Racial Profiling
Kim Johnson Johnson 1
Professor John Aveni
English 102
September 26, 2011 Racial grouping and categories can be effective and not effective. In the article “Racial Formation in the United States” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant they discuss their views of racial groups in the U.S and their effectiveness on people. In the article “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America” by Karen Brodkin she discusses how in the past time Jews were considered something other than white, but now they are considered as very much white. Brodkin’s article supports Omi and Winant by addressing the same issues in a more detailed and specific way, they both talk about these racial categories and how it affects certain individuals within racially diverse societies, they talk about education and how the government controls what race you are and how the government is deeply involved. A small portion of African American blood makes you full African American. Omi and Winant state, “Assistant Attorney General Ron Davis defended the law by pointing out that some type of racial classification was necessary to comply with federal record-keeping requirements and to facilitate programs for the prevention of genetic diseases (53).” So in the 1970s peoples race were chosen by the government technically. Susie Guillory Phipps was raised all her life as a white woman but to the government she was as much afro- American as the next person. The government has put a label on everything and now it is affecting everyone. You can be raised as one race and classified as another. Brodkin states, “I continue to be surprised when I read books that indicate that America once regarded its immigrant European workers as something other Johnson 2 than white, as biologically different (25).” So back in time the world saw certain immigrants as something other than white, but now they are a type of white person. As if there is such a huge difference.
Professor John Aveni
English 102
September 26, 2011 Racial grouping and categories can be effective and not effective. In the article “Racial Formation in the United States” by Michael Omi and Howard Winant they discuss their views of racial groups in the U.S and their effectiveness on people. In the article “How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America” by Karen Brodkin she discusses how in the past time Jews were considered something other than white, but now they are considered as very much white. Brodkin’s article supports Omi and Winant by addressing the same issues in a more detailed and specific way, they both talk about these racial categories and how it affects certain individuals within racially diverse societies, they talk about education and how the government controls what race you are and how the government is deeply involved. A small portion of African American blood makes you full African American. Omi and Winant state, “Assistant Attorney General Ron Davis defended the law by pointing out that some type of racial classification was necessary to comply with federal record-keeping requirements and to facilitate programs for the prevention of genetic diseases (53).” So in the 1970s peoples race were chosen by the government technically. Susie Guillory Phipps was raised all her life as a white woman but to the government she was as much afro- American as the next person. The government has put a label on everything and now it is affecting everyone. You can be raised as one race and classified as another. Brodkin states, “I continue to be surprised when I read books that indicate that America once regarded its immigrant European workers as something other Johnson 2 than white, as biologically different (25).” So back in time the world saw certain immigrants as something other than white, but now they are a type of white person. As if there is such a huge difference.