As sociologist Douglas S. Massey has said, “segregation is a key cause of poverty because where one lives determines much about the life chances one faces." And this in the United States is "Created by White prejudice, Actualized by discriminatory behavior and Condoned, if not supported, by government." Today both, in the US and in Europe as well, overt racism is replaced by “politically correct behavior” and the reality of social relations has been rarified. This has made the evil of racism omnipresent, omnipotent but still invisible. It is to the credit of White societies, that, this art is not only universalized but its social reproduction is also ensured.
The idea that unequal treatment and social mistreatment are still constant struggles is addressed in Angelina Price’s essay “Working Class Whites” and bell hooks’ essay “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance. Both authors explain how racial and social controversy affects today’s society. This is done through Price narrowing her focus on how class structure and media relations affects this issue while hooks’ essay concentrates more on public perception with relation to this issue. Both authors use a significant amount of evidence to support their logic as well as ideas that allow the reader to draw their own personal conclusions. In both essays, the idea of social class fueling thoughts and perceptions of either the “Other” or “poor white class” in today’s society is drawn upon multiple times.
Formally, racial categories appeared to be biological which contrast with the view of the current generation that impact the social status of the society. The ethical race connections that exist among people appear to be mutually exclusive. However, the situation may be overlapping without notice. This brings in the idea of invisibility of race within the community. People tend to assume the existence of race as an inferior fact yet it exists as a major problem within the community.
This bias in the two categories of personnel has led to a gender discrimination aspect to the department where males are put in active duty and females relegated to a more administrative role. The gender and racial bias that is exhibited in the virtual county police department is immoral and needs to be rectified to reflect a more democratic way of doing things. The police department needs to adopt more democratic and un-biased recruitment processes that will ensure equitable distribution of personnel within the department and agency. The department could invoke an affirmative action policy in its recruitment of sworn in personnel and the non-sworn in personnel. This policy involves reverse bias during recruitment in order to cater for those who were previously locked out and are under represented in the force.
Charles Lawrence uses the case, Brown v. the Board of Education, as an example. Although he argues similar to Brown’s case, the prejudice and racial ways in many schools caused unfair conditions to the victim’s of racial comments. He also argues that racist speech can hinder many people so much that it can make them very uncomfortable in their educational environment. Lawrence goes on to talk about racist speech in the form of face-to-face insults which falls right under fighting words, excepted by the First Amendment Protection. He explains that whenever someone decides that racial comments has to be accepted, we are asking people to accept the hurt of racial comments for everyone else.
To determine the fairness and impartiality of the Chamberlain case, we need to assess the role of the media, the nature of the evidence at the trial and the police investigation. Assessing these would then show that the Chamberlains did not receive fair treatment due to the inconsistences in the justice system and the public prejudice on society.
In order to increase our self-image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong. We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to). Therefore we’re divided into the in-group or out-group based through a process of social categorization. Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group by focusing on negative aspects to enhance their self-image. Prejudiced views between cultures may result in racism; in its extreme forms, racism may result in genocide, such as occurred in Germany with the Jews, in Rwanda between the Hutus and Tutsis and, more recently, in the former Yugoslavia between the Bosnians and Serbs.
Racism in a predominantly white city Racism, which is basically the poor treatment of other people because of their race, is a vice that has always existed in society since time immemorial. Considering what Law states, racism exists in various forms and levels. It may exist based on nationality, skin color, religious background and even as a result of personal beliefs. On the hand, contemporary racism exists with the belief that whites are superior to other races and color, and it is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to identify since it depends on the perception of the one being victimized and the given situation or interaction that might have led to it. It is important to note that although countries like Canada takes pride in knowing
Individuals have also made good arguments about the negative outcome that racial profiling might bring to our society. Obviously it has led the dominant race to have superiority to the minorities – racial discrimination. James Zogby, the president of the Arab-American Institute have made a point that he have seen a lot of dark skinned people being searched and treated with humiliation, which is really wrong – Racial Relations. David Harris, a writer and Professor at Toledo College, have already written a couple of books about racial profiling. He states that law enforcers think that they would be more accurate in targeting a suspicious group, but in reality, what happens is the total opposite wherein officials have inaccurate results in targeting the suspect—Race Relations.
Everybody has personal prejudices based on race and it is inevitable. To deny them would only result in you lying to yourself. Racism, discrimination, white privilege, and prejudices are very real and exist around us. The following paper will conclude the differences between Race, Racism, discrimination, white privilege, and prejudices and will give thorough explanations of what each word means in America’s society today. A solid start to understanding the differences is to understand what race is and the role it plays.