Segregation in the 21st Century - Essay Example

Segregation in the 21st Century American are taught about the Civil Rights Movement in every school throughout the country. Rosa Parks, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Birmingham are images for the sixties about the triumphant de-segregation of Johnson’s Civil Rights Act. After de-segregation, segregation became a taboo topic. Now that de-segregation was in place, equal but not separate became the new reality in theory. The sad fact is segregation still exists. Almost every city and town in America has a self imposed segregation, not only African American and Caucasian, but Latino, Japanese, Chinese, Native Americans, and Indian live together in a self imposed segregation. Because of this phenomenon a secret segregated culture that everyone knows about, but is not supposed to speak about, has formed. This paper will discuss how the media, politics, and culture have kept America segregated, even though segregation is not politically correct or popular. The media perpetrates segregation or white supremacy at every turn. Social stereotypes also prevail in the American media. Even though these themes are subtle, they are strong. Even in cartoon movies, these stereotypes exist. For example, “Dumbo (1941), the crows that teach Dumbo how to fly “are too obviously Negro caricatures” (Avila 132). The portrayal of black crows as crude, ignorant, and with a bad southern accent is ridiculous. White people from the south can be crude and ignorant. Most Southerners have southern accents, whether they are black, white, red, or yellow. Disney movies seem to have bad representations of ethnic people. Pocahontas and Mulan are feeble attempts to be politically correct, but manage to portray them very stereotypical. Most of the heroes are white, Prince Charming, John Smith, and numerous others. Disney movies do not have the exclusive on segregated cartoons. Warner Brothers also produces cartoons that are either ridiculously segregated. Scooby Doo stars four white kids solving mysteries, running across very ethnic characters. On Warner Brothers Cartoon Network, characters are stereotyped as well. Xialon Showdown consists of a “big white cowboy character”, “a short Chinese character”, and “one girl”. The girl is considered white, because a race is not given. Cartoons are dangerous because of the message it sends to children, but the news media can kill. The news media portrays African Americans as “coverage of the inner city associated drugs and violence with black youth, young” (Kelley, 193). Black criminals are gang members and bad, but white criminals are down on their luck and abused as children. This media discrepancy was never clearer than during Hurricane Katrina. A white person caught stealing food was trying to survive, but a black man was looting. One picture from the time showed “a black man looting”, but in the same picture a white woman was not mentioned in the caption. An example of the media portraying the segregation of a city was during the 1992 LA riots. One author suggests, “Indeed, though the media believes that the riots began with the shock of the beating of Rodney King" (Kelley, 184). Most white Americans think that the hatred displayed during by the riots started by the incident with Rodney King. The truth is African Americans were tired of the LAPD treating them with disrespect. One author asserts: histories of racialized community and immigrant settlement in Los Angeles are dangerously obscured. Segregation of neighborhoods is masked as spatial contiguity, and racial and class violence between groups. (Lowe, 95). As long as the violence in LA stayed amongst the minorities, then the media did not care. However, when a white man, Reginald Denny, was attacked, the media played another story. When the riots started, some not all, African Americans decided to act the way the police portrayed them. Today, when talking about the riots, all African Americans are depicted as mobs and rioters. The media forgets the one African American man screaming at the rioters “This ain’t right! Ya’ll know this ain’t right!” The media portrayed LA during that night as a “black LA” and a “white LA”. Another example of the media perpetrating segregation is rap music. In her movie, bell hooks points out white rappers have taken a traditional African form of expression for monetary gain (“bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation”). Black and white rappers portray an image of a “bad ass”. Gangster rap sells, even though the portrayal of the African American through this music is erroneous. Gangster rap creates a further division between black and white, supporting white people’s stereotypes of blacks. Popular novels also incite segregation. Gone With the Wind is the perfect example of stereotyping blacks and whites in the Confederate South. The gallant white Rhett Butler saves Scarlett time after time. Blacks in Gone With the Wind are willing grateful servants, that cannot speak proper English. Another novel that portrays the white “Savior” is To Kill a Mockingbird. The poor railroaded black man is defended by the rich white lawyer. These novels are about times when segregation and Jim Crow laws were in effect. An example of a current novel is The Da Vinci Code. In this book the Holy Grail’s secret is protected by white Knights over the centuries. In the end, the Grail’s secret is buried at the Louve in Paris, after being brought from England. This is the vision of the white knight at its most arrogant. Politics have also kept all races segregated. The American President has always been a white male Christian. Although all races have been elected other posts, one author points out, “... oppositions such as "majority" and "minority," or the binary axis "black" and "white," we recast cultural politics so as to account for a multiplicity of various" (Lowe, 70). Politics use the terms “majority” and “minority” to classify constituents. The segregation between all races is most pronounced in politics. Districts of segregated Americans are electing their “ethnicity” to represent their people. Even the American Census is racial. Under the guise of counting citizens, the American Census is one of the most racial institutions in the government. If representation for taxation is the goal of counting American citizens, why require what race one is? The goal is to segregate the races into separate categories. Culture is one of the most segregating factors. Not only can one culture judge another culture, stereotyping them by race, but a culture can feel totally accepted by its members. One culture stereotyping is that all black woman as matriarchal bitches. However bell hook points out that some black men “lacked employment” due to no fault of their own, so their counterparts took up the slack (hook 158). Because of the stereotyping black men are seen as shiftless, jobs were scarce. When a black woman worked to feed her children, she was a bitch. This attitude caused strong black women to unite and help each other. By turning to the only help available, the segregation of America is possible. Cultural neighbourhoods have also been segregated to this day. In Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three, the director shows how the original segregation caused the continuation of the segregation of today (“Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three”). When segregation ended, the narrator explains the following occurred: In the end, what happened to Roosevelt happens in many neighborhoods when white families and businesses flee: the tax base eroded, schools and services declined. The town was seen by county officials as a legitimate dumping ground for welfare families. (“Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three”) When blacks moved to previously white neighbourhoods; the whites fled, leaving the neighbourhoods to fall into disarray. No white family, with the exception of a few, will move into a black neighbourhood. When a white family feels moving to a black neighbourhood is the right thing to do, they become ridiculed by black and white alike. Blacks will make fun of them for being white; whites will classify them as poor white trash. Neighbourhoods in America are not limited to black and white. Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, and Latino are a few races that live in segregated neighbourhoods. San Francisco and New York have “Chinatowns” and “Little Havanas”. These parts of town are always portrayed as exotic and forbidding. On TV shows, cops always go to these parts of town to find criminals. Immigrants have always been segregated or treated like second class citizens. The narrator of Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three explains: The more the newcomers were forced into low paying jobs and diseased tenements, the more these conditions were explained as natural consequences of their innate racial character. Biology was destiny. Which side of the racial divide you found yourself on could be a matter of life or death. (“Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three”) Immigrants got the lowest pay, most dangerous jobs, and prejudice from Americans. These immigrants formed their own communities in America, segregating their cultures from others. This paper has talked about “white” and “black”, but what makes a person “white” or “black”, or any other race? Is it culture, biology, or environment? All of these factors must be taken into case. Biologically all races are the same (“Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three”). It is human prejudice that defines race. A model of this concept is Jews. Jewish people look white, but they are segregated in American society. The media, politics, and culture have all given examples of segregation, but what about interracial couples? Both black and white people that intermarry, date, or socialize are considered trashy by both cultures. Blacks believe that trouble will follow white people; white people are considered white trash. In every town, no matter how progressive, an interracial couple or interracial families draw stares and remarks. However, when a black and Native American, or a dark black and light black date; society does not care. One author describes: materialist concept of hybridity conveys that the histories of forced labor migrations, racial segregation, economic displacement, and internment are left in the material traces of "hybrid" cultural identities. (Lowe, 82) A minority dating another minority does not cause society to bat an eye. All of the attitudes above are a vicious cycle. Media, politics, and culture dictate segregation, thus the attitude of Americans are reflected. The more segregated attitude exists, the more segregated ideas spewed by the media, politics, and culture are produced. To stop this cycle, the first thing to do is discuss the problem. No one wants to be politically incorrect mentioning that there are differences between the races, but to talk about this problem would bring the solution. If tolerance about all cultures was embraced by the American culture, an open dialogue could end segregation. What segregates people is the unknown. If all cultures talked about and know, segregation would end. Civil Rights leaders did not envision America as it is today. Segregation is not longer the law. However all cultures promote segregation. Thus after all the fighting during the Civil Rights Movement for American to be de-segregated, the country is still segregated. Works Cited Avila, Eric. Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles. Berkley: The University of California Press, 2004. bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation. Dir. Bell Hooks. Perf. Bell Hooks. The Media Education Foundation, 1997. hooks, bell. Salvation: Black People and Love. USA: HarperCollins, 2001. Kelly, Robin D. G. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. New York: The Free Press, 1996. Lowe, Lisa. Immigrant Acts. USA: The Duke University Press, 1996. Race-The Power of an Illusion, Episode Three. Dir. Llewellyn M. Smith. California Newsreel, 2003. Read More