Racial And Institutional Racism In The United States

Racism. The prediction of decisions and policies on consideration of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over it (Carmichael & Hamilton, 1967). There are two forms of racism in America: individual and institutional. The first consist of acts that are performed by individuals that which results in injury, destruction of property and maybe even death. The latter, institutional, is less detectable, when it comes to specific individuals executing the acts but is as detrimental to the human life as if it was an act done by an individual. Institutional racism originates from the established, respected and powerful forces and reap less humiliation than individual racism. In the end it is institutional racism that keeps African Americans uneducated, behind bars, and living in …show more content…
These features are a way to organize a hierarchy and that people with certain “racial” attributes deserve to be in control or in power and those people that have these features are deemed superior than other ethnicities that do not share the same features as the “superior race”. The superior race deemed themselves as “white” or Caucasian. Using the word white to describe their race signifies that their race were pure, clean and above all. In return coined the name of the race black for Africans which means dirty, malignant, and foul. Using these types of phrases shows which group of people is superior and which is the inferior. Caucasian’s during the early settlement thought of enslaved Africans as dirty, savages that were only meant to be kept in captivity and returned viewed themselves as white, pure, god-like creatures who could never do any wrong. Coates denounces that Caucasians should call themselves white because of the atrocious history that follow suits with the name. To Coates the people who call themselves white did not achieve such stature by tasting