Racism in the United States - Essay Example

Racism in the United StatesAs a high school student, who did not have vast knowledge about racism, I have learnt that race is just an outfit some selfish people guise themselves in an attempt to fulfil their economic and social needs. Indeed, as a young person growing up, I thought people from other races were inherently different in their makeup and their way of thinking. At the moment, however, my understanding of race has broadened. For instance, I think race is used to justify inequality in the job market, and it is an excuse to deny other race opportunities for growth.

To demonstrate this, in retrospect, I think racist stereotypes namely, blacks and Latinos are lazy, and American Indians are drunkards, are some of the ways I think race is being used to rationalize inequality.I have observed that in the job market, the same racial attributes have been used by employees to rationalize that doing business with white Americans is preferably better than blacks or Latinos. I think this is because of a perceived superiority of white Americans in terms of IQ or aptitude that rationalizes inequality.

As a result, I think the blame has been shifted from the white oppressors to the blacks or Latinos in a number of ways. To illustrate this, I feel that low income for people of black or Latino race, on the pretext of low qualification or intelligence, is one of the ways of shifting the attention from oppressors and blaming it on the oppressed. I have also noticed that the belief that white Americans are superior only justifies them as noble beings; that are showing the way forward for the inferior black Americans who need patronage in order to act as human beings at least.

I have learned that it is not slavery that evoked the moral contradiction in American colonies. For instance, America was established on the principle of “all men are created equal.” However, it has dawned on me that American colonies were dependent on slavery for economic reasons. My knowledge regarding the role of the principle of “all men are created equal” has developed to a level that I now understand Slavery was just a major economic driving force, as opposed to a basis for identifying what was morally wrong in the American colonies.

It is not slavery, but the issue of race that helped solve the moral contradiction characterized by American colonies at the time. To illustrate this, it is the race that explained the reason some group of people was denied their rights, whilst others enjoyed theirs and took them for granted. I have learned that there was a similarity in the Thomas Jefferson’s policy of encouraging the assimilation of American Indians with President Andrew Jackson’s removal policy. The similarity is that both leaders sought out for the interests of the white American in the policies they advocated.

Further, it dawns on me that the policy supported the propagation of the so-called “Civilized” ways- Agriculture. I conclude, could that the policies of both leaders were aimed at imposing the American culture on the Native Americans at any cost. However, I find Thomas Jefferson different from Andrew Jackson in terms of the approach he took while in the process of furthering the interest of white Americans. To demonstrate this, Jefferson advocated the assimilation of Cherokees to the ways of Americans while Jackson displayed apathy by enforcing the removal of Cherokees (Manweller 240).

Finally, I feel that there is no gap in my knowledge regarding race because I have learnt a lot. Works citedManweller, Matthew. Chronology of the U.S. Presidency [Volume One]. Santa Barbara: ABC- CLIO, 2012.