Civil Rights and Racism Research Paper

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Racism in America: Where do we stand?

From the time of the New World's discovery in the year 1492, racism has remained at the forefront of U.S. history. Even in the present day, it is reported that in America, one Black man dies from police confrontations every 28 hours. A majority of these incidents even fail to show up in local newspapers and news channels. It is only occasionally that these unfortunate victims garner the state media's attention and even rarer for such incidents to show up on national-level media. Over half a century following the famous "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King and many years following Barrack Obama's historic victory in the 2008 Presidential elections to become the nation's first ever African-American President, growing cases of racial violence prove the persistent sensitivity of this social issue. Mass racial aggression, dubbed the nation's "worst nightmare," persists (Lester, 1985). Racism is clearly entrenched in the nation's policemen and each day sees thousands of citizens protesting against police abuse and unfair treatment of members of the African-American community. Typically, bigger penalties and a larger number of speeding tickets are levied on them as compared to whites, and ninety percent of the time, police dogs end up attacking Blacks. Furthermore, White personnel in the law enforcement system (including policemen and judges) systematically consider non-Whites as threats. For instance, 2012-14 statistics for Ferguson, Missouri, reveal that African-Americans account for 93% of total detentions, 90% of overall summonses and 85% of total traffic controls (U.S. Department of Justice, 2015).

The term 'racism' may be defined as a belief that some specific race is inferior or superior to another race. To elaborate, it entails treating people unjustly or differently for the sheer reason that they are members of another ethnic group and that it is important to maintain a division between different races. Racism involves bias as well as injustice founded on social views of biological distinctions between individuals. The American Heritage College's Dictionary defines racism in two ways: 1) Racism represents a belief that a specific race is better than all others and that race explains differences inherent in human nature or capacity; and 2) Racism refers to racial intolerance or bias (Klarman, 2007). One must take care not to mistake racism for the concept of White supremacy, which, although a type of racism, denotes a belief that whites are better than individuals belonging to other racial groups in particular aspects.

One starting block to understand the concept of racism is: spelling out the difference between prejudice and racism. There is an expensive and widely-held misunderstanding regarding these two separate concepts and a grasp of the two will aid in better grasping requisite action steps for eliminating racism. Prejudice denotes any judgment made without duly considering and analyzing facts, and which remains even after acquiring knowledge that opposes this judgment. Since there is no factual ground for prejudice, it is driven chiefly by fear and other emotional reactions. Race-based prejudice exists, but is not the only constituent of racism (D'rozario and Williams, 2005). A combination of power (described as the capacity of commanding, controlling and dominating social reality to attain a particular preferred outcome) and prejudice gives rise to racism.

The general group of social scientists has typically studied racial injustice and intolerance combined. A shared view is: individual racists meting out discriminatory, racial treatment. Modern discrimination patterns are founded on the historical advantage whites had over non-whites in the 400-year-long North American racial oppression. A majority of modern-day manifestations of discrimination based on race pass on the Jim Crow and slave trade legacy. Current discriminatory practices replicate olden days' unfair enrichment and impoverishment. Discrimination sustains and echoes the longstanding racist framework, with the related assortment of anti-African-American emotions, attitudes, and images. The interaction of whites and blacks in modern settings sees the latter being subject to negative interpretations of and beliefs regarding their morals, ideals, orientations and capabilities. Racial obstacles remain since a great majority of white Americans continue to hold certain anti-black preconceptions, interpretations, typecasting and images, while a great minority remain highly negative in such views (Aptheker, 1992). Researchers reveal that a majority of whites who interact with blacks in public, at school, at the workplace, or within media/social settings typically consider the latter, unknowingly or knowingly, using innate racial framing (including stereotypes) which is continuously repeated and, hence, reinforced in contemporary society. This kind of socially activated framing usually results in some form of discrimination.

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Additionally, anti-African-American attitudes' manifestation as real discriminatory behavior is also governed by societal standards (including what others may think) as well as apparent behavior controls (like others' reactions to discrimination). Routinized employment, housing, public housing and political discriminations are meted out by white individuals independently or as a group. While societal norms driving racial discrimination may be legalized or official, a majority of current-day norms are informal and tacit (Appleson, 1982). Further, a large amount of anti-Afro-American action isn't infrequent but performed frequently and consistently by several individuals belonging to the dominant racial group, governed by key social network norms. While Whites have independent capacity to discriminate against people of color, a large share of this power of harming supposedly inferior people is because of their positions within traditionally white-headed institutions and white networks.

Historical Outlook of Racism in America

The racial identity concept assumed a scientific institution's verdigris chiefly during the start to the middle 19th-century under the European Enlightenment. The scientists of that period, especially the botanists and biologists, were keen to classify the diverse life forms on this planet, including humanity. Perhaps due to cultural prejudice and ethnocentrism, mankind's classification was done in a hierarchical arrangement, with the Europeans placed at the hierarchical ladder's peak, and the Africans placed at its bottom. Slavery's institutionalization in America would not have been possible if the Whites failed to provide an intellectual rationale for mistreating several million African males, females, and kids (Appleson, 1982; Childers, 1997). This rationalizing was also imitated by Muslims previously, in enslaving East African people. Slavery necessitated racism and, in fact, was its proximate cause.

Racism has been deeply entrenched in American history and current life. Every non-white has been subject to its ill consequences. American history is overflowing with oppression against non-whites, right from Native Americans' massacre, to the African slave trade, to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, to Japanese-Americans' mass incarceration to the discrimination meted out to Hispanic-Americans. Accompanying this is non-whites' extensive history of resisting white oppression. The 60's black opposition is what brought the social problem of racism onto leading churches' agendas (Childers, 1997). Ultimately, African-Americans' epic efforts accompanied by leading churches' powerful support of the Blacks' cause ended legal segregation. Leading churches' vision was: eradication of color divisions in their Christian religious groups/institutions and the whole of America, by offering all individuals civil rights, under an integration system. The basic code informing church advocacy was their idea of racism resulting from personal preconceptions and ethnic/racial pride. Thus, church initiatives concentrated on altering personal views and overpowering prejudice.

The year 1963 proved historic in American race relations history. In April 1963, civil rights spearheads like Martin Luther King Jr. commenced a peaceful protest for the desegregation of Birmingham, Alabama's public facilities. Birmingham officials used police dogs and fire hoses against the huge throng of peaceful protesters (which included local school kids) and even hit and detained several hundred activists. This aggressive response was aired across national and global news channels, showing the world the shocking and brutal reality of racism in America. A couple of months after this incident, the then-President Kennedy proclaimed his support of a pending bill to ban discrimination based on race in the domains of employment, public accommodations and housing, on national TV. For backing this law, civil rights supporters arranged demonstrations in almost all major U.S. cities, with the famous, massive August 1963 protest march on the capital (Rogers, 2004). This event witnessed 250,000 Americans (the biggest group of demonstrators in the nation's history) making their way to the famed Lincoln Memorial, where a number of civil rights heads delivered speeches. This event's highlight was Martin Luther King Jr.'s stirring and earnest speech, "I Have a Dream" where he expressed his vision thus: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Half a century afterward, King's aforementioned words continue to be a symbol for individuals hoping to cultivate a society unhindered by racism. But present-day civil rights campaigners interpret the assassinated civil rights leader's dream and how to accomplish it in starkly diverse ways. Although progressives normally hold the belief that he would back race-sensitive initiatives aiming at counteracting discrimination (like positive action in the areas of employment and education), a majority of conservatives contend that he would back colorblind programs that give.....

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