Social scientists have also identified some common social factors that may contribute to the presence of prejudice and discrimination: Socialization, Conforming behaviors, Economic benefits, Authoritarian personality, Ethnocentrism, Group closure, and Conflict theory. Prejudice and discrimination are attitude or actual positive and negative actions toward the members of a group based solely on membership in that group. Because of the two terms, prejudice and discrimination, many problems are caused. In the past, especially in 1960s of America, KKK, which is an organization founded by white Americans, seriously discriminated and even murdered black Americans. Prejudice and discrimination are significant and hard issues for people to solve.
This section is also consists of two parts. The first part is racial discrimination against blacks by the whites while the second section is racial discrimination against blacks by the blacks. 1 - A background of racial discrimination in the United States: Racism in the United States has been a major issue ever since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans. European Americans (particularly Anglo Americans) were privileged by law in matters of literacy, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure over periods of time extending from the 17th century to the 1960s.
The term race is usually referred as a way to categorize people based on their cultures and physical traits. Racism is the belief that humanity is divided into stratified genetically different socks called races; according to its adherent’s racial differences make one group superior to another. Throughout history, for hundreds of years, the Black race has been considered inferior to Caucasians. African Americans had to go through slavery, segregation, and racial comments of hatred; and they are still fighting for equality. That was in the 1800s and 1900s, and yet in 2009 Black people still have to face the discrimination.
Minorities use to be slaves, and had very little status in society, but that status was built up to the point where there now suppose to be equals. Although, many feel inferior to these immigrants therefore they discriminate against them through gender, age, religion and race. Despite the promotion of equality there are still many types of discrimination in today’s society. Discrimination visibly occurs in the workplace as well as in the mass media. Why are their still forms of discrimination in today’s society?
African Americans have many conflicts and struggles to deal with. The workplace should not be a place where people feel threatened or unable to be themselves. However, racism is still very active in America, especially in the workplace. White adults are surrounded by subtle racism in the media. Many times comments or suggestions about African Americans are made by people without realizing they are doing so.
According to Du Bois the prejudices of white people elicit “self-questioning, self-criticism, and lowering of ideals” among black people. The internalization of anti-black sentiment from the outside world thus begins to shape the black American experience. Through the concept double consciousness DuBois becomes better able to explore the social problems he studied in his earlier work “The Philadelphia Negro”. Double consciousness also creates an element of conflict within the black American, as they struggle (often unsuccessfully) to reconcile their identity as a black person and as an American citizen. Dubois cites the example of the black artisan in “The Souls of Black Folk”.
After the emancipation of slavery in the 1800’s, African Americans have struggled to be treated with the same equal rights as Europeans. Even with the laws that were pasted to protect African Americans there were states that ignored and created new laws to overturn the laws to protect African Americans. The ignorant of Europeans who denied African Americans the equal rights the laws stated they deserved. African Americans decided to stand up for themselves by developing non violent protest movement to fight for the equal rights of African Americans. ("Civil Rights Movement") Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader of the non violent protest movement in the 1950’s.The development of Martin Luther King Jr. in this era started when an African American woman named Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
To conclude, black people all over the world, wherever they live were for a long time victim of racism for their skin color. People treated them badly only because they had a darker skin color, forgetting that that we are all humans and the color of our skins an where we come from doesn’t indicate our personalities and beliefs. Black in America suffered a lot for reason of racism and went through the hard ships and difficulties
Many still face injustices of racism even in today’s world, where major inhumane actions such as slavery are largely a thing of the past. I interpret Margaret Walker’s quote in a variety of ways. First, I think she goes out of her way to point out the struggles of many African Americans in an elegant and unique way. The dehumanizing of slavery and segregation is something that I believe has happened many times. It’s easy to study these subjects time and time again and become numb to the fact that real people had to suffer through such conditions.
Most of people are confusing about their race and ethnicity. According to “Talking Past Each Other: Black and White Languages of Race,” Blauner, Bob, the interpretation of race was racism as a result,” in the sense, an institution or an occupation is racist simply because racial minorities are under repented in numbers or in positions of prestige and authority. But White saw racism largely as a thing of the past. They defined it in terms of segregation and lynching, explicit white supremacist belief, or double standards, in hiring, promotion and admission to colleges or institution’s. But the Kernet Commission identified ‘white racism,” as a prime reality of American society and the major underlying cause of ghetto unrests.