Racial Divide Essay

Upon entering the class I was anxious, curious, and also oblivious to the ideas I would be encountering. Like other students who had not previously spent time discussing topics of race and ethnicity, I myself had nervous tendencies in assuming that such a class may not strengthen my understanding of ethnic and race relations. I realized I knew little about race or ethnicity, and even the possible similarities or differences. However, I welcomed the opportunity to further discover the possibilities of the class. My understanding of race was concentrated in a definition that could be understood as different skin colors. My limited conception of ethnicity applied to people’s origin or where they lived. It seemed as though my lack of

Segregation between black and whites being around since the beginning of slavery era but segregation didn’t get legal until 1896 when the supreme court sanction legal separation between black and whites in the ruling H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson. The ruling stated that separation of black and whites was legal as long equal facilities did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The united states did indeed abolish slavery but did they not intend to make blacks first class citizen as white because after the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendment was passed, the supreme court had pass three series of judgment making African Americans second class citizens. Blacks were forces via private action to separate themselves from white in areas of transportation, public accommodation, prison, school, recreational places and even armed forces. The supreme court did not make segregation illegal until 1954 during the case of Brown vs. Board of Education.

American society likes to believe that race relations in our country are no longer strained. We do not want to hear about the need for affirmative action or about the growing numbers of white supremacist groups. In order to appease our collective conscious, we put aside the disturbing fact that racism is alive and well in the great U.S.A. It hides in the workplace, it subtly shows its ugly face in the media, and it affects the education of minority students nationwide. In the following excerpts from an interview with a middle class African American male, the reader will find strong evidence that race plays a major role in determining the type and quality of education a student receives.

Coupled with this information and this next quote from The Atlantic it is clear that police make a connection between African Americans and disorder. This is unreasonable because, as these statistics show, “Despite the racial disparity in stops, the Ferguson police department was more likely to find "contraband" on the white people they stopped and searched than on the black ones.” (Alexis Madrigal) In other words, blacks who are searched are less likely to be found with illegal substances compared to white people who are searched. The Ferguson police department officers are accusing African Americans without acceptable evidence. With that, we need to look at the way officers are being trained and how they react in certain scenarios and make dramatic changes to help put an end to this racist behavior. If courts let officers get away with these actions there is nothing stopping other police officers in other cities from doing the same. We know the statistics and they show a clearly biased task force and court system.

Unwittingly or quite knowingly people have built systems of inequalities around race but people have also built identity, friendships, and college mates around it. Nevertheless, several people I recently interviewed never appeared to be certain when race was a good thing or when it was a bad thing to talk about, which in my mind leaves us all struggling with a particularly intimidating question: When should we talk as if race matters?

In human societies, understanding the construction of categories of difference to create meaning and explanations for the distribution of societal roles and statues is essential to analyzing the creation of language and culture. In its most basic form, societal ideologies and value systems deliver themselves through language that shapes the perception of difference and phenomenon. Race plays a particularly important role as a category of difference in American society; the language most directly related to race often coming under intense scrutiny as attitude about the innate nature of race have shifted in recent history. A linguistic category that is commonly seen as benign or at least simply referential in relation to race is the paired terms of “black” and “white,” which denominate the two primary racial statuses in American society. The terms black and white, in reference to the racial categories, create through their linguistic associations the idea that the two races are discontinuous and suggest that the two are binaries of each other with opposing traits and attributes. Claudia Rankine touches on the linguistic associations in relation to “blackness” and “whiteness” trough her writings in her book Citizen. Citizen is a circuitous and personal descent into past experiences that truly illuminate racial discrimination in America. Rankine’s book explores the racism and prejudice that are prevalent in the United States. Through her use of vernacular and diction, Rankine

In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. Everyone knows the story of Christopher Columbus; they are taught it in grade school if not before then. When he landed in America by accident, he had no idea that he would be creating the world's largest Melting Pot. This "melting pot" provided means for a new country, made from a mixture of many cultures and beliefs, thus creating a new country with a new and ever-changing culture. One complication with a Melting Pot is that you cannot put people of different race and ethnicity together without conflict.

When I thought of legalized discrimination, the South always came to mind so when I found out that it had happened in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio was appalled. Learning about how legal boundaries were pushed to an extreme in order to belittle an entire race made me reflect over my fortune and how race and class can impact one’s entire life.

The issue of racial superiority/inferiority began nearly 400 years ago; in the year 1619, the first African American indentured servant was brought to what is now America. Even after slavery was abolished; with legislation - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965 - and Supreme Court rulings - Brown v. Board of Education (1954) - passed to help African-Americans appreciate the many rights they’d deserved, it would appear that America was moving toward an era of unprecedented progressiveness (“African American History Timeline”). Finally, with the election of Barack Obama, it seemed that the goal of the African American community had finally been achieved: after years of persistent oppression, we finally have representation at the highest power. While this seemed to be the case with his initial election, we slowly came to see that Obama’s representation may not have been as effective as we anticipated.

For many years now the people in power or “whites” have passed laws so that other racial groups are kept at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These racial group that are kept at the bottom become racialized and oppressed therefore they become unequal to the people that are at the top of this hierarchy. The racial groups that are kept at the bottom vary from the Native-Americans to the Mexican-Americans and obviously the African-Americans. In this essay I will be comparing how the racialization process has been similar and different between these racial groups. I will also define race and racialization. Furthermore, I will explain how class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship has impacted the racialization process within these groups.

Community and Race this essay has problems with format Community and race are directly related to each other. Since community is a large society composed of a number of people with different backgrounds, people are categorized into several groups according to their ethnicity. Moreover, each of the particular ethnic groups is considered a subculture group. Although the subculture groups follow the same laws and rules of the community, they share a distinctive set of cultural beliefs and behaviors that differ in some significant way from the larger society.

Detroit, once the New York City of its time, nick named the “Motor City” as it contained one of the leading car manufacturing centers of the automobile industry. As a metropolis for the first half of the twentieth century, Post World War II, Detroit became an economic fortress and focal point in American History. Detroit’s economic stronghold placed the city in a position that was once beneficial. From the surging employment opportunities perpetuated by the booming automotive market to the development, and implementation of substandard housing and the casual labor market, Detroit became the land of opportunity that loomed with an air of new beginnings. Today, however, Detroit continues to reap the aftermath of contradictory political

The Internet, social media, and the emergence of terrorist groups in America; what do these three have in common? The mere fact that they are some America’s daily trends of the modern era. Being a child of the millennial age, I strongly feel as if no one has experienced racial tension in America as much as my fellow millennials and I. We see it in news headlines all over, the Internet, and hear about it during our daily commutes. All asking one question; what's your opinion on this racial inequality? Since we are the land of the free, the opinion of the public is highly valued, as well as diverse. Recently, the diversity has become more than just the simple opinions of the people; it's become the issue of racial tension. A tension so deep that it has accounted for many physical altercations, uproars, and unfortunate deaths within the country. How do you put into this detrimental norm of society you ask? Here's what I think.

All you have to do is turn on the t.v. and you can tell there’s a lot of racial tension, it has always been there, but now there’s one difference, the media. The media is playing a huge role in the tension surrounding racial discrimination, by spreading it everywhere. Now that the tension’s there is there any particular race or culture or maybe a community that has the spotlight? Could there be groups or people making it worse, would the media play a role in this too? Have there been groups like this in the past? So what community does have the spotlight right now?

President Barack Obama performed a speech in 2008 while running for president , the speech addressed his race and the recent remarks made about him being African American. President Obama stated that race was an issue during the campaign and they have either said that he was too black, or not black enough to be president. So why did it take so long to get someone of another race into office, African Americans are just as smart as European Americans and they have just as much capability, President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. This could also be linked to the long history of racial discrimination that still lingers in America today.