There’s more than one dilemma that I would love to solve, and choosing just one is difficult for me, but if i have to choose just one, I would choose the problem of racial discrimination. Racial discrimination has been a problem since humans found out that there were actually different races living together on earth, and social and economic equality is long overdo. Obviously there is no easy way to achieve complete equality for everyone, which is why it's taken most of human history to even address the problem, but power lies in the people. If time has told us anything, it's that humans are capable of anything and if everyone of every race works together and seeks enlightenment, then the dilemma of racial discrimination could be shoved in the past, where all can forgive but never forget.…
Children are the future and in order to prevent the constant racism and talk of privilege, children should be taught the very ideals of equality and treating everyone the same regardless of skin tone. Although white attitudes on racial policies that would create positive change often remain negative, and many students continue to talk about race in schools and practice colorblind racism, not all students remain ignorant of racism. In order for more of this change in attitude to happen, though, there must be an opportunity for interaction with diverse peers. Intergroup dialogues often introduce white participants to concepts of racism and white privilege as well as the life experiences of people of other races. This introduction may serve as the agent of change in whites attitudes on racial systems in the United…
Racism is a hot topic all over the world, but what really is racism? Miriam-Webster defines racism as “poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race; the belief that some races of people are better than others.” In more colloquial language, racism is discriminating anyone because of their race and or ethnic background. Racism is all around us, and racism will be prevalent until the end of time.…
When first learning about the term Race it was hard to pin point the actual definition of race in my own terms. We had several readings, all which played a vital role in me; further understanding race and what factors it plays in our society today. In the article Sports in Society by Jay Coakley, Coakley defines race as, “a population of people who are believed to be naturally or biologically distinct from other populations…”…
Muhammad Ali once said: "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong." For most of us, the words "skin color" and "hate" bring to mind the issue of racism. Why? The answer is a well-established mentality to racism.…
In a writing in 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois said that, “easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T Washington.”…
Is there still racism today? Yes, in the article I read Americans say that racism is a bigger problem today than it was in the past 20 years. There’s hate and anger toward people, purely based on a color difference, white people don’t get asked for I.D. when using credit, but African Americans do, white people don’t let their kids date African American’s, people are rude and make fun of people.…
Discrimination - “The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the ground of race, age, or sex.” Racial discrimination - “Treating someone unfavorably because he/she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race (such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features).” Discrimination isn’t a newly faced issue in our society today. We have witnessed many events where racial discrimination has taken place all over the country. I chose to research this topic because it was a topic that came up during our Civil War presentations in Social Studies class. Racial discrimination is a terrible issue that’s been around for quite a while and is negatively affecting…
In today’s society we have had to accept people of different color or different race more than in the past. On top of that, the United States has a black president, in Barack Obama. Even though we have improved whites still connect white skin with good, brown with bad, and black the worst. When it comes to blacks the order is flipped on the way blacks view themselves. The article speaks about how it is hard to believe that it will ever change because of the way children grow up believing these assumptions. Another example the article talks about is how, one of the first things a child learns in school are their colors, and colors are related to specific items and even symbols. For example the color red can be associated with blood which then means danger. A study, that took place at the Max Planck Institute, showed that children are not the only ones that react these ways to colors. In an experiment two groups of volunteers were given a picture of a banana and carrot. The difference of these groups was that one was given black and white pictures, but when asked to report what they had seen both groups said they had seen the items in their original colors. These facts helped determine that once you learn an item has a specific color, you will always associate that item with that color. The same goes with humans when they look at the skin color of each other.…
At the turn of the twentieth century North Carolina’s government fell under the control of the Democrats’ White Supremacy rule. The Jim Crow laws, enacted by North Carolina’s legislature in 1899, formally required segregation in all public facilities and transportation. Disenfranchisement, an attempt to restrict African Americans’ rights to vote, allowed Democrats to apply a poll tax and a literacy test. This combination successfully restricted an enormous portion of African-American voters and poor white Republican supporters from casting a vote. Control over the voting procedures allowed Democrats to easily dominate the polls up until 1970. During this period, citizens fought vigorously to secure the civil rights of which they deemed themselves deserving. North Carolinians sought “Civil Rights” in a plethora of areas including voting rights, academic freedom, labor unions, race, and gender.…
The things that have happened over the years have showed the good and bad sides of racism. It has been a pattern throughout all generations. The Native Americans, the hispanics, and the Blacks, are all examples of people in history who were thought of as “inhumane” just because of their color. Most of these peoples were severely mistreated and beaten down. It is important for me to learn from this history, and to not fall into the crowd of accusing for race or thinking lower of someone because of their color.…
I can remember riding in the car on my home from school as a little girl and listening to the lyrics of the song titled Black Butterfly by Deniece Williams and wondering to myself “ Is she talking about me?!” Much of my ethno-cultural heritage is tied up in the fact that I was born in the south as a l black girl and am part of a family that had an active pioneer in the civil rights movement in our mist. I have been raised to always believe that I was just as smart as, just as pretty as, and just as capable as any white child I might be in class with and it was my duty to the world to show that fact.…
In this chapter, Mrs. Williams explores society 's failure to deal straightforwardly with the practice of exclusion. This is something that infects everyone, from the very old to the very young, and Mrs. Williams does a great job of pointing these things out. As I proceeded to read this piece, I found myself being able to relate and agree with a lot of the things Mrs. Williams spoke on. The truth of the matter is the fact that society puts emphasis on things that do not really matter and not enough emphasis on things that really matter is a big problem in today 's world. We are currently living in a society that attempts to hide things from our youth as if this is benefiting them. "Protecting our youth 's innocence" is good, but as Mrs. Williams pointed out the idea of "not thinking about it so therefore it doesn 't exist" (pg. 4) is not a good method of dealing with problems that may arise in life. This is a very important point that is made. The practice of imagining situations away just so they do not get dealt with head on leads to ignorance. There is a big difference between "being color-blind and just being blind" (pg. 6). The fact that whites do not view themselves in term of race and feel that race is something that blacks solely have to deal with is a division of black and white in itself. When I was a young boy I was constantly reminded of my "blackness", I have to make it and work as hard as everyone else does because I am black. I was not only reminded of this by other blacks, but by whites as well. In this chapter the issue of the restraint placed on our youth 's inquisitive nature is something else that I appreciate Mrs. Williams bringing to the forefront. There is a point in all children life when they go through an inquisitive stage; this is an essential part of a child 's development. It has to be expected that questions are going to get asked, at times the questions may be embarrassing or in some cases…
Race affects children in ways that many do not notice, happening both on a conscious and subconscious level. To find an example of how race affects a child of color one doesn't have to look far, just turn on their television and look at the news. There are many cases every week about how a child of color is affected due to their color. Each time an African-American child loses his/her father to jail or death that is directly affecting the child. Yes, this happens to children of all races, but specifically in America “African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population” and “African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites” which is a huge a discrepancy (NAACP). In a less noticeable fashion the education system is against non-white students. Most students would agree they focus more in a class if they feel a connection with their teacher, but the problem with that connection is that many students lack that connection due to race. Linda Darling-Hammond said “that the quality of instruction given to African-American students was, on average, much lower than that given white students, thus creating a racial gap in aggregate achievement at the end of first grade” in her essay Unequal opportunity: Race and education. This achievement gap only becomes larger and larger leading to “35% of black children [in] grades 7-12 [being] suspended or…
What if Tom Brady decided to take a knee during the national anthem? “He wouldn’t do that.” He quickly interjected. “But what if he did?” I asked. There was a long silence on the other end of the phone before my friend answered. “I really don’t think he would do that.” He insisted. “Me either” I countered. “but, what if he did?” after a short pause my friend answered as if I had taken all the wind out of his sails. “If Tom did that, he would be as bad as Kaep.” He said the words but, they didn’t ring true. This is coming from a man I have known all my life who I know is no racist. It’s just an unconscious bias that we all have in one way or another. The reaction to Colin Keapernick protest to the national anthem was swift and for the most…