succeed in life and express themselves without anybody critiquing them. However, America is not as free as it’s made out to be. American history has been filled with racism and discrimination against

Modern day racism and hatred against African-Americans can be traced back to slavery in the Colonial Americas. Over 10 million slaves were taken and brought into the New World. These slaves if they were to survive the way would face a harsh life of servitude to their white masters. Africans slaves were and plentiful and cheap labor source in the 1700’s. Slavery was very controversial in the colonies. The practice had many believers and critics. Slavery was a brutal but big part of American history.

According to their website, “Racial stereotypes are automatic and exaggerated mental pictures that we hold about all members of a particular racial group. When we stereotype people based on race, we don’t take into account individual differences. Because our racial stereotypes are so rigid, we tend to ignore or discard any information that is not consistent with the stereotype that we have developed about the racial group” (University Counseling Center 1). America does a great job keeping up the blacks are dangerous racial stereotypes. But the real question is how someone can develop a racial stereotype? According to Notre Dame Counseling Center, “We develop our racial stereotypes in a variety of ways. On a very simple level, it’s human nature to categorize people. It’s our way of making a complex world simpler. From an early age, we learn to place people and objects into categories. However, when we’re very young, we tend to put less of an emphasis on attributing values to these categories. As we grow older and are influenced by parents, peers, and the media, our tendency to label different racial groups as superior/good or inferior/bad increases significantly. Additionally, the less contact we have with a particular racial group, the more likely we are to have negative feelings about the group. Any negative experiences that we have

The slave owners would excuse the Africans as an inferior species all together, and labeled them as “lazy” and ‘violent.” Even after slavery was abolished in 1865, an onslaught of hatred came the way of the African Americans in the form of terrorist attacks, lynchings, and the formation of the KKK. In 2016, it is extremely rare to see displays of racism so blatant, at least with the intent to harm people of color proudly expressed. That doesn’t mean Black people do not experience this type of abuse anymore, people have just gotten better at hiding their prejudice. Whether we are aware or not, the habit of discriminating, especially towards those with dark skin, has manifested itself into every part of our lives and society. This leads us to unconsciously act a certain way towards some racial minorities or at least be ignorant to the fact that there is anything wrong with how we behave. Many people refer to 2016 America as a “post-racial society” where race is no longer a problem. These are the same people who think police brutality, and racial profiling isn't real and that the “Black Lives Matter” movement is just a group of overly-sensitive attention seekers. To say institutionalized racism doesn't exist means that they are privileged enough to not have to constantly be aware of the

Throughout the 1900’s we have documented African Americans being persecuted and slaughtered by hate groups, while the United states government turned a blind eye. Minstrel shows successfully convinced the American public that people of African ancestry have the natural urge to rob, rape, and murder innocent women and children without any remorse. Naively, the American people bought into the act and became frightened of the color black on a man’s skin. Movies and skits mocked African American’s culture and appearance. European Americans AND African Americans were taught that African Americans were uneducated and mannerless. That they did not have any self-value, dignity, or honor and nor should they be treated with any. African Americans became hated. Racism and brutality against them were encouraged and taught by local civilians without any punishment from the local and state government. Segregation was prevalent in restaurants and bathrooms and African Americans were discouraged to have a proper education.

Prejudice is the negative attitude based on false generalizations about members of different racial and ethnic groups. From prejudice, discrimination is born. We all are guilty of discriminating other people, but one can only speculate the factors that bring about this hatred towards one another. Although a single cause cannot account for the presence of racism, factors such as socialization, self-justification, and competition are a few human attributes that lead to acts of racial discrimination.

Slavery in the middle of the 1800's was abolished except for the rebellion states in the south. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued which made slavery illegal in the states that had rebelled and allowed black slaves to serve in the army and get other jobs, or continue to work on the plantations, as employees making money. The nightmare of slavery was over but a new one was to begin. One that was worse for it was prevalent but was secret and silent. One that exists today. One that does not shrink but rather grows. Racism was and is still upon us.

With Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency months ago, he inherited a nation divided on many issues, including race relations. Thus, a question is raised: How has President Trump worked to address the issue of race relations in the United States? He has promised to do everything he could to help race relations improve and unify the country, as demonstrated by the quote: “Today and every day of my presidency I pledge to do everything I can to continue that promise of freedom for African-Americans and for every American…We’re going to bring this country together” (Cottman, 2017). Unfortunately, it does not seem likely that race relations will improve so as long as Trump remains president. The facts below will prove that Trump has worsened race relations in America, and deepened the justifiable fear of division which many Americans feel. Such a conclusion can be clearly made through the observation of his past and present conduct.