Social Consequences Of Race In The United States

In his essay, “The Souls of the Black Folk” Du Bois (1903) states that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line,-the relation of the darker to lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” (275). According to Appelrouth and Edles (2012: 269) “the color line is both a preexisting social and cultural structure and an internalized attitude”. In addition, they explain that the color line “addresses the historical and institutional (i.e., colonial) dimensions of race” (269).

The book has as its principal thesis the consideration of race as “a folk classification, a product of popular beliefs about human differences that evolved from 16th to 19th centuries” (Smedley, 2007, pag.24). The book also specifies three characteristics that distinguish the racial ideology in America: the absence of a category for biracial people, the homogenization of the black or African American Americans, and the impossibility to change a person’s race. (Smedley, 2007, pag.7)

Throughout American history, relationships between racial and ethnic groups have been marked by antagonism, inequality, and violence. In today’s complex and fast-paced society, historians, social theorists and anthropologists have been known to devote significant amounts of time examining and interrogating not only the interior climate of the institutions that shape human behavior and personalities, but also relations between race and culture. It is difficult to tolerate the notion; America has won its victory over racism. Even though many maintain America is a “color blind nation,” racism and racial conflict remain to be prevalent in the social fabric of American institutions. As a result, one may question if issues and challenges

Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant made me readjust my understanding of race by definition and consider it as a new phenomenon. Through, Omi and Winant fulfilled their purpose of providing an account of how concepts of race are created and transformed, how they become the focus of political conflict, and how they shape and permeate both identities and institutions. I always considered race to be physical characteristic by the complexion of ones’ skin tone and the physical attributes, such as bone structure, hair texture, and facial form. I knew race to be a segregating factor, however I never considered the meaning of race as concept or signification of identity that refers to different types of human bodies, to the perceived corporal and phenotypic makers of difference and the meanings and social practices that are ascribed to these differences, in which in turn create the oppressing dominations of racialization, racial profiling, and racism. (p.111). Again connecting themes from the previous readings, my westernized influences are in a direct correlation to how to the idea of how I see race and the template it has set for the rather automatic patterns of inequalities, marginalization, and difference. I never realized how ubiquitous and evolving race is within the United States.

People have been stereotyped into a certain group because of their skin color or they have been discriminated against because of how they dress, their name, or even their hairstyle. Minorities such as African Americans deal with this type of racial discrimination every day because of their skin color and the way they might sound despite if they do not sound as the way they appear. For example, if an African American person walked into an interview dressed nicely and clean and a caucasian went in for an interview dressed just as nice and clean, the Caucasian application is more likely to get the job and receive a higher rating than the African American applicant. (Zimmerman) It might seem to the naked eye that minorities in general somewhat have the same opportunities as Caucasian people but in fact they do not really have them. All in all, there is still racial discrimination in America and African Americans do not have the same opportunities as Caucasians in housing, education, and jobs.

This is when race was the central topic of world history. In the mean time according to him, the color line also has significant subjective dimensions. He also examines race as symbolic and experiential reality.  With our modern society, we see a great shift in the racism, or the color line. The perfect example given in our book is about the election of Barack Obama for presidency. As we know that was one of the biggest events in the history of the US.  Having a president of color, shows how far we have come. Children today will be less likely to take white dominance, because they live in a world where there are also education African Americans, such as Obama and the first lady.  However, as mentioned in the book “racialization continues to be a powerful force in the United States” (pg 349). Statistics show that there are still more black males in prisons than other races. White communities are still healthier, and have higher educational differences than people in color.

Despite changes in the landscape for treatment of ethnic minorities in the United States over the past 200 years, issues with racism has never stopped being an issue and continues to tarnish and tatter the very fabric of our nation. There has been a history of violence against Black people that dates back 400 years, to a time when the first slave was forcefully brought here to the USA (Rogers, 2015). From that time on, people of African descent have been dehumanized and treated as second-class citizens and this has become an ongoing community issue (Diversi, 2016). Racial classification was created as a way to condone slavery and maintain the primacy of the white race (Tolliver, Hadden, Snowden, & Manning, 2016). Aymer (2016) explains that the Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides a way to understand that the violence that Blacks face in America originates from the societal belief in White superiority and, when trying to understand the Black reality, centuries of racial oppression must be discussed (Aymer, 2016). CRT acknowledges that racism is primarily a problem in America and has contributed to the social disparities in the U.S. In addition, it notes other forms of oppression that are important to discuss and work through. CRT does not believe in the legal rhetoric that there is an impartial, equal way of dealing with individuals in the community that has nothing to do with color and everything to do with achievement and hard work. It also takes on an interdisciplinary

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,-- the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” (W.E.B DuBois). This is part of the theme in the novel The Souls of Black Folk, which is based on an actual story/ autobiography of an African American leader, W.E.B DuBois. The narrator DuBois writes about race relations in the United Sates distributing the color-line. The color-line is the fundamental issue of racial conflict between the blacks and whites. It deals with the inequality and disparity of living in America as an African American.

When watching a TED talk you automatically know your going to leave with some new profound thought or have your ways of thinking changed slightly. The primes behind TED talks is “Ideas worth spreading” right there in their mission statement is what persuasive speech is. In Ms. Alexander’s TED talk she did just that, she spread the idea to her audience of what the future of race in America will look like if we don’t seek to change the social, economical, and political policies that almost certainly put people in america as legal second class citizens.

What can we say about race in America that has not been said before? In reading the book, one gets more disheartened yet. Though the author's statistics are now dated, I found a calculation made by the National Criminal Justice Commission that by the year 2020, 33.3 percent of African Americans and 25.6% of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 34 will be incarcerated most frustrating as those numbers would seem to apply to the loss of young people through war or epidemics such as aids. In the harsh environment of prisons, race becomes the all- encompassing issue.

Race is an integral part of identity in the United States of America. Race has become a norm for many individuals, although biologically race is not a real thing. After reading “How to kill yourself and Others in America”, the problems of race become more clear and noticeable in society today. Even though many Americans believe that they live in a post-racial society, this is far from the truth. Race is still a problem is many places in America (this can be seen in some recent events with the police). From what I can see race doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem in Albion, but it still is an issue. Race is a major factor in America, and it seems to be killing America, as Kiese Laymon points out multiple times in his book.

Race relations in the USA today had gotten worse since the 1930s. People today use the names that we have gotten back in the past that people call each other to not be friendly. They each other names that relates to their color. Over the years it had, yes, gotten worse.

Race is biologically not something that can be changed. A person is born into a race, and this will determine their physical traits, such as hair, eyes, skin color, etc. Race can also determine what diseases that a person can be predisposed to. Such as the African American is predisposed to sickle cell disease and high blood pressure. Medications also work differently with different races, so doctors have to keep this in mind when prescribing medications. Sociologically, it is these physical traits that can determine people’s reactions to an individual. For instance, at this point in time people tend to view those of Arab decent with more suspicion than they would any other race. Race is also what causes a lot of prejudice, people have always

Race relations characterizes an extensive global phenomenon that reflects complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups, particularly applicable to the dominant and subordinate groups over time. My social research will place emphasis on quantified data to measure current perception towards the future dynamics of it in our civilization. Accomplices weighed in through the evaluation of their racial attitudes bearing in mind the country’s legacy of heavy immigration, slavery, and expansion into Native American lands across the continent. I go on to further conceptualize on how racism evasiveness for people of color as the action ensuing after the post-civil rights era. On the whole, these assessments have polarized in binary terms of the non-white and white paradigm when addressing a long-recurring theme within the United States of America.

How do you see race, ethnicity, and gender issues, trends, and demographics 10 or 20 years from now in USA society?Â