Essay on Racial Segregation in Beauty Pageants

As Americans, it is our duty and responsibility to learn how to work together and accept each other’s diversity. Despite, all of us coming from a different cultural heritage, as Americans we now form and share a new common culture. America has been described as a big melting pot because our country is a place where many different cultures have come together to blend as one whole. Our shared American culture is supposed to be described as one that is built on the ideals of freedom, human equality, tolerance, and the respect for each other’s differences; all of this is what is suppose to make our nation so significant, sadly this is not the case for our nation. Throughout our American history we have learned about racial discrimination events that have taken place against African-Americans like slavery, the Civil War, the lynching and race riots caused by the Ku Klux Klan, the Jim Crow Laws and many other events; the Black Lives Matter movement has exploited these events in addition to racism, stereotypes, and the hate our country still contains within its people and the modern American society.

What does it mean to you to be a black girl? If you aren’t one, what do you see when you visualize a black girl? If your imagination limits you to just an afro-centric featured, loud and slang-loving, uneducated woman, then this piece is addressed to you. The persistence of the stereotypes concerning average black girls have chained us all to the earlier listed attributes. One side effect of this dangerous connection is the wide opening for a new form of discrimination it creates. Whether it is depicted through slave owners allocating the preferable duties to lighter-skinned black woman, or in modern times where a dislike in rap music categorizes you as not really black, segregation within black communities occur. Tracing all the way back to elementary school, my education on the subject of racial segregation has been constricted to just the injustices routed by dissimilarities between racial groups. What failed to be discussed was the intragroup discrimination occurring in the black society from both outside observers and inside members. Unfortunately, our differences in the level of education, in physical appearance, and in our social factors such as our behaviour, personality or what we believe in have been pitted against each other to deny the variety of unique identities that we as black individuals carry.

In America, the land of the free, people believe that it’s the greatest place to be. And America would probably be what everyone believes, but it has a very serious problem that could eventually destroy the country as whole. America is built upon Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it has a strong equality issue that has to be taken care of. Equality is a social contract in America and unfortunately it is a broken one. A social contract is an agreement amongst the members of a society, but equality is a serious issue. Equality poses the biggest problem to America simply because in any country the people make the country, and if the people can’t get along either internal conflicts occur, or people eventually leave. Throughout America everyone regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation has experienced inequality in some part of America. Words are exchanged, fists are thrown, and in serious cases lives are lost because people are racists to one another. Equality is a broken social contract in America that will eventually be its demise if not attended to.

We have issues: more specifically , the United States has issues, continuous and all-encompassing issues of racial inequality.The United States is experiencing a outburst of racism, as can be seen from the 2014 killings of two unarmed African-American men, to the brutality of white supremacy in Charleston and the string of arsons in black churches across the South. Of course, it’s nothing new for a nation with a long history of extreme racist violence—the most recent lynching-related death occurred in 1981, hardly a lifetime ago, when Michael Donald was hanged by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.The United States, however, continues to avoid its history on race, refusing to confront its past in a “post-racial,” “colorblind” society, and that policy of systemic ignorance is particularly strong when mention of racial equality is brought up. Although the concept of equality has never truly existed in this world, as can be traced back to the very beginnings of recorded history we see the nobles ruling the commoners, conquerors reigning over the conquered, the will of man dominating women; the United States needs to acknowledge the fact that racial inequality still exists within our country and has in no way progressed towards betterment.

America is an improbable idea, a mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts, itis held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone. "Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody's image," the historian Daniel Boorst in wrote. That's because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.The reality is often quite different, a great national striving consisting frequently of failure. Many of the oft-told stories of the most pluralistic nation on earth are stories

America is constantly progressing, in the last one hundred and fifty years this country has been a land of segregation and hate speech, where only white straight men are deemed fit to run the country. The United States has evolved into a country of diversity and understanding. These changes have been made through the devotion of seemingly ordinary citizens yearning for a change, the supreme court getting cases associated with civil rights and laws that have been set in place to ensure the safety and security of all people who enter the country no matter the color of their skin, sexual orientation or gender. Though America still has many imperfections as does quite literally everything else in this world, anyone can attempt to adjust or fix

The United States of America is known as a country of independence, liberty, and rights; within the lines of our national anthem the Stars Spangled Banner, it is clear to see how the phrases "the land of the free and home of the brave", symbolize the ideals that have been centralized into the American Society for hundreds of years. Despite being recognized as a world power; for its military structure and the "believed" system of possibilities in terms of self advancement, the United States of America houses a very dark and inhumane secret; a sociological failure that perhaps is called that way, given the as a nation, we neglect, fail to address, and persecute those that because of their inherited skin color, look different than the accepted sociological norm of whiteness. It is shameful, to me at least, that the term "American" is a representation of the world 's largest incarceration rate; it’s even more shameful, how we prosecute, isolate, and declare what President Nixon once believed was the proper measure to take on poor communities; the war on drugs. For hundreds of years, we as a country have idealized with what Mustafa Emirbayer & Matthew Desmond have identified in their book Racial Domination, Racial Progress the Sociology of Race in America, as a mistake; mistake that has cost thousands of minorities their reputations and has impacted not only their tranquility, but their overall success rate in the promised land of opportunities.

The United States has been referred to as a melting pot, but what happens when the place where many come to chase a superficial “American Dream” fails us. And divides the nation more than it has been in the past as well as hurts businesses, and affects immigrants lives. Who knew one man who holds the most amount of power in the United States could be as close minded and oblivious due to his lack of racial knowledge. One thing many of us pride ourselves with is learning about other races and cultures and being racial ‘woke’ in order to decrease racism and racial injustices towards one another. By doing we help the quality of life of each other slightly better, instead of creating barriers that only divide us.

In today’s time, the United States of America have drifted off its course of trying to reach a utopia. Social problems are rising for many people of color and non-color people. The problems have been illuminated in politics, education, employment, and social media. Problems such as discrimination of a certain group of people, and economic hardship are the most common issues. Reflecting back on America’s history, America has had a long history of white versus black ever since the slavery era, which took place during the time of the civil war. Ever since then, the United States have striven and persevere to change its society ethics. But, America is now slowly shifting back to a world where white supremacy and people of color are immensely separated

As we go about our daily lives and interact with all kinds of people, from all kinds of backgrounds and different races, we often do not always stop to think of their skin color and the culture they may be from. We are often too busy to really stop and take notice of what is really happening to the lives of the people around us. Two Nations Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal by Andrew Hacker is remarkable book that spells out Andrew Hackers thoughts about the race and the American people. A question one may ask is, do we simply see people and not their color, or do we see black people and white people and does that play a factor in what we do, how we act, and what we say. Hacker claims that we are a country moving toward being two nations, one white and one black. He feels like we will be “Two nations, between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy: who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different time zones, or inhabitants of different planets”(Hacker preface).

The United States for years has been a country full of opportunities. As of the freedoms, the United States is a country full of many different types of people with their own cultures and different views of life. A reason for this is that, the United States is promoted as an interwoven country. The United States is the land of opportunities, but it can also be abundant in diversity and exclude others because of their culture or just the fact that people are not the same skin color. The color of one’s skin can also predict what opportunities people have in life. The United States may have a pluralistic society, but it can also be the greatest diverse country. Everyone in the United States no matter which race wants to achieve the American Dream

We have issues. More specifically the United States has issues, continuous and all encompassing issues of racial inequality.The United States is experiencing a outburst of racism, as can be seen from the 2014 killings of two unarmed African-American men, to the brutality of white supremacy in Charleston and the string of arsons in black churches across the South. Of course, it’s nothing new for a nation with a long history of extreme racist violence—the most recent lynching-related death occurred in 1981, hardly a lifetime ago, when Michael Donald was hanged by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.The United States, however, continues to avoid its history on race, refusing to confront its past in a “post-racial,” “colorblind” society, and that policy of systemic ignorance is particularly strong when mention of racial equality is brought up. Although the concept of equality has never truly existed in this world, as can be traced back to very beginnings of recorded history we see the nobles ruling the commoners, conquerors reigning over the conquered, the will of man dominating women, the United States needs to acknowledge the fact that racial inequality still exists within our country and has in no way progressed towards betterment.

However, race has drastically changed over the years. Race defines the way a person may be treated, the undefined parallel of equality between the same race and its gender and a different race with the same gender, and class placement. Simply meaning, if that race is worthy enough to be considered a doctor or lawyer. America’s reality compared to social media reality are two different identities. Represented socially are people coming together to defend a race, pursue the DREAMERS Act; for immigrants that are seeking a better economical and education lifestyle for their children and themselves, and protesting racism. America is trying to remove specific races from certain locations, illustrating a free country and “accepting all foreigners” and placing specific races in a specific work field because they are known to be naturally trained in. There are various questions about racial movements being less than before and confusions if, we are still living in the civil rights movement or have things been better or worse. Historically proven, an illustration of a drastic change, but emotional feel as producing more

Out of the jaws of civil war, the new United States had emerged. Broken and burning and minus 620,000 men, a new challenge lay before the nation: social equality. How would we address the sickening grievances endured by these African American now-citizens? That question has hallmarked fiery debates from dinner tables all the way to the Supreme Court for more than a century. During the Civil Rights Movement, millions of American citizens demonstrated across the country in pursuit of fairness, and famously in his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King championed the idea of a country that saw no color, but based judgement on the content of character. Through decades of policy, our government implemented social reform within institutions of education and employment. Collectively known as Affirmative Action, this social reform established racial preferences in favor of minority groups at the expense of whites and Asians. This social reform was unquestionably established in good faith, but into what has this festered now? The pursuit of fairness is perhaps the most American in spirit, and a goal toward which we all strive together. Unfortunately, the policies collectively known as Affirmative Action, however well-intended, have further widened the boundaries between us through some ideal of ‘righteous’ discrimination. The time has come, it seems, that our government and our nation rethink the policies

Today I woke up and realized how shaded the world is. I turned on the news and seen the country headed to a dark place because a White police officer shot and killed an unarmed Black child. Being Black has never been easy in United States. Growing up my mother always told me that you are born with two strikes against you already. She would say, “You are a male and you are Black.” I never understood what she meant until I had opened my eyes. At this point in United States’ history, a conflict of outstanding magnitudes is happening. The goal is to get United States to recognize that there is still abundant amount of work to be done to eradicate the wrongdoings that have been committed and continued against Blacks in this democracy. After years of hard work, and leaving many without any way to advance in a reasonable standard of living, does United States truly believe that it has freed itself of this circumstances by screaming, "You are equal!" A Black man goes into an interview after calling to make sure that it is still a job opening. After seeing the man in person, the owner of the store becomes uncomfortable and says that the job is filled. This is an example of what happens to Blacks on a day to day basis.