On a personal level, society needs a shift in its approach to race. Instead of creating divisions, Americans should try to understand their biases. Recently, initiatives with this goal have sprung up in universities. Soon after the Civil Rights Act, many universities in America implemented affirmative action initiatives, which sought to level the playing field between white and minority applicants, the latter traditionally having a disproportionately low acceptance rate. Doing so increased the minority population on campuses and brought the issue of discrimination to the forefront of national attention. By acknowledging historical patterns of discrimination and taking explicit action to reverse that trend, a peaceful method to decrease racial inequality emerged. However, white applicants have protested affirmative action, labeling it “reverse discrimination.” Yet this only emphasizes the faults in racial understanding – members of traditionally privileged groups recoil at the notion of elevating minorities, not realizing that their lower starting place necessitates a boost later. For unity, both groups must reach a mutual understanding about race’s role in modern society.
In the United States today discrimination is still an issue in society. As a society progress has definitely been made, but it has never fully gone away. Some of the most discriminatory action takes place in the American justice system. Young minority males between the ages of 25-29 are subject to being treated the most unfairly while whites of the same age are still being treated better than any race in this country. African American and Hispanic males are being incarcerated at higher rates than white males in America. Not only are minorities being incarcerated more, but also they are subject to harsher sentencing terms, fall victim to police racial profiling, and have disparities in the war on drugs. Also whites are still the dominant
In fairly recent years, the idea of reverse racism has been thrown around amongst people. Basically, it is when individuals or groups who have been discriminated against because of race in the past are now favored over others who hadn’t been discriminated against. For example, the idea that hispanics or blacks get more privileges because they are the minority in turn discriminates against white people, which could be seen as a major issue. Although this seems kind of absurd, the topic of reverse racism is catching a lot of attention from important sources. A handful of cases on the subject have been brought to the Supreme Court. The idea and issue of reverse racism first gained tons of attention when one case was brought to the nation 's highest court in the 70s, according to Associated Press. A student named Allan Bakke had accused the University of California medical school for denying him admission multiple times because he was white, even despite his good grades. After that, numerous other cases had made their ways to a handful of court systems, claiming that it is extremely unfair to discriminate against someone because they’re white. More recently, a teacher named Jon Everhart filed a lawsuit against the school that he taught at for this very reason. Katie Frates, a writer for the Daily Caller, tells us that despite all the great accomplishments Everhart had achieved in his many years of teaching, a fellow employee who later became his boss discriminated against
The United States is a multiracial society that has had many issues on racial disparity. The major ethics categories in the United States are Asians, African-Americans, Caucasians, Hispanic and Native Americans. Racism, a social problem in the United States since the founding of the country, is a belief that all people in that specific category has a certain characteristic. It distinguishes a race being inferior or superior to another. Historically, the white majority has always gotten better treatment than the other races. Out of all the other ethnic groups, “white has singled out of getting unequal treatment in the areas of housing, education, employment and criminal justice” (Racial Disparities). The Justice System is very well racially disperse because, African Americans as well as Hispanics, do not get the equal protection or social benefit from the government.
With new laws like affirmative action that have an intent on helping african americans as well as universities wanting more minorities in their programs, it’s causing white americans to get upset due to beliefs that the social system is not giving everybody equal opportunities. Whites have been labeling this as “reverse racism”.
Racism is a deeply ingrained problem in our social systems. Even though we publicly denounce racism, it still continues to be an issue in our everyday lives. We choose to be ignorant of racism 's influence until we see people affected by it on the news or in person. Even then, rarely do we choose to act upon what we see. The United States may have come a long way to completing Martin Luther King Jr 's dream, but our biases are still a prominent issue today.
“Racism is a system of power and privilege; it can be manifested in people’s attitudes but is rooted in society’s structure” (Collins, 2016). In the history of America, racism has been an on-going issue. Many people would argue that Americans have come a long way from where America used to be, and while that is true, why should the American people be satisfied with just that? Why not fight for complete transformation? Today the United States is more diverse than ever; however, diversity doesn’t automatically mean tolerance. Unfortunately, racism and white privilege still exist and impact American’s everyday lives.
Although our culture is said to be completely removed from the idea of racial discrimination, this sense of inequality can be seen occurring behind the scenes within our society. Within the subtopic of race, several areas including our current culture, social psychology and the current format of our social institutions allow for the production and often the reproduction of racial discrimination in our day and age. Throughout this course, the various readings and class lectures have been very beneficial when examining the impact that racial discrimination and inequality has on our society. In this paper, I will delve into the subtopic of race and ethnicity and expound on how it is greatly influenced by our culture, social psychology, and social institutions around us today.
There are approximately 7 billion people in this world. Each person has a unique combination of traits such as skin tone, face shape, body type, eye color, hair color, and other characteristics. These traits vary due to genetics, environmental factors, and much more. An individual 's race is defined by their physical characteristics and how they differ among others. Race is not defined by the way an individual behaves or portrays themselfes; it is based strictly off of their physical traits. Since America was founded, race has played a significant role in the relations of the citizens in this country. For decades, different races have been stereotyped and been prejudice towards one another, without realizing how invalid their judgements are. Specifically, African Americans have been discriminated by caucasians in America since it’s founding. It began by the enslaving of African Americans, and today, the discrimination and inequality is more hidden in society. Although America has made significant progress in overcoming racial inequality in the country, many African Americans are still being subject to hardships that Caucasian Americans do not face, especially in regards to the justice system.
From discrimination to prejudice, from explicit bias to implicit bias, from Jim Crow laws to the current American criminal justice system, there have been many changes, but the outcome has essentially remained the same: racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is treating someone differently only due to one’s race. Although it is said to be illegal in current times,it is still implemented through new techniques such as the modern criminal justice systems. Michelle Alexander discusses in her book, The New Jim Crow, how the current criminal justice system and mass incarceration are a viable analogy to “Jim Crow.” The analogy is apparent through the laws, historical examples, and current affairs as well.
The presidential election of Barak Obama has led many to believe that we live in a post-racial society. If an African-American candidate has been elected in a predominantly white nation, this must signify that the U.S. does not have barriers that hinder African-Americans and other people of color from accessing opportunities or that we live in a color-blind society – in which race is not an issue. However, public perception on police profiling and the fairness of our justice system, public support for Donald Trump’s discriminatory ideologies, and racist actions by fraternities at universities illustrate the prevalence and continuity of racism in the U.S. Thus, to address the way in which racism plagues our society, it is important for political leaders and the media to educate believers of a color-blind society that racial discrimination is an issue which needs to properly be addressed for the well-being of all member of society.
Throughout history, there has been discrimination against race, religion, gender, orientation, age, among many other things. From the British preventing the colonists’ rights to the “separate but equal” doctrine people used to justify discrimination against African Americans, America has had its fair share of it. After years of the mockery of equality that African Americans had, change was needed. Out of the thousands of voices who brought the winds of change, that were heard the most were: Martin Luther King Jr., for convincing people to join their cause; Thurgood Marshall, who used the law to get people to listen to their voices; and the Silent Majority, for without them, freedom would never truly ring from every mountainside.
In the history of The United States, there has always been a history of discrimination that has come from many different areas by many different people that have led to violent discrimination acts to members of our society (Miller, 2003). These violent acts have been based on members of society bias views of others race, sex, disabilities, sexual preferences, and religion (Greenhouse, 1993). The members of these groups that have been discriminated upon are minority members of our society that have had to fight for their rightful place as a member of the American Society, and still, fight prejudice today.
Since prejudice is so predominant it has cause a ripple in our country. A report that got some information about their perspectives of bigotry has found the country to in any case be profoundly isolated, with larger parts of black and white Americans holding almost inverse perspectives of the effect of skin pigmentation. Roughly 4 in 10 African Americans question that the nation will ever achieve the point where they are equivalents to whites, according the Pew Research Center. Almost 4 in 10 white Americans consider that has as of now happened. Greater parts of white individuals trust blacks are dealt with the same as them when applying for a home loan, in the work environment, and at the voting stall. Police treatment of blacks, the Black
Discrimination is also evident in employment. In the year 2000, students from the universities of Chicago and Washington teamed up to conduct a survey. They paired up a black man with a white man who were identical in almost every way, i.e.