What are the historical causes of racial inequality in the United States - Essay Example

Jerry Ciacho October 28, The Road to Freedom Racial inequality and slavery have played a major and important part in the history of mankind, especially in American history. Ethnic discrimination begins when a particular race considers themselves higher or more superior than another race. This causes a dividing line between them and also later results to the enslavement and destruction of other races. Throughout American history, racial prejudice and enslavement have caused many to suffer and endure trials and problems.

Racism in America, as a whole, had many causes. The popular racist belief system that the white race was superior of the black, which grew at the end of the 1800s, played a big role in validating suppression and the demolishing of the traditional cultures, societies and civilizations of the native peoples of different races and ethnic groups particularly the African slaves who were sold by the Europeans to the Americans during the 19th century and who later became African-Americans. In addition, this set of beliefs and ideas also became a catalyst for regarding or considering enslavement and submission as a humanitarian responsibility or duty.

“In its modern form, racism evolved in tandem with European exploration and conquest of much of the rest of the world, and especially after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas. As new peoples were encountered, fought, and ultimately subdued, theories about “race” began to develop, and these helped many to justify the differences in position and treatment of people whom they categorized as belonging to different races.” (Wolf 97)Enslavement was the chief cause of the ever-increasing political conflict and opposition around the 1850s in the United States as people started to oppose and contravene racism.

This open opposition and the American democracy that made speech and opinion more open was the stepping-stone for the road from slavery to the civil rights movement and later on, towards the ethnic and racial equality around the nation.In retort to an anti-slavery Republican as the winner of the Presidential election, nearly a dozen Southern slave states in America affirmed their separation and breakaway from the United States. Together, they formed the Confederate States of America, also known as the Confederacy.

The remaining twenty-five states supported the federal administration called the Union. Began in 1861, the Civil War lasted a total of four years. The reasons and grounds were complicated, and ever since this battle began, its causes have been heated with a lot of controversial issues.The war that was fighting for equality, justice and equal opportunity was fought predominantly within the Southern slave states. After four years of writhing and resisting, the Confederacy gave up and slavery was declared illicit all throughout the country.

Concerns that instigated the war were partly solved throughout the subsequent Reconstruction Era, yet others lingered unsettled. However, the Civil War and its effects have brought the United States closer and closer to the demolishing of the popular belief that once trapped the country.Works CitedWolf, Eric R.. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Print.