Racial Discrimination in the Social Context

In any social setting, racial discrimination is a nuisance. The struggle against racial discrimination has changed over the past few decades as greater attention has been paid to it on a global scale. Segregating people based on their race or ethnicity is known as racial discrimination. Over time, this has been clear in the United States, particularly in areas where Black Americans have experienced harsh treatment due to their skin tone. Due of this, the Africans were unable to use a variety of hospitals, schools, estates, and other services. It’s therefore inevitable to fight racial discrimination in this generation, any forces propagating racial discrimination have to be fought in the best way possible (Henslin, 2017). This paper aims at analyzing and examining a myriad ways organizations, individuals, and governments have attempted to fight racial discrimination across the globe. Also, from the sociological perspective, the theories that best explains the racial segregation events over the past years is best explained.

Racial Discrimination in the Social Context

Racial discrimination is a social problem that has a number of social misfits. In any social setup, racial discrimination creates wounds that take time tom heal in the society. Socially, the social cohesion and values of the society are undergo disintegration when racial discrimination sets in (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017). In most cases, members of a society get socially integrated in the society creating a bond that goes beyond the social and racial bounds. Therefore, racial discrimination in the social context plays a negative role of propagating social injustices, inequality, and poor socialization strength among the individuals occupying a given region.

In this regard, the study of the racial discrimination is interesting in that it lays a foundation of analyzing the causes, the trends, and the mitigation methods of dealing with it (Simpson & Yinger, 2013). The significant of the fight against racial discrimination is key to the development of status consistency, social equality, and a mutually stable society that values the ethnicity of all the people who make up that social unit. When a specific group of people in the society are made inferior, not respected on the basis of their skin color, and made not to achieve the privileges other groups are getting, then racial discrimination has gotten the better of that society.

For instance, the war between the white Americans and non- Americans intensified up to the late 19th Century. This constituted social discrimination and racial discrimination that was accompanied by a myriad social misfortunes that depicted the existence and the effects of racial discrimination (Henslin, 2017). The Black Americans were for example not allowed to attend similar schools, hospitals, and churches with the white Americans. Thus, a number of discrimination associated behavior manifested. These include slavery for the blacks and hard labor. Consequently, the black Americans were deemed unfit for proper social treatment hence they became social misfits. They hard to work all day long in the farms of the white Americans with harsh working conditions and treatment. No African was to be found in the counsel of the whites. Also, the blacks were not allowed to socially own property or socially get integrated in the peaceful life with the engaging in any social relationship with the whites. This widened the social gap and relationship between the whites and the blacks and hence the blacks were identified and isolated because of their black color. Black color symbolized socially discriminated individuals in the society (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017).

The effects of Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination has a myriad effects in the society. The effects are socially a menace to the existence of a peaceful nation. For instance, it leads to barriers to social economy and economic participation of individuals in the society which in turn is the reason for social exclusion of individuals in a given set up and this has traumatic effects which can last for generations (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017).

Also, racial discrimination deprives a community that is taken as inferior the opportunity to participate and embrace their cultural diversity as an asset to the nation in which they ascribe to. This calls for an attempt to ensure that the forces of racial discrimination come to an end for the inferior group to overcome the effects of racial discrimination in the society. The inferior group are made look always unwanted, unsafe, and unwelcomed in many aspects, hence they are portrayed in a less positive way to the rest of the group of people across the world. Therefore, this increases the racist gap and leads to hatred and harbors mistrust in a given social set up. In addition to that, racial discrimination affects the social and economic development of a given society, hence the widening developmental social gap between one community and the other (Henslin, 2017).

Furthermore, the existence of a high poverty stroke and immigration rate of the minority of countries experience. This has also led to wide education attainment gap of the affected group due to varying family characteristics of the races. The rising levels of hate speech over the past years through the social media and the World Wide Web has led to high levels of racial partiality in the society. Therefore, this has led to an increasing concern from the authorities to fight against the tremendous increase in the rates of discrimination especially for a better living in the future (Simpson & Yinger, 2013).

In the contrary, racial discrimination has led to positive impact in the society in a number of ways. The victims of the act suggest that it has led to the growth of the individuals in that a special type of responsibility, motivation, and the right to fight against racism especially in the promotion of equal rights among all the races of a country. In this regard, the victims of racial discrimination are compelled to work hard with high levels of motivation in order to boost their self-image (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017). Thus, the force behind discrimination encourages the discriminated individuals to work hard in their fields with the aim of outing their opponents. This sends the message to the discriminators that talent and quality of an individual has no correlation to their races, but only to their hard work. Also, racial segregation enables the victims to carry a yoke of responsibility for the benefits of the upcoming generations. This is a great motivation for them so that they pave way for other generations not to suffer the same course they have followed. The senior members of the community who have suffered racial discrimination guide the junior ones on the best approaches to counter racism and fight it whenever it distorts them in the society.

Analysis of the Racial Discrimination Using the Functional and Conflict Theories

Basing on the functionalism and racial discrimination, the theory proposes that a society’s functioning is the key force in determining the forces that justify the significance of racism in the society. In this regard, the focus is on the functions and dysfunctions of racial discrimination. For instance, functionalist’s perspective discusses that positive contribution of racism to a society by creating a bond that strengthens the members of a given race without allowing outsiders to interrupt their social life (Simpson & Yinger, 2013). On the other hand, the failure of the host group to utilize the talents of the outsiders is a problem in the development of the society. Therefore, a balance between the two has be socially arrived at.

The conflict theories play a role in establishing the differences between and inequalities that manifest in gender, education, race, social class, and ethnicity. This can be seen from the historical injustices done to the black Americans in the US (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017). The struggles and conflicts between the ruling class that was made up of the whites and racial groups that majorly constituted of the blacks, was the Centre of focus. However, with time the dominant group perceived an increasing threat from the minority group. This widened the gap between the two groups, especially when the minority group rose in medical technology and other scientific advancements and discovery.



The Fight against Racial Discrimination

Fighting racial discrimination has the joy of all human right organizations and the victims. The efforts through ensuring a racial-free society has been the dream of every affected individual in the society (Simpson & Yinger, 2013). There has been rising voices against racial discrimination across the world. This has led to increasing anti-racial discrimination thoughts in the society. The quest for an end in racial discrimination and promotion in equal rights for all the races would enable all the races mixed in a given society to live in peace, harmony, and love. The ability to handle and treat others well is the key force in the management of a diverse society. In this regard, the activists against racial discrimination had a myriad objectives in their fight. For instance, the likes of Martin Luther King, played a vital role in the fight against racism in the United States in the early 1963 (Edelman, Luca, & Svirsky, 2017). This was targeted at ensuring other races especially the black Americans are treated properly in the society without segregation of any type. This included discrimination from being members of the available job opportunities, education related offers, and medical services in America. The right to fight for education and socio-economic aspects in the society was the driving force in the endless fight against racial discrimination in the society by a number of personnel and organizations (Henslin, 2017).

The fight against racial discrimination was aimed at streaming the cultural diffusion and cultural leveling in the society. Thus, a number of studies carried out indicated that racial discrimination whose trends in the entire world have been rising up to the past couple of decades, was a great menace. It had a number of health and psychological impacts to individuals and this warranted the fight. The trends indicted that, the minority groups who were affected by racial discrimination which included the Asians, Black Americans, and other Non-Americans suffered high disease rate and thus death due to increase in the racial gap. This is caused by the ability of racial discrimination to stack up the burdens of minority population in the host country to have stigma of inferiority which affects health by restricting socioeconomic opportunities and mobility (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). For instance, the majority of minority groups are segregated and allowed to occupy residential places outside other good places with proper housing. Thus they have limited access to medical emergency services from the host country due to racial partiality and this causes poor physical health and mental health to such individuals in the society. The statistics taken from the National Centre for Health Statistics pertaining the mortality rate of backs and the whites in the United States of America from 1950 to 1995 increased from 1.55 to 1.58 (Van Dijk, 2015). This indicated that, there existed social discrepancy due to racial difference in the health between the blacks and the whites, this demanded interventions.

The creation of inferiority complex is another form of impact that warrants the fight against racial discrimination. Inferiority complex is a worse unrealistic feeling developed by an individual which is accompanied by a feeling of socioeconomic inadequacy. This is caused by a feeling of supposed inferiority in ones spheres and as a result it attracts aggressive behavior and a feeling of insecurity. Inferiority complex affects the society and thus the individuals affected by it feel out of place in the society since they cannot give out their views in the running of the society since they are discriminated of the basis of their race. The inability to have confidence in the society to participate in decision making is a clear lead to unemployment and poverty rates among the minority group (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017).

The groups that triggered the fight against racial segregation have played a vital role in guarding the rights of the minority groups in the society. The organizations for human rights and laws against human trafficking, slavery, and hard labor has been the platform for the fight against racism in the whole world. Over the recent years, a number of organizations and governments have set laws that protect the rights of all individuals regardless of the country of residence and their racial affiliation. For instance in Fiji, the Group of Racial Discrimination (GARD) was formed in the year 1990 that acted against the pressure exerted on a number imposition of a discriminatory laws to a particular group of individuals. This unilateral bias in the constitution was done by the military Government that segregated against a particular minority group (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Also, in the United States of America, a number of organizations like the United Nations, the International Rights Organization, and the Anti-Racial Organizations were formed by the help of the government to fight all cases of racial discrimination (Van Dijk, 2015). From then, the black Americans and the whites could be offered same treatment and provision of services. As a results, the blacks were allowed to take office and leadership jobs in the society. The social gap between the whites and blacks was reduced and the blacks were allowed to mingle with the whites.

The international laws on the protection of immigrants and refugees played a similar role on the fight against racial segregation and consequently, the demand for anti-racism human right protection intensified across the globe (Henslin, 2017). Therefore, there has been an effect towards restoring the social cohesion and integration among the races that make up a nation. The elimination of social injustices has been the key target of human right organizations.

Conclusion

The fight against racial discrimination over the past decades has been of great significance towards bringing to end to segregation based on race. With zero tolerance to all forms racial discrimination, international security, peace, and social class gap moderation has been restored. In most cases, there has been cases of unrest in most countries due to a wide social gap between the races that make up such countries. In this regard, the fight against racism is should be upheld.



























References

Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press.

Edelman, B., Luca, M., & Svirsky, D. (2017). Racial discrimination in the sharing economy: Evidence from a field experiment. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(2), 1-22.

Henslin, J. (2017). Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach (13th Ed). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Simpson, G. E., & Yinger, J. M. (2013). Racial and cultural minorities: An analysis of prejudice and discrimination. Springer Science & Business Media.

Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach. 2015). Methods of Critical Discourse Studies, 63-74.