Racial Ideology, American Politics, and the Peculiar Role of the Social Sciences”; where he explains his research on the intersection of poverty, crime and race. Bobo contends the United States is faced with a sophisticated, elusive and enduring race problem. His use of two separate focus groups one being all white and the other being all black uncovered evidence to support just how complex the race problem in America is. Bobo contends the just saying that the race problem still endures is not to say that it remains fundamentally the same and essentially the same. Bobo asks how we can have milestone decisions like Brown V. Board, pass a civil rights act, a voting act, fair housing acts, and numerous acts of enforcement and amendments, including the pursuit of affirmative action policies and still continue to face a significant racial divide in America.
That came later when skin color was used to identify and subjugate the enslaved. ‘‘Natural’’ differences were translated into racial hierarchies that fixed the inferiority of the slaves, culturally and philosophically. Race provided the physical grounds, but conceptualization of a racial hierarchy is a matter of racism and not race. Racism is a cultural expression of fundamental social beliefs and values. Visitors would have been better served had they been made aware that race is only half of the equation.
She re-defines it as being misleading. She states that normally we define “privilege” as being a favored state, either earned or with luck, being born privileged. McIntosh explores the interlocking of hierarchies and determines that they are both active parties in oppression, because it is imbedded in both. The dominant race are imbedded in believing that there is equality, and that racism comes in forms of actual intent of harming and being mean to other not included in the dominant category. The non-dominant of the races are led to be “unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated.” This is what the different social classes are brought up to
Racism and prejudice are interchangeable terms; the former is defined as one’s feeling of cultural and racial advantage over other cultures and races. In other words, one becomes a racist if he or she displays actions or live by ideologies out of the feeling of superiority. Whilst most people claim to be not racist, everyone is guilty of having been committed some forms of prejudice in one way or another. Helms has classified five statuses of racial identity construction model: conformity, dissonance, immersion-emersion, internalization, and integrative awareness (62). Conformity takes place when one sees his or her own race as inferior and learns to identify with the dominant and superior race, such as the White Americans.
Subsequently, Thoreau uses a rhetorical question to reinforce his contentions. On the other hand, Baldwin also points out hypocrisy of society as well. Baldwin commences his argument by stating that the Black student is told that he is equal however in society the child is seen as a stereotype. Baldwin clearly describes the stereotype of an African American. He uses himself as an example he tells us that he does not fit the mold of an African American, however he still is an African American.
Schlesinger examines the current attempts by black "leaders" to rewrite the history of black Americans in order to ostensibly improve their self-esteem and provide them with role models. Mr. Schlesinger argues that this sort of "compensatory history," or "underdog history" which is invented or exaggerated to soothe the wounds of the oppressed or abused, really can have no positive effect, either for those it presumes to help or for the nation as a whole. He states, "... black Americans, after generations of psychological and cultural evisceration have every right to seek an affirmative definition of their past". But he also states that, "History as a weapon is an abuse of history. The high purpose of history is not the presentation of self nor the vindication of identity ..." He points out that the reinforcement of such a separatist concept of black identity through such slanted or inaccurate history, coupled with a complete dismissal of the history of black people in America over the past 300 years, can only result in the "...fragmentation, resegregation, and tribalization of American Life".
This use of power by white people over black individuals has caused numerous black individuals to view themselves as trapped in their own skin, which is a concept Fanon defines as “blackness”. In Frantz Fanon’s article, The Fact of Blackness, he speaks about how black people do not feel the weight of their “blackness” until they are under the scrutiny of white counterparts and viewed as objects. Fanon states, “A feeling of inferiority? No, a feeling of nonexistence. Sin is Negro as virtue is white.
When DuBois addresses the problem of the color line I believe that what he is signifying is the clear racial divide between the black and white races. The color line that DuBois speaks of is the known segregation that exists between the two races. In speaking of the “problem of the 21st Century” being the color line it exemplifies the divide between minorities and the majority when as it relates to educational opportunities, choice of better jobs, economic status etc. I believe that in many respects the color line does still exist, though Affirmative Action, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other measures have helped to get minorities in the door, with faulty educational structures and socioeconomic conditions that often fall within the poverty line it still causes difficulty for some minorities to break through the color division that exists. I believe however the color line of today has expanded past that of just race, as we so often see a separation between male and female, sexual orientation, disabled verses bodied individuals etc.
An example of that, would be critic Diane K. Lewis’s thought, on how black women may be more like white men in terms of familial and economic roles, like black men in terms of their relationships with whites, and like women in terms of their relationships with men. 4. To properly understand gender studies, we must realize that one purpose of gender criticism is to criticize gender as we commonly conceive of it, to expose its insufficiency and inadequacy.
In “ The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, but it Bends towards Justice,” written by Maya Angelou, and “America as a College,” written by Ryzard Kapuscinski; address common themes such as racism and overcoming a defeat. In Angelou’s article, it states that blacks are no longer invisible in the US, through hard work and achievement. “ Whites now see blacks, but only as a threat to their safety or their jobs.” In America as a Collage, it talks about how minorities overcome discrimination, and “all races will merge into one race.” Both articles address different issues on prejudice and an attempt to overcome racism. The two articles carry the theme of racism in different ways. Angelou’s article, states that African Americans have come along ways since the civil rights movement.