After centuries of fighting, protesting, and labor, the fight for equality seemed to reach a conclusion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 brought an end to segregation and promoted full equal opportunities for not only African Americans but other ethnicities as well. America elected Barack Obama as its president, allowed certain months to represent cultural awareness, and immigration numbers augmented. However, regardless of the fact that the country becomes increasingly diverse by the day and heavy, racial social boundaries no longer exist, racism, prejudice, and stereotypes still exist. “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line” (McQuade 391) says it the best; racial and ethnicity still remain underlying causes for conflicts and many other national issues as said in the text. Supporting its own claim, the text refers to the essay “This is how we lost to the white man” by Ta-Nehisi Coates to reemphasize the racial tensions and differences existing in today’s society. Combining researched articles and the text resources, strong evidence of racial inequality and tension still exists to this day.
Coates’ article “This is how we lost to the white man” provides Bill Cosby’s viewpoint on the subordinate order of blacks to whites. Coates attended one of Cosby’s speeches at a small Detroit church and listened as he preached to the audience. More specifically, Cosby targeted African American males in his speech, due to the fact that a substantial amount of them abandoned their responsibilities as fathers. Cosby starts the speech by ensuring African American equality; he attempts to convince they crowd that “We are not a pitiful race of people” (447) and he spent the entirety of the speech convincing change. Cosb...
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McQuade, Donald, and Christine McQuade. Seeing & writing 4. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Print.
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Since the election of President Barrack Obama in 2008, many people have started to believe that America is beyond racial inequalities - this is not the reality. Rather, we, as a society, chose to see only what we want to see. Discrimination is still rampant in our nation. Michelle Alexander explains that since the Jim Crow laws were abolished, new forms of racial caste systems have taken their place. Our society and criminal justice system claim to be colorblind, but this is not the actuality. Michelle Alexander explains:
Few things have impacted the United States throughout its history like the fight for racial equality. It has caused divisions between the American people, and many name it as the root of the Civil War. This issue also sparked the Civil Rights Movement, leading to advancements towards true equality among all Americans. When speaking of racial inequality and America’s struggle against it, people forget some of the key turning points in it’s history. Some of the more obvious ones are the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the North, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington D.C. in 1963. However, people fail to recount a prominent legal matter that paved the way for further strides towards equality.
After slavery ended, many hoped for a changed America. However, this was not so easy, as slavery left an undeniable mark on the country. One problem ended, but new problems arose as blacks and whites put up “color lines” which led to interior identity struggles. These struggles perpetuated inequality further and led W. E. B. Du Bois to believe that the only way to lift “the Veil” would be through continuing to fight not only for freedom, but for liberty - for all. Others offered different proposals on societal race roles, but all recognized that “double consciousness” of both the individual and the nation was a problem that desperately needed to be solved.
...livered his same points in a more formal manner with less humor. If Cosby had addressed his listeners as a collective union instead of fragmented denominations, listeners would have been coherent in relating to the problems presented by Cosby. Cosby uses the rhetorical device of pathos by placing guilt on African-American parents. Furthermore, Cosby repetitively informs his listeners that absence in parenting is the telltale root of all problems faced in the African-American community and its presence, alternatively, as the key solution to eradicating those problems; however, he does not thoroughly delve into describing the solutions or present methods on how to accomplish better parenting via examples. The combination of these aforementioned shortcomings contributed to the poor reception, criticism, and disparagement Cosby received in the aftermath of his speech.
The election of Barack Obama to the presidency was a fundamental symbol of unity for all races in America. It highlighted the Americans’ willingness to traverse racial boundaries. In the article, there was a comment by an African American woman who stated, “As an American citizen, I am proud that this country has elected a bi-racial president” showing renewed hope in the issue of racism.” There was also a comment by a white female American citizen who stated, “I was deeply moved by his acceptance speech and I 'm proud of our country for finally getting (at least somewhat) past the race issue” highlighting elation at the thought of having a black president. It is clear that the election of Barack Obama acted as a unifying factor for both the white and the black communities as a whole. The movement tends to be seen as a stride towards the end of
America is considered to be a county where white privilege is unearned, where social status is dignified and the whites are highly educated. In a society that favors one group, there are some similarities between the “people of color”, like Asian Americans and African Americans, who share an identity of struggle. Broad physical similarities, such as skin color, are now used efficiently, if also often inaccurately, to identify the difference between racial groups. However, economic, political and social forces in the US work to keep these groups separated from the privileged society.
Across the nation, millions of Americans of all races turn on the television or open a newspaper and are bombarded with images of well dressed, articulate, attractive black people advertising different products and representing respected companies. The population of black professionals in all arenas of work has risen to the point where seeing a black physician, attorney, or a college professor are becoming more a common sight. More and more black people are holding positions of respect and authority throughout America today, such as Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Condelezza Rice and many other prominent black executives. As a result of their apparent success, these black people are seen as role models for many Americans, despite their race. However, these groups of black people are exceptions to the rule and consist of only a tiny fraction of all black Americans. These black people in turn actually help to reinforce the inequality of black Americans by allowing Americans of other races to focus on their success. A common thought is, "They made it, why can't you do the same?" The direct and truthful answer to that question is Racism.
In the past, it is true that African American have suffered injustice, however, today there are still some wounds that needs healing from harsh treatment blacks people experience from whites people back during the civil right movement. Now, some whites are in positions where they are able to use their authority and demand unnecessary respect from minorities in certain situations, just so they could be in control. “In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived, had no moral ground on which to stand” (Baldwin, 2000, p31). For instance, threatening to fire or suspend someone for not allowing them to be in control is the same attitude people had back then. Because of this, some blacks feel that they need to respond in any way possible to make their point. In other words, the attitude that some blacks have express at some point could be aggressive at time.
The United States of America was formed on the basis of freedom for all, but the definition of “all” is very arbitrary. Racial adversity has been an ongoing factor throughout the United States’ history. However, from 1877 to the present, there have been many strides when trying to tackle this problem, although these strides were not always in the right direction. All the books read throughout this course present the progression of race and race relations over the course of America’s history.
The town I grew up in is Show Low, Arizona. Surrounding Show Low are many small neighboring towns. These towns all come together to form the White Mountains. Most of the citizens of my community are of a Caucasian background. There are also some different minority groups that come from different background that also live there. The majority of the non-Caucasian residents are of Native Americans decent and Mexican decent. There are Native Americans because of the Apache Reservation that lies to the East, and the Mexicans have immigrated because of the vast amount of construction jobs. The mixture of these different groups has caused many different problems with in the community of the White Mountains. There lies within the community old roots of prejudice and discrimination towards people of different cultures. Not only does prejudice still run high, but has also been a hindrance to the progress of the community, which has not just affected the progress of the community, but most likely the traditions will be passed down of prejudice and discrimination to the children of Show Low and the rest of the White Mountains.
Both authors have recognized the fundamental structures behind privilege –specifically white privilege in America. Their purpose and that of many civil right activists of our era is to bring awareness to those who are in positions of privilege to bring change that fosters the spirit of inclusion, reform and progression into America’s social and mainstream environments.
Diversity, we define this term today as one of our nation’s most dynamic characteristics in American history. The United States thrives through the means of diversity. However, diversity has not always been a positive component in America; in fact, it took many years for our nation to become accustomed to this broad variety of mixed cultures and social groups. One of the leading groups that were most commonly affected by this, were African American citizens, who were victimized because of their color and race. It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s during the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place yet, it is the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools. Integration in white schools played a major role in the battle for Civil Rights in the South, upon the coming of independence for all African American people in the United States after a series of tribulations and loss of hope.
Today, there is racial tension all around the world. Racial tension means the feeling that exists when people do not trust and be aggressive to each other. In Malaysia, racial tension has deepened recently. The Indian government has released an advisory for its foreign students that studying in Australia which showed that racial tension appeared around the White and Indian (“MEA issues travel advisory to Indian students in Aus”, 2010). Racial tension between the Han and Uighur communities in Xinjiang, China was enhanced in July 2009. There are several factors that causes racial tension to happen such as religion topic, government policy, prejudice and discrimination.
Before any steps could be taken for the equality of human kind, we had the tackle the idea of intergrationism. This time is often referred to as the Nadir of American Race Relations, which simply put means that racism was at its worst during the time period of the Civil Rights Movement. Pulling together for equality proved to be a grueling task for Americans. In order to move into the future, one must let go of the past, and many people were not eager to abandon the beliefs that had been engrained in them since birth. Racial discrimination was present nationwide but the outrageous violence of African Americans in southern states became know as Jim Crow Laws.
A social inequality that I would say I’m concerned with would be, racial and ethnic inequality. Racial or ethnic inequality is often established based on characteristics such as skin color and other physical characteristics, or a person’s place of origin or culture. Another meaning of racial inequality would be the advantages and disadvantages that affect different races within the Unites States. Race has become a socially constructed category capable of restricting or enabling social status. Racial inequality can lead to diminished opportunities, which can also lead to cycles of poverty and political problems. With this minority members in a society can result in discriminating actions such as; exclusion, oppression, expulsion, and extermination.