What does it mean to live in a well lived life? Some may define it as where one’s living necessities are met. Others may put value on relationships between other sentient beings. How does such a multitude of social injustices and poor living conditions exist within a country that claims to promote equality for all people? A common expression is that America is a melting pot. In truth, America is a melting pot of discrimination and injustice. For example, African Americans, who are 13% of the population and 14% of drug users, are not only 37% of the people arrested for drugs but 56% of the people in state prisons for drug offenses. Institutional racism is a vital factor that permeates numerous injustices throughout our society. Institutional racism refers to specific policies and/or institutions which consistently result in unequal treatment for particular groups. I argue that institutional racism constitutes an injustice and through using Rawls theory, the veil of ignorance, institutional racism can be rectified.
I argue that institutional racism constitutes an injustice. One example is, African Americans, who are 13% of the population and 14% of drug users, are not only 37% of the people arrested for drugs but 56% of the people in state prisons for drug offenses. Another example is that with the high rate of gunshot victims in the south side of Chicago, there are not enough trauma centers to treat victims and the one facility that has the capacity to do so ignores such wounds. Referring back to the first example, the rights and liberties of citizens are not distributed equally. This is not the egalitarian society that Rawls proposes in his theories. With these statistics, it is clear that different ethnicities rights are le...
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... person, the rights to vote, to hold public office, to be treated in accordance with the rule of law, and so on. The principle ascribes these rights and liberties to all citizens equally.” Consequently, this means that our institutions are not giving equal treatment to others. Teleologically, it gets away from the main purpose of medicine itself which is to help and save people. We are placing the value of money over the value of human life. This is the wrong at stake here. We are dehumanizing people. Furthermore, since”leaving one's society is not a realistic option for most people” we have created a society that habituates institutional racism. We isolate communities to create habitual social problems that consist of drugs, violence, and a plethora of other ones. This is the moral context that is at stake when we discuss the fundamentals of institutional racism.
Despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action, racism evolved from the blatant discrimination of the 1960s like segregation, to the slightly more passive racism of the 1990s such as unfair arrests/jail time (Taylor). Curtis’ writes three decades after the aforementioned progress and yet, looking back on the 90s, there is an alarming amount of similarities between the two.
Alexander (2010) describes the New Jim Crow as a moment where society have already internalized the stereotypes of African American men as violent and more likely to commit crimes and where mass incarceration has been normalized – especially in poor areas– . That is, today is seen as normal that black parents are missing in their homes because they are in institutions of control (p.181). She also stresses American society denies racism when they assume the justice system works. Therefore, she claims that “mass incarceration is colorblind” (p.183). American society does not see the race biased within the institutions of control.
Black Power, the seemingly omnipresent term that is ever-so-often referenced when one deals with the topic of Black equality in the U.S. While progress, or at least the illusion of progress, has occurred over the past century, many of the issues that continue to plague the Black (as well as other minority) communities have yet to be truly addressed. The dark cloud of rampant individual racism may have passed from a general perspective, but many sociologists, including Stokely Carmichael; the author of “Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America”, have and continue to argue that the oppressive hand of “institutional racism” still holds down the Black community from making any true progress.
What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than directly rely on race, we use the criminal justi...
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
Racial discrimination is a pertinent issue in the United States. Although race relations may seem to have improved over the decades in actuality, it has evolved into a subtler form and now lurks in institutions. Sixty years ago racial discrimination was more overt, but now it has adapted to be more covert. Some argue that these events are isolated and that racism is a thing of the past (Mullainathan). Racial discrimination is negatively affecting the United States by creating a permanent underclass of citizens through institutional racism in business and politics, and creating a cancerous society by rewriting the racist history of America. Funding research into racial discrimination will help society clearly see the negative effects that racism
Randall, Vernellia. “What is Institutional Racism?” Dying While Black. 9 Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Nov 2013.
In relation to the Critical Race Theory, the idea of the “gap between law, politics, economics, and sociological reality of racialized lives” (Critical Race Theory slides). The critical race theory gives us a guide to analyze privileges and hardships that comes across different races and gender. For example, analyzing how and why a “black” or “indigenous” woman may experience more hardships versus not only a “white” man, but a “white”
...se them to geographic targeting, police brutality, disproportionate incarceration and sentencing rates. Get tough on crime ideologies as well as mass incarceration practices encouraged by mainstream American citizens and policy makers alike, result in further oppression and complicate individual’s abilities to achieve social and economic success. In order for the United States to attain a “post-racial status,” biases in society should be eliminated therefore encouraging police bias’ to be removed, additional concern should be had for individuals in low-income, urban areas, and sentencing and arrest practices should be equalized across all races. Many sociological issues have a role in how the criminal justice system operates and until further notice, it remains unequal and supportive of racist policies that keep this country from attaining a “post racial status”.
This Critical Essay Builds Upon the Concepts of Rawls and King to Examine the Potential for Justice in America
To look closely at many of the mechanisms in American society is to observe the contradiction between constitutional equality and equality in practice. Several of these contradictions exist in the realm of racial equality. For example, Black s often get dealt an unfair hand in the criminal justice system. In The Real War on Crime, Steven Donziger explains,
Rudolph, Alexander Jr. Racism, African Americans and Social Justice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005. 71. Print.
Racist and racism are provocative words in American society. To some, they become curse words. They are descriptive words of reality that cannot be denied. Some people believe that race is the primary determinant of human abilities and capacities and behave as if racial differences produce inherent superiorities. People of color are often injured by these judgements and actions whether they are directly or indirectly racist. Just as individuals can act in racist ways, so can institutions. Institutions can be overtly or inherently racist. Institutions can also injure people. The outcome is nonetheless racist, if not intentional (Randall).
In this essay, the position I will argue is that it is not ethical to allow an elderly white man to discriminate against African American health care professionals from entering his home. The African American race is a recognized minority in the United States representing only 13.1% of the population (US Quickfacts). Compared to the Caucasian population holding 77.9% of the population, African American’s are in the minority (US Quickfacts). With the knowledge that the African American race is a minority, they are less represented. Using three outlets to support my position, I will make a case against racial discrimination in a health care environment, specially the elderly white man’s home. First, I will use laws and policies that have been passed to protect against racial discrimination in the United States. Second, I will reference moral teachings to illustrate how legal standing can be supported in ethical decision-making. Lastly, I will argue my position against racial discrimination in a private social environment, such as this elderly man’s home. Through these three examples, I will defend my position that it is not ethical for the elderly white ...