Is Racism Ancient History in Our Days - Essay Example

25 November 2007 Is Racism Ancient History in Our Days Racism has entered every major of American society, and marked virtually every era of American history. At the heart of racism lies a refusal to acknowledge the equal human worth of distinctive groups of people in customary spheres of social life. That failure is especially injurious when backed by governmental force or private economic power, or both. Racism operates most effectively when it seems not to emanate from individual hate. Instead of discrimination resulting from an individual act, it may seem to be accidental. Thesis At the beginning of the 21st century, racism is a major social problem affected modern American society which takes its roots in ancient history of the nation. The American nation is especially heterogeneous in terms of religion, nationality, ethnicity, class language, and, of course, race. But prevailing American values emphasize the values of equality of opportunity, fair play, and individualism. While there is some evidence to justify current attitudes, in fact there is better evidence to suggest that race relations in America are still a major source of stress and social tension (Wachtel 23). Another black perspective argues that race in America has become less salient than class. This assessment, if true, would suggest that black-white relations are much better than they have ever been before in America. Race is another factor which influences the distribution of economic and social resources in America. It is important to note that recent years the understanding of race has been changed, because as a collective sentiment, race needs to be upheld and reaffirmed. Modern theories of race suggest that concept of race is more a cultural phenomenon than a economic one. Community of culture and unity of meaning are the main sources that allow the construction and experience of race (Wachtel 78) In modern society, racism complements, but it does not replace, individual prejudice and discrimination. J. Strausbaugh in Black like You: Black Face, White Face indicates that institutional racism is much more widespread than individual racism. Yet, most educational programs against racism are aimed almost exclusively against individual racism. Following Strausbaugh "disrespectful stereotypes are acceptable from people who looks like you, but it is racism when a member of another race finds humor in it" (12). In modern society, racism can exist to some degree regardless of what else is going on in society. Institutional racism, however, cannot thrive without constant replenishment of new personnel who are able to accept the human cost of racist policies without challenging their legitimacy. People who are victimized by racism may combat it most readily by organizing and changing public policies. Altering public policies solely by changing personal opinions of racists is a hopeless, endless endeavor. To a significant extent, racism bears a relationship to sexism, antisemitism, and extreme nationalism. The essence of modern racism is violations of equal human worth which are involved in racism as well as in sexism, anti-semitism, and extreme nationalism. Today, racial prejudices and ideologies rationalize widespread white discrimination against people of color (Strausbaugh 82). This view of a white-dominated America is not popular among most white analysts and commentators in the twenty-first century. More popular is the belief that African Americans and other people of color have made great progress, so much so that white racism is no longer a major barrier in most of their lives. Indeed, few whites are aware of how important racism is to their own feelings, beliefs, thinking, and actions (Thernstrom 20). The extensive use of litigation and legislation in American racial affairs determines the salience of the law. Leading personalities, landmark court rulings and laws, the heritage of legalized segregation and discrimination, bias in the administration of justice and contemporary conflicts over unresolved issues of the law are vividly portray the problem of racism (Strausbaugh 98). In this case, mass media is one of the main sources popularizing racism and racial stereotypes. Racial differences and inequalities are found in television, movies, the print press, radio, including talk-radio, and the stage (Mcwhorter 40. Problems of affirmative action, stereotyping of roles, and minor changes in access to mass audiences, persist into the present (Wachtel 93) Modern American race policy stems from the three great post-Civil War amendments, which express the fundamental views of race. However, the word "race" occurs only once in the Constitution--in the Fifteenth Amendment. There is no official constitutional statement of racial policy except as it impacts on voting. This silence regarding race is a source of confusion and constraint when approaching racial issues, since there is a tendency to avoid direct recognition of these sensitive matters (Graves 40). Following R. Wright, group inequalities associated with what are taken to be indelible marks of inferior or unworthy ancestry can exist without having the full apparatus of the modern state to sustain them. Wright underlines "even though we have been told that we need not be afraid, we have lived so long in fear of all white faces that we cannot help but sit and wait. We look around the train and we do not see the old familiar signs: FOR COLORED and FOR WHITE" (65). Wright observes situations in which ideologies that do not invoke race in the modern biological sense serve to rationalize caste systems or forms of exploitation that reflect the essentially racist vision of indelible, unbridgeable, and invidious differences between human groups. What has been called "the new racism" in the United States, is a way of thinking about difference that reifies culture rather than genetic endowment, or in other words makes culture do the work of race. Racism is not dead, and it is less intense and intellectually respectable than it was a century or even a half-century ago. But human beings continue to mistreat other human beings on the basis of their ethnic identities (Graves 16). The case of Jena Six portrays that racism and racial envy direct modern values and social behavior. "Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. All six were expelled from school" (Quigley 2007). This case portrays that racial envy is a part of modern life penetrating all spheres of life and all social institutions. This racial violence can be seen as a response to historical inequalities affected the American continent. Thus, certain schools have enrolled only students of certain racial backgrounds; others were simply not enrolled. The decision not to enroll them was not made by the head administrator, though he might have agreed with it. In some distant past, persons in authority- a legislature, court, or school board- had decided on the exclusion policy. This racism thereupon became institutional. Thereafter, the racist policy did not depend for its existence on this or that prejudiced official. Instead, the rule was enforced impersonally, regardless of the individual opinions of administrators. The vitality of the exclusion depended on the degree to which administrators stuck to the rule. At times, when the rule was challenged, legal authorities reminded administrators of their institutional duty to maintain racial separation. The case of Jena Six demonstrates that racism exists at school: 'the trouble started under "the white tree" in front of Jena High School. The "white tree" is where the white students, 80 percent of the student body, would always sit during school breaks" (Quigley 2007). It is possible to say that discrimination racism and discrimination exist at all levels of schooling: tracking, testing, and teacher bias, as well as the role of supervision and policy management (Mcwhorter 40). The main factor which prevents equal distribution of wealth and social resources and increases racial envy is racial prejudices. Many political leaders and economists reject the fact that racial prejudices and even racism become one of the factors which prevents many people from educational and professional opportunities. Workforce diversity policies and equal opportunities movement are still implemented in all organizations and companies across the USA to level racial differences and cultural diversity. Today, many families face with the problems caused by educational segregation of their children, right violation and neighbors' hostility. Poor education and absence of equal opportunities with "white" majority is the main factors limited the equal distribution of economic and social resources (Graves 16). To analyze the issue of racism in education, it should be mentioned that racisms is "regimes of power" organized via institutional frameworks as part of the disciplinary power of state agencies, but which is subject to ongoing contestations. Many educators make a vital point in this respect in relation to visibility and its importance in disciplinary modes because racial inequalities are always highly visible, marked out within the public sphere and within the discourses that construct the student audience (Wachtel 87-88). The case with New Jersey family vividly portrays that racism is alive and exist in all states and regions. This Halloween, the family found: "ahangman's noose circled the neck of a black-hooded, jeans-clad dummy suspended from the chimney of a house in the township of Madison" (Chenoweth 2007). This case unveils violence and aggression between races and people of different nations. Century old prejudices and stereotypes of "black" and "colored" people prevent them from equal social opportunities. The point is that racial prejudices have consequences for the difference between races experience in, for example, earning money and exercising public power. This separation from the sources of economic and social distribution is the main factors which limits equal access of all American citizens to national wealth and resources. Also, stereotypes of race are closely connected with slavery period of type divided the society on masters and slaves. These assumptions are still powerful on modern American society (Wachtel 92). Today, the issues of racism and poor economic and social conditions are closely connected. Such a process has had a profound impact on the education process not least upon the ways in which cultural identities and relations are forged by racisms, whether in the form of the hegemonic gendering or the subaltern masculinities and femininities associated with subordinate groups. Despite the particular forms of cultural syncretism in education, the prejudice and racial discrimination that students continue to experience negatively affect their educational achievements and results. On the other hand, rights are particularly difficult to operationalize in education if the object of these rights is to protect students' identity (Wachtel 104). According to Wachtel "It is not very surprising that whites would reveal an absence of ardor for changing this situation. Although the consequences of inequality and separation ultimately take a toll on the nation as a whole, in the short run it is clearly whites who live in greater comfort in our still divided society (Wachtel 165). In sum, racism is not a thing of the past for American society but an active process which influences both white and black populations. The research found that "whitening" and national identity negatively affects social relations and issues of equality. It is possible say that for the black population, the "escape" from blackness is marked by violence, a violence of distance and disavowal. It is not surprising, therefore, if leading Black intellectuals attack the notion of "racial democracy" in educational process and seek to provide a new narrative, which offers a central place to those of African descent. The contradictions posed by this statement foreground the chasm between the rhetoric of citizenship and the reality of racism in the education. Works Cited 1. Chenoweth, Ch. New Jersey family, under pressure, removes its hanged Halloween dummy. October 2007. 2007. 2. Graves, E. E. We Must Take Back Our Race. Black Enterprise 37, June 2007, p. 16. 3. Mcwhorter, J. Americans without Americanness: Is Our Nation Nothing More Than an Address National Review 59, April 16, 2007, p. 40. 4. Quigley, B. Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang From the "White Tree". July 2007. 2007 5. Strausbaugh, J. Black like You: Black Face, White Face, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture. Tarcher, 2006. 6. Thernstrom, A. Racial Politics, as Ever: Democrats Will Be Demagogic; When Will Republicans Counter Them National Review 59, March 19, 2007, p. 20. 7. Wachtel, P.L. Race in the Mind of America: Breaking the Vicious Circle between Blacks and Whites. Routledge, 1999. 8. Wright, R. 12 Million Black Voices. Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000. Read More