Whiteness And Racism

In America’s history, each race has been portrayed as inferior or inferior, because of one’s skin color, or the beliefs of a culture. Oppression In early America varied in some ethnicities. Some races didn’t even have any civil liberties at all, they were not allowed to vote, not even allowed to become professionals. This was to keep everyone that was not of the superior race below them. Even though they are classified as U.S citizens. In most areas, the ruling race is the upper white class that runs the system, and have a disproportionate amount of power. In other areas, it may not be the white race, but it is still the race that makes up the majority. The majority, who makes the laws, and/or has money, are keys to dominate over the weaker minorities that don’t have the

The article “The Great White Way” by Debra J. Dickerson attempts to show her readers that “Race is an arbitrary system for establishing hierarchy and privilege” (68) in America. In her article, Dickerson questions how “whiteness” leads America in our culture and society and how all the other races are defined in America. She also explains how history has divided whites from non-whites in America. The intended audience that Dickerson’s essay gravitated towards are political or liberal Americans. In her article “The Great White Way”. Debra J. Dickerson powerfully argues that race is an overall way to establish social classes and who and what get special privileges because of their certain race or skin color. Dickerson argues that “Race is

‘Whiteness’ is a socially constructed category of race, where people who are not ‘white’ are racially designated while ‘whites’ escape designation as if their racial category is not historically and ideologically based (Puzan, 2003). Race is socially constructed (Dyer, 1997) and it is important to acknowledge this in order to address its impact. Unless whiteness is labelled and confronted, being ‘white’ is usually considered the ‘norm’ which acquires certain social privileges, while all other socially-constructed categories of ‘race’ are considered different or, as Puzan (2003) terms it, the ‘racialised Other’.

Since the beginning of time, individuals have been discriminated against based on their religion, culture, race, and sexual orientation. The article “How Did Jews Become White Folks?” by Karen B. Brodkin highlighted the struggles that European immigrants, Jews, and African Americans faced in the United States pre and post World War II. In her article Brodkin focused on the idea of “whiteness” in America, and how the word has evolved over time to include a variety of ethnicities.

This issue of racism is popular by name but tends to be sugar coated by the way people see it. In order to truly understand racism you need to take a bite into the topic in order to get a taste of what it is really like. Racism comes in many different forms and can be seen many different ways. But why even care about racism at all? Why does it even matter? One would think that with such a harsh background regarding racism in America it would no longer exist in society today. But sadly that is not the case here, racism continues to show up all over the country sometimes being worse than others but still racism is racism. People should all be considered equal regardless of what they look like, talk like, or even do that makes them who they are.

Whiteness is an integrative ideology that has transpired in North America throughout the late 20th century to contemporary society. It is a social construction that sustains itself as a dogma to social class and vindicates discrimination against non-whites. The power of whiteness is illustrated in social, cultural and political practices. These measures are recognized as the intent standard in which other cultures are persuaded to live by. Bell hooks discusses the evolution of whiteness in an innovative article in which she theorizes this conviction as normative, a structural advantage, an inclusive standpoint, and an unmarked name by those who are manipulating this interdisciplinary. Most intellects, including hooks, would argue that whiteness is a continuation of history; a dominant cultural location that has been unconsciously disclosing its normativity of cultural practice, advocating fear, destruction, and terror for those who are being affected by this designation.

The role of this article was to prove the fact that “whiteness” is a social construct and not a racial identity, which, in her own opinion, needs to be demolished. Expanding on this point, the author states it to be designed for the creation of a superior social group and how membership to this social superior group wasn’t based on skin color, but on social status instead. Additionally, she also states that due to the fact that “whiteness” is a social construct, its ideals are also bound to change over time as well, which is demonstrated in this case , through the example of the Irish being initially excluded from the idea of whiteness in the early 20th century. Here, she elaborates further on how the Irish later became incorporated into this “superior social group” to prevent the low-wage Irish and African-Americans from forming an economic bloc and to also slow down the economic competitiveness of African-American

Race is in a fluid motion and changes constantly with society because it is an economic and political construct. Historically, the white dominance was vindicated because of false biological account that white people were superior (Frankenberg, 1993,

When looking at a person the first thing we notice is appearance and base judgment of that we tend to make assumptions about a person. From birth, we have no say in our race, the color of our eyes, hair or skin tone. In Germany, Hitler eliminated more than 65 billion jews due to dividing race. White people took the freedom of African African due to their color but before that many races took advantage of others due to hate or resources. In this chapter, the race comes into the term with stereotyping the minority group and fighting to be the dominant group or fitting in. Typically America is seen as the melting pot, where all these race come together as one. In the following documentary, Understanding Race and white people explore cities like New York, North

Grants the cultural authority to make judgment onto others and to have those judgments stick, it allows people to define reality and to have prevailing definitions of reality fit their experience…in other words in societies in which white people are the dominant group, whiteness goes unmarked. Whiteness becomes the unacknowledged norm or standard by which all others are measured (p. 18).

Race and racism have been the most dominant concepts in the American ideological space. Most people see this as a way of identifying themselves while at the same time serving as a tool of separation. For the Americans, race is an identity signified by the color of the skin and the type of physical features a person has. The colors are genetically inherited; that is they are passed on from the parent to the offspring. This is highlighted as a case of both science and philosophy because people who belong to different parentage are always expected to have different physical appearances. Presently, American is made up of people with different physical appearances. It is ideally a representation of all people globally. America is a place that has the widest variety of the people that can be found. In the event that people from these races wish to segregate themselves, this will be practically easy because they will be determined by the color of their skin. The physical appearances are easy to decipher and bring out at any time. This is what has made racism easily possible in the United States; the fact that one can easily identify another from the way they appear and chose to identify them as either their own or alien.

White people have an invisible package of unearned assets. Invisible in the way that they can't be seen or touched, but can be cashed in everyday at colored peoples expense. White people have these unearned advantages and privileges just for being white, and in our society this leads to a systematic tendency to over empowerment, where denial of these advantages occurs leading to no changes in society.

The concept of Whiteness has been taken advantage off by politicians. There is a sentiment by minorities that White people do not understand the struggle of other races because of their background and fight against change to the system. In the textbook by Farley it states, “Through such denial, whites are able to create a rationalization that that system is fair and that reform is not needed” (260). There is a rationalization that the system is fair for white that it must be fair for everyone else. Whiteness as a group has been vague, but as a movement. it is gaining speed.

Throughout history, people have used the words “whiteness”, “white”, and “dream”. These words all had many different uses; some good, and others bring people down, or put them below others. “Whiteness” and “White” are words used everywhere, and they elicit an emotional response from people, impacting how an audience view these words. To some “white” could be symbolic of the hurt, and degration; due to the fact that people use it as a way as a cause for negitive separation. For certain populations “whiteness” was used to justify unequality, and there wasn’t a chance for change. This goes all the way back to England before revolution of America. Where there was the discrimination wasn’t even all based on color, but on ethic and religion. Yet over the years people started to see what was wrong with segrating different people out by ethic groups, instead of by their actions.

To understand whether or not racism is learnt, we first have to divulge into the nature of racism. It is usually assumed that racism has been a part of civilisation since civilisation started, that it is embedded into how people work and that no matter what, it will always exist. Another assumption is that racism derives from the capitalism of the slave trade by white elitist men seeking to dehumanize people for economic gain, and used racism as a way to mask their financial motives to justify enslavement as righteous. After anti-slavery movements began to happen, the capitalist motives behind slavery “took on a new form as the justification of the ideology of imperialism” [4].