How Government Has Established The Racial Lines

In certainty, the model of racial equality has not always been performed, nor has it been fully accomplished in the world. This is because the acceptance in racial equality has been said to “counter” deeply rooted beliefs in racial inequality and political, legal, and customary practices of racial discrimination and oppression. Therefore, racial equality is stated in antiracist philosophy and in antiracist political mobilization.

The very concept of hypodescent status is based on "one-drop rule". The theory presents an idea that whosoever has a single drop of a black man's blood in him is a black man himself. This makes every individual who has one of his parents as "black" or either is considered to have any trace of African descent, a hypodescent. The term has been coined by anthropologists and refers to hypodescents as members of subordinate groups in the society. It is important to note that one-drop rule strictly refers to having a black ancestry. And, black people are the ones who bear any black African lineage, not the ones from unmixed population from Sub-Saharan Africa (Gallagher 54).

In the United States the racial division between Blacks and Whites have been delineated in order to suppress Blacks. They have been enforced by arbitrary and non-consistent means.

Let’s start with the term color line. The term color line was originally used as a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the United States after the abolition of slavery. An article by Frederick Douglass, the 19th century social reformer, orator, and writer, titled "The Color Line" was published in the North American Review in 1881. In that essay, Douglass writes, “Few evils are less accessible to the force of reason, or more tenacious of life and power, than a long-standing prejudice. It is a moral disorder, which creates the conditions necessary to its own existence, and fortifies itself by refusing all contradiction”

The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson is known for having established the precedent of “separate but equal.” The case originated in Louisiana and was specifically made to the separate passenger cars that were for the black and white races. The Supreme Court, in this case, upheld the right of Louisiana to separate the races and “this decision provided the legal foundation to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites” (Zimmerman, 1997). It was not until the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 that the highest court in the land outlawed the principal of segregation and the concept of “separate but equal.”

The social construction of race is a topic that is worth discussing. In the United States the black/white color line has historically been rigidly defined and enforced. People have been stereotypical and afraid as long as I can remember. Labeling people as we think they should be based on the color of their skin or just thinking it’s in their biology so they must be this or they must be that. Race is socially constructed and is not a biological construct.

Especially considering the Civil Rights Movement was over 50 years ago. “IT IS NO ACCIDENT that the pivotal Supreme Court decision launching the modern civil rights movement was an education case -- the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.” (Leadership Conference)

Inequality and mistreatment is prevalent in the world today. However, today the world is much closer to solving its issues as opposed to 100 years ago. Planners are a significant part of that fight, standing up for what they believe is right and implementing the proper plans and action needed to begin to solve that issue.

As freed black men escaped their captivity as being enslaved in the South, racial equality in society was not reciprocated by white Americans. Even though African Americans were away from the constraints of slavery, they held a lower social status and were racially inferior by their community. Racial hierarchies were not only imposed in society but also in the military during the Civil War. As the Civil War broke out between the Union and the Confederate, President Lincoln believed that an all-white army had the capability of fighting off the Confederate units and that this war would be swift. The war progressed and the Union soon realized that they needed more reinforcements which would come from the freed black men in the North. During the Civil War, black soldiers would challenge and reinforce the existing racial hierarchies because the dispute of manhood amongst races would be enforce by violence that deterred black men from challenging their social status.

When we hear the word "race" we're more than likely inclined to automatically think of the color of someone's skin. Though this isn't entirely inappropriate, there is so much more to race than that. Sociologists say that race is a social construction created in society, meaning it's basically a set of "stories" we tell ourselves and hear overtime to make sense of the world. Since we hear these stories over and over again, we act on them, ultimately making them true. This can be said of many aspects of culture and society, however, it seems to happen with race without our realization.

The separate but equal doctrine was put forth in 1868. It promised the idea of an equal representation and protection under the law, no matter the race of an individual. People of color were reduced to separate bathrooms, railroad cars, restaurants, and even schools from whites. The mere revulsion of the idea that individuals were forced to be divided from others due to the distaste of one race towards another only scrapes the surface. The other issue, is that these separate facilities weren't so “equal”. The schools for colored folks had shortages in books and resources. The bathrooms were often grimy and malfunctioned. As shown currently in Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education, this “Separate but Equal” doctrine was simply an excuse to allow racism and bigotry to thrive.

The idea of the one-drop rule was applied to these laws causing it not only to be a widely excepted rule by the countries populous, but also as a legally accepted one. Hollinger explains that “The principle was sharpened under Jim Crow, when opposition to social equality for black was well served by a monolithic notion of blackness accompanied by legislation that outlawed as miscegenation black-white marriages.” [10] These laws rested upon the constructed notion that blackness was somehow indicated by biological factors. A perfect example of this is that “Law regulating interracial marriage and the conduct of free people of color defined blackness as a genealogical quantum” In some places even those who had “one-sixteenth “black blood” [were] legally black,” [11] and therefore denied the right to marry a white person. Anti-miscegenation legislation, which has implied use of the one-drop rule, has a long history in the United States with the final anti-miscegenation law was struck down in Loving vs. Virginia as recently as 1967. These laws were created to maintain racial purity, and have been instrumental in solidifying both the idea of race and different racial categories in the United States.

Much of America’s history has been saturated with situations dealing with race and the people associated with them. It is impossible to talk about the founding of America without looking at the invention of race. This is because race was intricately embedded in the foundation of America through the two part process of racialization. Through this a dichotomous race structure was developed and implemented. This was carried out mainly by the U.S. government, which used policies, social arrangements, and institutional patterns (class notes 10-6-10) to further embed race into American society. The government helped to increase white’s superiority. When the government could not do it all publicly they brought in the private sector. The public

In this paper, I will use concepts and information from class readings to address findings, reflected in the following questions: 1) why do whites and blacks (and people from other racial groups as well) have differing perceptions of racial issues.2) why do such significant economic disparities still exist 50 years after the civil rights movement.

First, whites have the power to decide who is white and who is not. In Pudd’nhead Wilson, one of the main characters in the story, Roxy, is identified by white people in her town as black because she is one-sixteenth black. This situation is an example of the “one drop” rule, a term used in history to describe people who have “one drop” of black blood in their bloodline. This is saying that during those times and even currently, if you have any parts