The Issue of Race in the United States Essay Example

The issue of historical racism directed towards the blacks in the US is like a bacillus that is not easy to destroy, an active virus which continues to make the citizens sick by retaining the ability to produce new strains of an illness which has no cure. When trying to comprehend the issue of race which is mostly affecting the United States, it is first essential to mention that the notion of racism is meticulously entwined with that of discrimination since racism refers to discrimination by an individual's race.

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Additionally, the idea of racism is a violation of basic human liberties and rights due to their racial appearance (Brewer and Nancy 625). Therefore, racism could have various presentations, including the discrimination and oppression of ethnic minority groups. The American population is one of the mixed races since its very beginning. Enslaved Africans provided a workforce which fueled the US economy for an extended period until the civil rights movement and national abolition generated a vital biracial population of whites and blacks (Brewer and Nancy 626). Although public acts of racism are not that prevalent in the United States like in the past, the issue of racism today is implicit and hidden, and often suppressed with stories to legitimize the discrimination. Racial profiling in Americasn history was a crucial issue with the African enslavement in the US but is on the decline today though still being replaced with issues of social standards, mass incarceration, and discrimination. Even though several movements and policies have put effort into improving the equality of American citizens, racial issues continue to exist.

The topic of racism continues to be a significant social stigma for a few selected US citizens. Today, America is pretty much going through a post-racial era that the nation is experiencing a period of free racial segregation. Profiling individuals according to their race is ethically and morally wrong as well as illegal according to America's constitution (Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol 26). According to Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol, the law stipulates that all US citizens irrespective of their race had equal protection under the judicial system and protected from any unreasonable seizures and searches (27). Even though racial profiling is not useful, it creates a form of the hostility of certain individuals from the law, impedes societal monitoring efforts and results in a lack of trust of law enforcers among the society. The issue of racism has an impact on diverse groups of color, with African-Americans being the most affected. Ever since the pre-colonial era, there has been no peace between the police force and the black's community in America (Brewer and Nancy 627). Recently, viral posts in social media have been portraying cases of violent attacks on African Americans by the police. The trump government has seen a rise in racial profiling among the South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims unlike the Obama era that at least tried to treat all American citizens equally. There is a group of Americans who take the issue of racism as an essential tool in punishing crime and safeguarding their security (Brewer and Nancy 628). But then, racism does more harm than good to the affected individuals and hence cannot be a solution to the issue experienced in America. The nations unity and safety are of greatest importance and the integration of all-American citizens irrespective of their race, could unite the nation and make it a safer environment for everyone.

In actuality, issues of race have consistently changed, but the subject of racism continues in the United States society. The black progressive movements of Martin Luther King have stopped. According to Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol, civil rights movement and successful works of the activists in the 1950s and 1960s led to the constant change in racial relations in America although the Civil Rights Movements did not succeed in solving the issue of racism in the United States (26). There are no changes in the number of racist images and comments since there is persistence in discrimination of African Americans in society. "There is no much noticeable change when it comes to social justice" (Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol 27). Hate crimes against Black's communities continue to escape punishment. The US has degenerated when it gets to justice for Black-Americans. The current strain of racism is conceivably tougher to eliminate than its more aggressive past; it elusively permits its culprits to be ignorant of any prejudice, and its attention in the media calms Americans into acceptance and compliance of the current system.

What is more disturbing is the prevalence of 'subconscious racism' or rather referred to as 'covert racism' (Coates 212). Here, several white Americans discriminate and stereotype the African Americans actively without being conscious of their thought processes and actions. This phenomenon is a negative outcome of individuals being brought up in a subtly prejudiced nation that disseminates discrimination, even if it's not publicly (Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol 27). The radicalization of the US society would result in the steady decline of the political and socioeconomic status quo in America and could weaken the present social order. Therefore, the solution to the issue of race is vital for the stability of the US social order.

The issue of race in the US is no longer a rival between the Whites and Blacks only. With the rise in Hispanic and Latinos population in the United States, the subject of racism has turned into a more complex issue. The issue of race has a significant part in explaining the police-enrolment in killings and mass incarcerations in the US. Routine violence against the people of color explicitly defines the American criminal justice system, and it is evident that Blacks, have been and continue being at risk for going through law-enforcement mistreatment than the Whites (Coates 220). According to Edwards et al., the likelihood of being shot at by police, compared to White men, is around 1.4 and 1.7 times higher for Latinos and 3.2 and 3.5 times higher for African Americans (1241). Racial politics, anti-immigrant immobilizations, prejudiced judicial systems, and structural racism all play a role in determining the frequency of police killings and possible victims (Edwards et al. 1248).Soss and Weaver state that"in 2015, US citizens learned that civil officers in Fergusson had executed a predatory system of administration on poor African Americans" (301). Police harassment and oppression stood at the center of this structure, functioning as intimidating tools to get taxes for the city. "As police practices constrain movement and delineate the native communities, they shape the wealth factors in a manner which defines the lasting classification of social status" (Soss and Weaver 30.15). Police actions in social areas operate as everyday rituals portraying who deserves the advantages and rights of an American citizen, who can be trusted, and who looks suspicious. They convey the significance of being black and poor, symbolically marking minority communities as needing more oversight and neglecting their need for security and protection over the Whites.

Conclusion

In summary, racism has been an issue in American society for an extended period, going back to early America when Blacks occasionally experienced prejudice. African slavery contributed to the environment of a racist nation by humiliating the Blacks and making the Whites feel more important than the Africans (Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol 25). Even though the Black's civil rights has shown significant improvement with the previous Obama regime, there is still a noteworthy presence of racism that is also being encouraged by the current Trump government. Racism is ethically and legally wrong. A common trend in today's America is covert and incidental racism, that is, providing other races with equal opportunities but still using other factors as a justification of racist behavior (Coates 212). The American Constitution states that all citizens of the United States have equal rights irrespective of their nationality gender, and race (Seabrook and Wyatt-Nichol 27). Racism violates this provision by perceiving a particular group of individuals as potential enemies. The government ought to enthusiastically absorb strategies which aim at fighting crime and terrorism without resorting to racial profiling and discrimination. The issue of racismthus persists in the US. Even though it is not a primary issue in America, there are still several factors considering this issue. The United States community continues to suffer from the oppression and discrimination of minority groups. In this fact, the American government is aware of the reality that issues of racism can pose several adverse problems and result in the radicalization of the American society. As long as these gaps between diverse racial groups persist, the United States will continue to experience this issue of race.

Works Cited

Brewer, Rose M., and Nancy A. Heitzeg. "The racialization of crime and punishment: Criminal justice, color-blind racism, and the political economy of the prison industrial complex." American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 51, no. 5 (2008): pp. 625-644, doi:10.1177/0002764207307745

Coates, Rodney D. "Covert racism in the US and globally." Covert Racism. Brill, 2011. 239-266. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rodney_Coates/publication/229055290_Covert_Racism_in_the_USA_and_Globally/links/544671960cf2d62c304dbe3f.pdf

Edwards, Frank, Michael H. Esposito, and Hedwig Lee. "Risk of Police-Involved Death by Race/Ethnicity and Place, United States, 2012-2018." American journal of public health, vol. 108, no. 9 (2018): pp. 1241-1248, doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304559

Seabrook, Renita, and Heather Wyatt-Nichol. "The ugly side of America: Institutional oppression and race." Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, vol. 23, no. 1 (2016): pp. 19-46. Retrieved fromhttp://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol23/iss1/3

Soss, Joe, and Vesla Weaver. "Police Are Our Government: Politics, Political Science, and the Policing of Race-Class Subjugated Communities." Annual Review of Political Science 20 (2017), doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-060415-093825