Racism has been part of the history of America since 1942 when the land was discovered. Currently, in every 28 hours, an African America loses life in a police incident in America. There many incidents which even do not make it to the local news but they exist. America’s mass racial violence which is their worst nightmare continues. Thousands tip onto the street in the United States to protest what they term as police mistreatment. Racism has now been so connected to the police corpses, and it is now being seen as the basic part of life for the black Americans in the United States (Bonilla-Silva, 2012). The Afro Americans are unequally treated where they deal with high penalties than the whites in court cases, and there is a history of police dogs attacking the African American people. For a long time, people of color have been treated as and perceived as threats and not only by the police but also by the court officials. This is what has been happening for years despite that currently there people with a different opinion.
Currently, in America, many people are saying that racism is not in existence. There are fact lines in line with this belief because three decades after the civil rights were enacted in the America, the country elected its first black president. This move seemingly validated the view that racism in America no longer exists. This may be true when the argument is based on the traditional forms of racism; what is being experienced currently is the contemporary racism or the modern racism. There are many people who are racist, though they are not aware of it. Contemporary racism currently reveals itself in the various oppositions there is to programs mainly meant for redressing discrimination and the disparities that there is between the whites and the blacks by economic status (Bonilla-Silva & Dietrich, 2011).
The main problem is; do the current moves and views of racism contradict the fact that racism is continuing to hold strong even today? The colorblind ideology that has been put into place may sound like a solution to the inequality that is perfect but in reality, is it curbing racism?
Literature review
Contemporary forms of racism have currently been characterized as new racism or the modern racism. In his study, Martin Barker pointed two changes of ideological legitimization of the racist practices during the post-war. First, there was the superiority of one’s culture and country which currently is no longer being emphasized straightforwardly. Currently, the racist practices are being legitimized in the name of what is being called the “principal otherness.” The second change was the presumed differences in the biological-genetic which were replaced by the diversity found between nations or cultures. This was represented as a homogenous entity (Bonilla-Silva & Dietrich, 2011).
Currently, race has been coded as an ethnicity or a culture. This new form of racism is characterized as pseudo-biological culturalism. It is this dream that has changed the building blocks of a country from being economical or political to human personality. It is part of our instincts or our biology to defend our way of life, customs, and traditions against those who are not part of us. This is not because those outsiders are mediocre but simply because they belong to other cultures. There has been a shift in racist discourse form what was being known as the phenotypical characteristic and to what is being known as the social-cultural properties. This has been developing since the late 1920s. It was much predisposed by the Second World War, and its tendency was deepened and also generalized. This is the reason as to why the contemporary cultural racism relativization as the new racism has become imperative (Bonilla-Silva, 2012). More history shows the differences and variations in accentuation which is by time and place. More of this is also people thinking more about the relationship between cultural and phenotypical characteristics.
Racism is considered to be the most revolting things within the human. Racism haunts people are past and also degrade their future. There have been many reasons as to why some people believe to be more superior to others, but most of the people obliging racism do not know the reason as to why they react that way. Many scholars’ attempts to examine racism form the social learning perspective to examine what resulted in racism as well as the culture and its effect on the society.
Andrews et al, (2010) defined racism as any form of prejudice assuming that people from different racial categories have different characteristics. Also, they believe that these results to some groups being inferior to others. The scholar points out that racism is mostly made of negative emotional reactions to members of a certain group. This leads to people accepting the negative stereotypes and makes them practice racial discrimination against certain individuals. This sometimes leads to violence. Racism is cancer and can eat away any society that will tolerate its existence.
Background information
Modern racism seems to have stemmed so many years ago as a result of the long generation history that has been promoting inferiority of certain races and the superiority of others. The modern racist always attempts to prove the inferiority or the superiority of any race is based on historical achievements promoted by a certain social perception. Most of the adaptations of racist view seem to be getting through a narrow observation of history. The theory of social learning concluded that most of the children model the behaviors they have learned from the adults. Other scholars suggest that children acquire the racist beliefs and attitudes that they have though observing those people who surround them. This also includes the media, peers, parents and the popular culture. The scholars go on to say that these processes start when children are at their tender age. This is a fact due to the parent approval which is demonstrated when the children start speaking a similar language to them (Bonilla-Silva & Dietrich, 2011).
So, racism is something that is real especially in the United States. It is something that we cannot evade and like it has been postulated above; most of the people are racist without knowing it. Racism in the United States came along with the birth of slavery. Before slavery, labor was being provided by indentured servants who happened to be paying a debt to those people that they were working for. During all this time, both the whites and the blacks happened to be in the same social class, and it was only the ruling elites who were whites and who happened to be in the upper class.
The large size of those people who were in low class and the demand for cheap labor is what resulted in the enslavement of the African Americans. It started by the elite plant class oppressing the lower class blacks and also the white through the control of the majority of the land, politics and also money. All this was because the elites were afraid that lower class might have overthrown them. So that the elite class could maintain power they prevented both the whites and the black from joining together Andrews et al, (2010).
To justify their enslavement they used to offer an insinuation that the black formed a lesser race. This is what brought about racism and slavery. To reinforce this idea that the white people were of a superior race when compared to the black people, the elites gave the white people more positions of power and rights over the black people. This is how race as a social construct begun (Ono, 2010).
There have been so many attempts and regulations gunned together to easy racism. Some of these are bearing fruits, and others do not. Several decades ago, the United States enacted the civil rights, and after it, there was Barack Obama being elected as the first black president in the United States. This was a good sign to show that all races especially the blacks are also acceptable in the United States.
There is the formation of movements like that of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is one of the movements that have been formed to dissolve the various boundaries that are there for the blacks. This is both within and also across the US borders. The movement is trying to erase the imaginary lines that lie between respectability politics and that proving the concept that if the black can manage to up-stand enough, they will not experience any form of racism (Ono, 2010).
Barriers between the academia, hip-hop, electro politics and activism are reducing as a result of this movement. All that the movement has done is philosophically disrupting the racial segregation and has sparked marches all over the world with solidarity which do not only focus on the American police brutality. Despite all these attempts to curb racism, there are problems that might take a long time to cure. This is because most of the problems being faced by the blacks today were mainly created by racialized capitalism and it is what that led to the formation of the modern nation states. Most of these modern states have vested interest in keeping those people who are black in the whole world form banding together and attempt to think how their struggles are interconnected and the various ways they can use to support each other Andrews et al, (2010).
Another great move carried out to combat racism is the introduction of colorblind racism. For quite some time, colorblind racism has had a significant impact on the criminal justice system; It is a systematic issue and has an impact on the various levels of the criminal justice system. Those who are operating in the colorblind society do not make decisions on the basic consideration that one is white or black. Despite this move, research shows that between 1980 and 2000 the rate of incarceration of the black people tripled.
Colorblind racism led to the incarceration of the black Americans tripling between the year 1980 and 2000. This step has led to the improvement of racial disparity in the criminal justice system the system now seems to be racially unbiased. The main reason that there are still more black people being incarcerated is not that law is biased, but it is because they are committing more crimes. Despite that this is a good step and might bring some change, it may also cause more harm especially to the black. Colorblindness is good and in a way it reduced profiling, but to many, it does not. Black people will always remain black, and the view and perspective of others do not change due to this fact. It is hindering the truth from being said by in fear of what the authorities might do to them. This hinders productive conversations even in schools when debates on racism come into place (Bonilla-Silva, 2012).
Global perspective
People from the whole world still have the conversation about race and its significance in America. This conversation was intensified more by the election of the president Barack Obama. There are many people who claim that his election is a proof that race is no longer an issue in the country whereas others say that it is a proof that we are all living in a post-racial America. There are still other people who claim that his election without more is not yet enough and is not capable of ending the destructive and complex relationship that Americans have with the race.
A country like France had diversity and race issues being discussed and what was discovered is that people from France do not discuss racism like it is in America. This is because they have a general impression that having the topic being discussed openly would have people concentrating on the differences. Most of the discussion arising from those in Africa is quite different. This is because most of the African consider Americans to be more friendly compared with white form other states. Election of President Obama also builds more confidence in them that in America racism is becoming a thing of the past.
Future implications
Racism has long-term effects especially on the minorities, and its effects are felt in schools, political institutions and also in the economy. Currently, it may affect just the minority but what does the future hold? In years to come, the unchartered history of the United States will change, and this demographic change will affect everything. There are expectations that alliances between races are bound to change. Social and political power will also be re-appointed. Neighborhoods, schools, workplace and even the racial categories are bound to change (Bonilla-Silva, 2012).
Many movements are being formed to try and erase racism, but it is also important to understand that people always get exposed to the media images and those who never experienced the African American slavery will have it being taught in schools. These people will also have access to rap and other music, and it is the human nature to try and put together all those ideas and synthesize what it means to be black. This is a memory that may never be erased in peoples mind, and racism might be taken to another level higher than the contemporary racism (Ono, 2010).
Conclusion
Modern racism approaches are being challenged every day. This is because these approaches are not pure or they do not directly measure stereotypes or the prejudice against blacks. People ought to handle modern racism or the contemporary form of racism with great care because some of the methods that are being used to curb racism tend to increase it instead.
References
Andrews, D. L., Cole, C. L., Guerrero, L., King, S., Kusz, K. W., Lorenz, S. L., ... & Silk, M. L. (2010). Commodified and criminalized: New racism and African Americans in contemporary sports. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2012). The invisible weight of whiteness: the racial grammar of everyday life in contemporary America. Ethnic and racial studies, 35(2), 173-194.
Bonilla-Silva, E., & Dietrich, D. (2011). The sweet enchantment of color-blind racism in Obamerica. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 634(1), 190-206.
Ono, K. A. (2010). Postracism: A theory of the “post-” as political strategy. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34(3), 227-233.
