preview

Sexual & Racial Discrimination Essay

Decent Essays

Scott Kim
Communications 10
Prof. M. Goldstein

Katharine Hepburn, Harvey Milk, Fred Korematsu, and Kenneth Clark were all leaders representing minorities in America. These deviants to society made efforts to bring about positive cultural changes in times of strong sexual or racial discrimination. Great improvements have been made as a result of the contributions these citizens made to our country. In 1930’s America, the public view on gays and lesbians were not as liberal as they are today. It wasn’t until influential figures like Katharine Hepburn and Harvey Milk caused up a stir in social politics that changes were made. Katharine Hepburn was a successful Hollywood actor with major roles in big screen films as well as in …show more content…

His death came as a shock to the gay community and he is often seen as a martyr who died for the cause. Racism is a disease that is deeply ingrained in American society. It has its roots in the colonial era when slaves were brought over from Africa to help build this country. Since then, every new wave of immigrants with a different face or culture was faced with discrimination by the “White Christian Male”. African Americans had endured the worst end of racism for decades under the hands of the white man as well as other ethnicities that assimilated with the WEM’s (White European Male). Consequently, the culture and psyche of Black Americans had been bruised and many of them have a self-hating complex that regard anything of white culture to be superior to his or her own. Kenneth Clark was a psychologist who set out, once and for all, to prove that segregation is institutionalized racism. His “black doll/white doll” study is a great contribution to racial studies and it is used even to this day. Before the 60’s, the US had laws in place on how many immigrants of Asian descent would be permitted into the country. Even before that, the Japanese immigrants who were already settled in America faced much discrimination from the majority culture, though not nearly as severe as what the black people faced. Even so, they were still considered second-class to white people and were often not treated

Get Access