Race: The Role Of Racism In The United States

Racism seems to be a cultural crutch that stems from the hatred and backwash of american history, leading us to believe it still affects us in a major way today. But what if we were colorblind? Would this change the way we see ourselves? Whether we know it or not racism and the concept of race itself affects everybody in day to day life. It affects us as a country, as a person, politically, and socially. As Coates makes it very clear that race on its own causes racism, not the other way around causes one to think that things could possibly be a little different. Including me. Unfortunately the the striking relevance falls onto my family tree as well. My Mother and her twin, my

Many famous individuals of color in our history have hoped to one day live in a nation without the feeling of a segregation between different ethnicities. Unfortunately, these hopes have still not come to fruition in our society today. The United States is still rocked by the idea that one pigment of color is superior to another. This discrimination is caused by a lack of education in our generation and an aversion to difference that has been passed down from our ancestors. Rick Wormeli in “Let’s Talk About Racism in Schools” argues “The violence among U.S. residents of different colors, cultures, religions, and political groups has heated to new levels. Social media may have exacerbated the divisive rhetoric and fanned the flames of hatred more than in past decades, but the intense distrust and contempt, and the inability to resolve these feelings in a civil manner, didn’t start with social media. They are the new normal for many.” (citation). The movie Crash, accurately depicts these problems that we have seen with racism in our country for the past hundred years and more abundantly today. In this essay, I will be discussing how the movie crash helps reveal the fact that racism is multicultural, how racism affects the crime rates in our younger generations, and how the nation can begin to heal from racism.

Every day an extensive amount of people have to face hatred and bullying. Huge conflicts occur and lives are lost. The issue that plays a significant part in all of this is racism. It affects individuals and communities in every corner of the world.

Although there are some with varied findings, most studies has concluded that “jurors of one race tend to show bias against defendants who belong to another race” and that the difference in race “influenced both verdicts and sentencing” (Kang et al., 2012, p.1142/3). Judges, “both as citizens and as elected officials,” can also be prone to the general implicit bias in society and allow racial stereotypes to affect their decisions regarding the incarceration of an offender (Steffensmeier, 1998, p.768). It is therefore not surprising that research suggests that “in one hundred otherwise identical trials, eight more Black than White defendants would be found guilty” (Kang et al., 2012, p.1142/3) and receive longer sentences (Steffensmeier, 1998, p.775). Oliver (2003) notes

get they where paid half the amount a white man would be paid to the

Racism goes a long way down the American history. It came as a result of slavery which began in 1619 when African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, which was an American colony in the North, to help in producing crops such as tobacco. Slavery was then a common practice in all American colonies through the 17th and 18th centuries, where African slaves helped in building the economic foundations of the now American nation. Slavery was then spread to the South in 1793, with the new invention of the cotton gin. About halfway through the 19th century, there was immense westward expansion in America, together with the spreading abolition movement in the North,

Racism, a controversial topic in contemporary American society, has only been accentuated in recent years due to interracial violence, especially violence portrayed by white police officers on black individuals. This violence has led to even more violence and protests upon the police officers as the protesters, mainly black, feel as if they are being policed unfairly. These protests have ranged from mainly peaceful to full on chaos and violence. One could connect this interracial violence and protests to several different criminological theories, including conflict theory, differential selection and processing hypothesis, and neutralization theory. Likewise, these theories could be combined with an end-to end theoretical integration method in order to strengthen empirical validity.

Racism is the trend of thought, or way of thinking, which attaches great importance to the notion of the existence of separate human races and superiority of races that are usually associated with inherited physical characteristics or cultural events. Racism is not a scientific theory, but a set of preconceived opinions they value the biological differences between humans, attributing superiority to some according to racial roots. Even in such ethnically diverse country as the United States, racism continues evident against people of different ethnic traits and skin color. According to Steinberg (Steinberg, 1995), racial discrimination has been the most important cause of inequality between whites and blacks in the U.S. Because of that, minorities in American society have been fighting over years for equal rights and respect, starting with the civil rights movement in 1960s. Also, public policies implemented since 1964 in the United States have been instrumental in reducing economic inequality between blacks and whites, such as the affirmative action, a federal program that tries to include minority groups by providing jobs and educational opportunities (Taylor, 1994). From this perspective, does racism still play a dominant role in American values and American society? If so, what are the consequences of this racism that still remain in American society? What is the impact of the Barack Obama presidency on the unending fight against racism in this country?

Racism proves to be another issue among a culturally diverse group. One proves to be judged before one has the chance to live up to who one “thinks” they are. According to Anup Shah (2010), “Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others.”(para. 1) As society becomes more culturally diverse, ignorance proves to take over the thought process of those unwilling and too narrow minded to accept what one does not know. This can not only hurt those directly involved, but indirectly as well. Interaction among those who prove to be culturally diverse proves to increase, and because of these issues arise that at times can be very traumatizing. Racism can limit the mount in which one culture reacts or interacts with another. Take for example those who resemble the men who caused 9/11. Then think about how many women and children, that because they look like those men have been shunned by other cultures and classified as unacceptable or dangerous. The cycle

Evidently, the impact of racism affects us individually and the social construction of our reality, because eventually, it enters our institutions and our society. However, racism ultimately stems from social discrimination and prejudice, and a major part of this is fostered through the mass media. Essentially, the media plays a critical role, as it portrays an image of who we are and what we are about, and as visual and social learners, this reflects a worldview we familiarize ourselves with. According to studies, the media perpetuates certain ways we should identify things, and usually, this emphasizes that the White race is the dominant race. This demonstrates what is accepted within the dominant ideology, thus creating barriers and inequality.

In today’s world, we live and strive in a very media driven manner. The media can sway people’s attitudes towards a certain direction and individuals’ beliefs, morals, and the significance of the media in that period of time. Racism is known as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. For example, the media has “essentialized” the meaning of terrorism destroying the religion of Islam. Due to racial profiling, we regard terrorists as any type of brown male wearing all black, linear scarfs around their necks, and speaks a foreign language that very it is the incomprehensible to understand. Society we live in and hence we have no choice to deal with

After living in a place like Bend Oregon for 18 years I haven’t ever noticed a difference between blacks and whites. Bend has been said to be “one of the whitest places to live”, yet I never viewed a city by its race. Being racist to me meant that it was the whites who had a problem with the blacks and whites didn’t want anything to do with blacks. I hadn’t actually seen racism in action from anyone here. Now, after watching the film Crash and reading the essays “Blinded by the White: Crime, Race and Denial at Columbine High” written by Tim Wise and “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” written by McIntosh, my understanding of race, diversity, and communications have changed.

Since the devastating events that occurred in Charlottesville this weekend, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the dangerous path America is heading down in regards to race relations. The sheer number of young American men and boys who have aligned themselves alongside White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis is disconcerting, to say the least. Many of the faces publicized on social media outlets such as twitter, exposed that many of the young men in Charlottesville were college students (some of which are presidents or leaders in their university's "Republican Club."

Racism has been an ongoing social justice issue for decades, and we seem to always fail to make it stop. According to Dummett (as cited in Fernando, 1984), racism is the behaviour and attitude that emerges from our beliefs that certain people are different from us. These differences are mainly based on race, where people come from, physical characteristics, such as colour and hair type or behavioural characteristics, and that people categorized must be treated differently based on their needs, capabilities and rights. Usually there is one dominant and superior group and a few inferior groups (Dummett, as cited in Fernando, 1984). Coates and Morrison (2011) suggests that what we distinguish as real and true may not always be real and that things may not always be as it seems. Coates and Morrison (2011) also states that we live in a racial matrix, where we have this illusion of reality and that differences associated with racial status and hierarchies are perceived as the norm in society and this perception of reality is not easy to get rid of. There are four types of racism; subtle racism, colorism, internalized racism and reverse racism (Nittle, 2016). Racism can be explicit, but it can also be very subtle and covert, which is a huge problem, as most people do not even notice it and they do not realize that it happens on a day-to-day basis (Coates and Morrison, 2011). Racism is not only one problem or concern, as it is brings along a variety of other problems and is compiled

When I first arrived in the US racism was not a concern at all, after all I was just a child. Racism didn’t hit me until I started school. The kids were friendly teachers were sweet and even the parents, at least to me. I remember over hearing a parent talking to my mother about some Mexican little girl who's nothing but trouble and firmly suggested that I should not be hanging around with that Mexican girl. My mother snapped at her saying that " that Mexican girl has a name, she's been in our children's class since PreK, and may I remind you I also have a Mexican girl who happens to be my daughter." The lady took a step back trying to fix her words as she said, "oh well Hilda is okay because she has you and Alan." "so you mean because we are