Has Racism Changed in the Past 100 Years in the U S Essay

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There is no real difference between the racism that Du Bois witnessed 100 years ago and the racism seen today. The same WASPs who were the controlling elites in those days are still the controlling elites today -- only there has been a strain of political correctness introduced into the culture that covers the racism. Nonetheless, the Puritanical racist mentality fostered by the WASPs has also trickled down from the elites to the "middle class" which arose in the post-War period thanks to hefty incentives and kickbacks from the government. Du Bois witnessed Jim Crow laws that hurt blacks -- these were everywhere: in the Army, in the neighborhoods in the South, in schools, on buses, in diners. There was one set of laws for whites and another for blacks. Today, de-segregation has largely eliminated the "Jim Crow" standard, but different laws are on the books now -- laws that put away more black people than they do whites. Drug laws for instance are used against the black minority as though designed officially for them. Decriminalization would do wonders to eliminate the incarceration rates of blacks, but -- again -- the ruling elites use these prisoners for business: that is, they know that the recidivism rates are through the roof and they exploit that, basically forcing these individuals to work for corporations while in prison and paying them pennies for their labor.

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It is a system of exploitation and it shows how the unofficial Jim Crow laws may have disappeared in the sense of segregated places -- but in another sense Jim Crow has been institutionalized via the prison system, which makes today's racism even worse than it was in Du Bois' day: essentially, slavery is back.

Du Bois focused on the white line found in the religious sphere of America (PBS, 2010) -- but this was mainly the Puritanical sphere. The Catholic sphere was less racist (it welcomed Claud McKay, poet of the Harlem Renaissance after the WASP elites who supported that movement blacklisted him once he converted to the Roman Church) (Jones, 2000). The WASPs wanted blacks to destroy themselves through vice. Du Bois saw as much. McKay escape to a church that cared more for the soul than it did for skin.

The election of Obama in 2008 was not a monumental moment at all, unless what is meant by monumental is that a….....

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"Has Racism Changed In The Past 100 Years In The U S" (2015, November 28) Retrieved May 18, 2024, from
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"Has Racism Changed In The Past 100 Years In The U S" 28 November 2015. Web.18 May. 2024. <
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Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

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"Has Racism Changed In The Past 100 Years In The U S", 28 November 2015, Accessed.18 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/racism-changed-past-100-years-u-s-2158910