Category: Race

An analysis of racial/ethnic differences in offending and victimization rates

A lot of attention has always been paid to the issue of race and crime. Statistics in the United States show that the rate of incarceration among the minority communities is higher than in the White communities. Statistics show that homicide is the leading cause of death among males in the African American community. The probability that a young African American male will die due to homicide is very high. It stands at 1 in every group of 21 young African Americans while it is much lower in the Whites where the probability is 1 in every group of 131 White males (Sampson and Wilson, 126).

Although the homicide rates have been increasing from the 1950s both in the White and African American communities, the rate of increase in the African American community has been at higher levels. The rate of death through firearms among the African Americans doubled in the period from 1984 to 1988 compared to the rates among the Whites which were relatively stable. The rate of African American robbery is ten times higher than the White rates.

Although African Americans account for only 12% of the overall population, they are imprisoned or sentenced for more than 50% of the homicide and robbery arrests in the country (Shihadeh and Steffensmeier 729).

There are scholars who have refused to focus on the causes of these differentials instead of carrying out studies to show that there is racism against minority communities by the law enforcement agencies. Weitzer in 2000, interviewed residents from the White middle-class community and African American middle, as well as lower-class communities to find out their perception of racialized policing. All the respondents agreed that African Americans were treated more harshly than Whites by the police. The White respondents indicated that the reason for the harsher treatment was the exceptionally high crime rates in the African American communities. The police were therefore to a certain extent justified in their behavior (Weitzer 151). Residents from the African American middle-class neighborhood felt that they received, to a certain extent, the same kind of treatment as the Whites. The African Americans from poor neighborhoods reported inferior treatment.

These perceptions are due to the kind of policing both neighborhoods receive. The African Americans in the poor neighborhood have seen police engaging in proactive methods where they keep patrolling and asking the people what they are doing. The houses are congested with poor infrastructure, and the crime rates are high. The African Americans in middle-class neighborhoods live under good conditions; the neighborhoods display well-maintained houses and compounds with hardly any sign of disorderly behavior.

Unnever (2008) agreed with Weitzers findings. In his research study on the perception of race among African Americans and Whites, he found out that African Americans believed that there was a racial bias against them in the courts and among the police (Unnever 530). They felt that these biases contributed to the higher sentencing and incarceration rates among African Americans. The courts were more likely to convict African Americans than Whites. The researchers, however, point out that those African Americans, who had gone through experiences where they had faced racial discrimination, were more likely to point out racial bias in the courts and in the law enforcement agencies. The African Americans felt that the high crime rates in their community were due to structural differences such as lack of jobs, failing schools and poor parenting.

Steffensmeier, Ulmer and Kramer (1998) carried out research on incarceration data in Pennsylvania for the years 1989-1992 to find out the impact age, gender and race had on sentencing outcomes. In their finding on sentencing statistics, the researchers discovered that apart from factors such as prior records and the gravity of the offense, African American male offenders in their 20s and 30s were sentenced more harshly than their female, white and elderly offenders (Steffensmeier, Ulmer and Kramer 788). The researchers suggest that judges consider factors such as age, gender, and race which contribute to young African American offenders getting severe sentences.

Causes of the Disparities in the Offending and Victimization Rates

There are different scholars who have put forward the reasons for the discrepancies in the offending rates between the different races. Wolfgang and Ferracuti (1967) wrote about the subculture of violence theory. They explained that the African Americans valued violence. The individuals in the African American community, who did not exhibit any violence, ended up being looked down and despised. On the other hand, the ones who had learned to be violent did not feel odd, neither did they experience any feelings of shame or guilt (Wolfgang and Ferracuti 155). The culture in the African American community influences young males to engage in violence at higher rates leading to higher incarceration rates.

Blau and Blau (1982) contested the view of a subculture of violence by Wolfgang and Ferracuti. In a research study, they ascertained that high rates of crime in the minority races stemmed from differences in socioeconomic conditions. In the ghettos and other low-income neighborhoods, the proportion of the minority races was higher than the Whites (Blau and Blau 125).

The minority races resorted to crime in order to get what they needed for their daily life. The crime was caused by their materialist needs due to what they lacked. If poverty was reduced in the ghettos, the rate of crime would go down.

Shaw and Mckay (1942) proposed that the cause of the discrepancies in criminal behavior was due to weak controls and organizations in society. These scholars said that criminal behavior was not rooted in individual causes, rather it was a reaction of law-abiding citizens to abnormal conditions in the society. If the society was not policed adequately and there were other forms of control, it resulted in criminal behavior, as people sought freedom in expressing their views.

They explained that rich people moved to a better neighborhood to escape the disorganization and inadequate policing (Shaw and McKay 112).

McNulty and Bellair conducted a research on five ethnic communities, the African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Whites and Native Americans to find out the individual and family risk factors that heightened criminal tendencies in adolescents. The researches carried out the research in high schools and interviewed parents and teachers to answer questions on the sample adolescents observed tendencies of deviant behavior, such as fighting, stabbing, and shooting someone. They found out that there were several risk factors that increased the probability of deviant behavior. These were lack of family resources, the presence of gangs in the locale area, and lack of mainstream attachment in the context of lack of fathers or positive male role models (McNulty and Bellair 734). The study supported Blau and Blaus findings on the effect of living in areas that are economically disadvantaged to individuals.

Policy recommendations aimed at reduction of the racial disparities in offending and victimization

The high crime rates in the African American communities should be addressed as it is a critical issue. The high rate of homicide in this community shows that the life expectancy of these men is lower compared to their peers in other ethnic communities. There are scholars who have suggested that poor families can be relocated to better neighborhoods in order to reduce the offending and victimization rates among the adolescents. This does not provide solution to the problem at all. There should be government and non-governmental programs instituted to deal with the structural problems of these communities. First of all, the business communities can work closely with the business initiatives in the region to empower them and educate them on how to run successful ventures. The infrastructure in the areas should be improved to support businesses. This will create more job opportunities raising the standards of living. The young people can also be linked with jobs in the wider community.

There should also be policies to deal with those adolescents who are already in gangs or have started exhibiting criminal behavior. There should be efforts to counsel them and engage them in recreational and artistic activities, such as sports, for example, in order to show them alternate lifestyles. For the children that come from single families, the government should link them up with father figures and mentors to create bonds that are aimed at influencing their behaviors and mind-sets concerning life positively. There should also be government efforts to prevent the flow of guns among the youths in the locations where the minority communities are concentrated. There should not be a high emphasis in the courts and among the judges on the incarceration for the offenders (Butler 722). There should be attempts at rehabilitation. Statistics have shown that longer prison sentences do not necessarily reduce the crime rates among the minorities.

Works Cited

Blau Judith and Peter Blau. The Costs of Inequality: Metropolitan Structure and Violent Crime. American Sociological Review, 47(1982): 114-129. Print.

Butler, Paul. Racially Based Jury Nullification: Black Power in the Criminal Justice System. Yale Law Journal, 105(1995): 677-725. Print.

McNulty, Thomas and Paul Bellair. Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Serious Adolescent Violent Behavior Criminology, 41(2003): 709-748. Print.

Sampson, Robert and William Wilson.Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality. Crime Readings. Eds. R. D. Crutchfield, G. S. Bridges, J. G. Weis, and C. Kubrin. CA: Pine Forge Press, 2000. Print.

Shaw, Clifford R. and Henry McKay. Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942. Print.

Shihadeh, Edward and Steffensmeier Darell. Economic Inequality, Family Disruption, and Urban Black Violence: Cities as Units of Stratification and Social Control. Social Forces, 73.1 (1994): 729-751. Print.

Steffensmeier, Darrel, Ulmer, Jeffrey and John Kramer. The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment Cost of Being Young, Black, and Male. Criminology, 36 (1998): 763-797. Print.

Unnever, James. Two Worlds far Apart: Black-White Differences in Beliefs about Why African-American Men Are Disproportionately Imprisoned. Criminology, 46 (2008): 511-538. Print.

Weitzer, Ronald. Racialized Policing: Residents Perceptions in Three Neighborhoods Law & Society Review, 34 (2000): 129-155. Print.

Wolfgang, Marvin and Franco Ferracuti. The Subculture of Siolence: Towards an Integrated Theory in Criminology. London: Tavistock Publications, 1967. Print.

Introduction

According to historian Thomas W. Hanchett, Charlotte spent the early 1980s studying its pre-world war two neighborhood for the Charlottes- Mecklenburg historic landmarks commission. Hanchett spent months walking the streets of places like Dilworth, Middleville, Washington Heights, and North Charlotte. Regarding charlotte his main concern was to research why most of the charlottes cotton mills are built on the edge of the town, the impact of the southern values on the Charlotteans including racial have upon the growth patterns of Charlotte, why most of the wealthy Charlotteans reside in the southeastern quadrant of the city (Hanchett, n.d).

According to Hanchett (n.d), Charlotte, like most of the southern urban centers,l looked like a scattering of salt pepper. The rich and poor, black and white lived, store owners and day laborers, says Hanchett frequently lived side by side in the same block. For most of its early history up to 1850 charlotte was a preindustrial city in which the social and economic elite controlled the political life and according to Hanchette, the urban landscape echoed that continuity, (sorting out the new south city 1875-1975). Throughout the century of mid-1870s to the mid-1970s, the Charlotteans continually redefined their notion of a good place to live in. Populism threatened the continuity of the traditional social pyramid and to meet the challenges city fathers began to divide the city up into social and racial orders to ensure that the whites and the blacks would have difficulty overcoming the physical space to ever endanger white elites again. White business leaders came to view the city as a place for commerce and the suburbs of a place for living the good life.

Charlottes history makes it evident that across the 20^th century, there was vast racism since the whites and the blacks could not live together making racial segregation thrive amongst them. The racism also was evident in the political leadership whereby the blacks regularly elected African Americans to the Board of Aldermen until 1893. The wealthy whites who were mostly small-scale merchants controlled charlottes politics and economy since the arrival of the railroad in October 1852. Despite having political leadership the whites were not contented by living side by side with the blacks and they felt to retreat into affluent residential districts and separate themselves from their poorer neighbors. Most of their daily activities made them interact i.e. the blacks and the whites since their homes, craft shops, stores, and livery stables were all mixed. This shows that their leadership was not effective since they had the mandate to improve the living conditions of the poor considering the fact that they controlled the politics and the economic activities of Charlotte (Hanchett, n.d).

Impact of Charlotte on Public policy

Public policy refers to the system of laws, regulatory measures, course of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by the government entity or its representatives. Public policy is supposed to accelerate change within society. This means that the leadership at the federal and local levels should prioritize the partnership of various groups in various sectors of the society to ensure that they foster more public policy engagement in their communities. This is because the process of formulation of policies always involves efforts by competing interest groups to influence the policymakers in their favor, (definition of public policy and the law, n.d).

This is because grass-root advocacy is an essential complement to ensuring that there is cohesion within the society. This also shows that the revolution within Charlotte or any other society is greatly influenced by the implementation of public policy. The policies should be prioritized to ensure that the key issues regarding development are addressed. The federal government has a critical role to play by ensuring partnership at the federal, state, and local levels so as to create a sustained change in community conditions and to improve lives. The government cannot do it alone nor the rest of the social service sector, (the United Way Public Policy Agenda for the10th Congress).

The public policy should ensure that there is a strong cohesion between the various groups despite their economic, social or political divide. The public policy implemented should ensure that everybody within the locality has an opportunity to be employed in the various sectors of the economy. The public resources should also be equally distributed to ensure that there are just a few who are enjoying it. The leaders should push for equity in the sharing of the national cake. The political and economic leaders had the obligation to developing good public policies to ensure that all the residents of charlotte have access to good living conditions. Some of the policies that were of paramount importance include those that would be geared towards ending racial or social class segregation by ensuring that they do not allow Charlotte to have some places that are reserved for the whites and others for the blacks, this would be in terms of the geographical subdivisions of Charlotte.

In the 1890s the city started sorting out itself, first into a quilt-like pattern of business and residential districts that were drawn along racial or income lines and then into entire quadrants extending outward from the city center. As time went by there was a sorting out of the land uses leading to a halt of the development of Charlotte. According to Hanchett, the abandonment of the traditional landforms and the consequent transformation was political. The growth in the size of the economic enterprises was pulled back by the conservative nature of the people i.e. tradition and if not for the series of political upheavals that rocked Charlotte during the 1890s, Hanchett writes that there would not have been experienced any positive change. This is evident from the fact that it was the Populist Party which was made up of the small farmers, factory workers, and African Americans who sought to wrestle for political control from the Democrats and institute fundamental changes in the economic system. They championed issues regarding the government regulation of the railroads, abandonment of the gold standard for currency, and the recognition of the rights of the factory workers. The development of political, racial reforms amongst the American cities has greatly contributed to their development during the twentieth century. In 1900, there was a campaign where the white North Carolinians went to the polls and approved a series of amendments to the state constitution. This was aimed to deny the chance of winning by the majority of blacks making it difficult for the Populists to prevail at the ballot box. The democrats also developed literacy tests for voting while keeping open loopholes for the poor whites to continue voting even if they could not read. Hanchette writes that with the disfranchisement of the black citizens through the literacy tests, the black would not be in a position to effectively muster the votes to challenge the democratic control. This shows that the black Charlotteans were being denied their right to vote and hence the spirit of democracy was being infringed. The whites through these amendments would therefore gain absolute control of the political and economic leadership of Charlotte. The political domination of the wealthy white businessmen in Charlotte became even stronger after 1907 writes Hanchette when even the poor whites could not or did not seek to pass the more stringent literacy requirement for voting that went into effect in North Carolina. This shows a great deal of division along with the economic class.

The commercial civic elite class used their political strength to reshape the physical form of the city into a network of homogenous districts to include immaculate neighborhoods like Myer Park, Eastover and Dilworth. Hanchett explains that Charlotteans had undergone a conceptual shift in their definition of a desirable urban landscape.this shows that leadership greatly contributed to the development of most of the American states.

Charlottes history suggests that there is a strong positive relation between politics, ideology and municipal planning and governance. The parties who greatly influence the formulation of policies have the mandate of ensuring that there is no marginalization and the violation of the rights of the people who depend on them for effective leadership. They should not misuse their mandate to favor themselves as this will eventually destabilize the development of the society thus affecting their lives negatively. There should be respect for the diverse ideologies from the various groups of people regardless of their social or economic class, race or even political inclination. The leadership should involve all the parties in their formulation or amendment of the policies that govern them or the constitution. Thus the political platform should not be used as the bases where absolute controls of the societys affairs are manipulated so that only the elite class can have their opinions heard. It also shows the strength with which unity amongst the people to whom injustice is being directed can make positive change. This is only through networking amongst themselves and voicing their concerns in the effort to break their conservative nature and appreciate progressive leadership. These coalitions of the people and the civil society groups should always uphold and negotiate their rights collectively. They should fight against the violation of fundamental rights such as voting rights, the right to reside in any part of the country. This is evident from the fact that there were deeds that advocated that certain locations would be extremely residential meaning that workplace and domicile would not exist side by side and that the African Americans could not own or rent homes in Piedmont Park. This shows that the laws that were being developed by those in power were very ineffective and they propagated racial segregation. The cost of housing was also exorbitant which kept the poor whites out from owning homes in Piedmont Park. The municipal leadership has the authority of ensuring that the city residents have access to proper housing and they should control the cost of housing so as to keep out segregation on economic lines. Hanchette notes that the introduction of Federal insured home mortgages especially those provided by the Federal Housing Administration, helped healthy neighborhoods to become stronger and caused the marginal neighborhoods to weaken even more. This shows that municipal planning and governance can effectively result in the development of the cities by keeping dirty politics in the leadership.

Influence of the national, regional and local forces on Charlottes politics

Charlottes politics is greatly influenced by national, regional and local forces. This is evident from the fact that the national government is responsible for the formulation of regulatory Acts relating to issues such as land usage. In Charlotte, it is evident that there were intentions to divide the land into regions where one district could be exclusively devoted to business, another to manufacturing, another to laborers and another for the blacks. The national government has the power to decide on the administrative structure of a particular region. Since the local government is delegated tasks to conduct by the central government the local government should ensure that they help increase the efficiency of operation. If the forces at the national level are not effective due to bad politics, the effect definitely trickles to the local government. Regional politics also have an effect due to the development of international bodies that influence the operations of their member countries. This is in the form of trading blocs or international accords that relate to the utilization of natural economic resources such as the water treaties.

Comparison with the Oakland politics

The Oakland politics are no different. The laws that regulate the national and local governments are very rigid. The democrats cannot pass a bill without at least one of the Republican senators voting for it which has usually lead to the fallout of crucial issues such as those to do with budgeting. This has usually led to inefficiency in the operation of the public service sector such as the education, lying off the state employees and many state offices remain closed. (What the State Budget Means for Oakland, 2009).

References

1. A Review of Thomas W. Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City. Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte 1875-1975 University of North Carolina Press.
2. Thomas H, Sorting out the New South City: Race, Class and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975 (University of North Carolina Press, 1998)
3. Definition of Public Policy and the Law Web.
4. What the state budget means for Oakland.

Matters concerning race and ethnicity often present significant challenges even in the medical field while taking a patients history. Various socio-political, cultural, and geographic forces shape race and ethnicity, making them dynamic. Indicating a patients correct racial background may help understand specific predispositions to disease among different races, inequalities and disparities in health (aiding in timely diagnosis), and even particular adverse drug reactions. Thus, the nurse in the case study must find appropriate means of ascertaining a patients race when in doubt but not fill in the wrong details, which may result in erroneous treatment outcomes.

Requesting for race information may not affect healthcare workers much because they understand the value of such data in medical history taking. Jevon et al. (2020) note, however, that there are specific terms that may irk even care professionals, such as the use of derogative terms that refer to a race (p. 17). Therefore, it is essential to find acceptable words for any given race. Nevertheless, family members and the patient may be unaware of the role of race in history taking. The newly graduated nurse should first explain to the patient (if conscious and aware of the surroundings) or the family the importance of recording the data.

The registered nurse should introduce themselves and create a good rapport with the patient (or family) first to establish their trust. After that, the nurse proceeds to note that s/he noticed the race section was blank and explains the value of such data to the uninformed patient and their relatives. Explanations are crucial in creating mutual understanding between the care professional and the patient (Jevon et al., 2020, p. 15).

Moreover, the nurse practitioner may wrongly assume that a patient is of African descent, leading to ill feelings in some instances. Hence, after explaining to the patient or the relatives the value of noting down the data, the nurse should allow room for the patient/ family members to pick the right word to describe their race. Thus, the family/ patient uses the word most appropriate for them without any offense, and the care provider obtains the necessary information. Open-ended questions and some close-ended questions may prove helpful in gleaning data on the racial profile of a patient without being offensive. Creating a rapport, establishing trust, and allowing the patient/ family to lead the process are valuable approaches.

Reference

Jevon, P., Odogwu, S., Pepper, J., & Coleman, J. J. (2020). In History taking and communication skills (pp. 14-18). Wiley Blackwell.

Introduction

Race refers to how individuals differentiate other people for social or biological reasons. A social construct is an idea created and accepted by many people in the society. After reading and listening to Dolezals story, my initial reaction was filled with some questions. They were if Rachel Dolezal could actually choose her race or what made her feel better identifying as a black woman and not just appreciating the black culture. Rachel Dolezal has repeatedly invoked the concept of race as a social construct (Morning, 2017). She consistently defends her identity with a race different from that of her biological parents. However, the identity of a person is not what they are born biologically.

Discussion

In my honest opinion, I agree with Rachel Dolezal that race is a social construct since there is no race gene that exists and can be retrieved and referred to as somebodys race. After listening to Rachel Dolezals story, it is evident that she is a person who turns the existing racial categories to her advantage. Rachel also rejects the widespread beliefs regarding the criteria used in racial categorization (Dolezal & Reback, 2017). Hence, the concept of race as a social construct it is human-invented and was also created to identify physical differences between people. However, it has been used as a tool for violence and oppression worldwide.

When a topic concerning race or gender is raised, the context of that conversation is apparent. There might be cases where it is hard to tell what gender or race a person is, but it is easy for an individual to assign another a race. Nevertheless, it is sometimes vague when someone says they are white contrary to their physical appearance. Rachel Dolezal insists that she is a black woman, even after her parents say and proving otherwise. She is a perfect example of a race eliminativist who insists that the topic of race is very vacuous and that no one is either black or white despite their skin color. According to Orbe, Rachel Dolezal is black because she identifies as a black woman (Orbe, 2016). Her claim for that identity was authentic since people are now getting used to the fact that a sense of belonging or racial affiliation can change in various situations.

Dolezal goes to the extent of lying to explain what it means for race to be a social construct. Her decision to lie about her identity and those of her parents led to many issues with everyone. She was a white lady who claimed her parents were African American and their adopted son was also theirs. This was farfetched because she was the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose mission is to secure the social, political, economic, and educational quality of rights (Bey & Sakellarides, 2016). This was to help people from all walks of life deal with discrimination and ensure their health was considered. Rachel Dolezal did not have to lie about her racial ethnicity, even if it was a social construct. This is because their mission as the NAACP was to deal with and prevent discrimination. Moreover, they had a vision of ensuring every individual in the society had equal rights and that they had eliminated discrimination based on race.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Rachel Dolezals controversy significantly described race as a social construct since her race varied over time. She was born white, which her parents proved through her birth certificate, but she later identified as a black woman. She identified as a black woman because that is what she felt she was. However, she did not have to lie about the identity of her parents or her adopted brother. Trying to convince people about her views on race and why she identified as a black woman would have worked in all aspects. For instance, it would have worked in line with her career as the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

References

Bey, M., & Sakellarides, T. (2016). When we enter: The blackness of Rachel Dolezal. The Black Scholar, 46(4), 33-48. Web.

Dolezal, R., & Reback, S. (2017). In full color: Finding my place in a black and white world. BenBella Books, Dolezal.

Morning, A. (2017). Race and Rachel Dole~al. Contexts, 16(2), 8-11. Web.

Orbe, M. P. (2016). The Rhetoric of race, culture, and identity: Rachel Dolezal as co-cultural group member. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 6(2), 11-25.

Introduction/Thesis Statement

The study aims at critically evaluating the role that has been played by the filming industry in creating the American history. The paper contrast the coverage the industry has given the white Americans with that of the Native Americans. The paper will identify how the white Americans have corrupted the Native American culture and then draw a conclusion from this study.

The misrepresentation of the Native American culture in the commercial cinemas in the United States has occurred on the basis of context and motivation. In so many cinemas, the Native Americans culture has been filmed, but the scenes are devoid of the true Native American spirit.

The scenes negate the actual practices of the Native Americans. This is because the films are produced to relay the cultural practices of the Native Americans, but they are watched by people who dont understand them. Therefore, this leaves the audience to come up with individual judgments concerning the themes that the film makers desire to convey to them.

Over the years, Hollywood and other film producers have used the film industry as the yard stick of corrupting the Native American culture. This has been achieved through the continued effort by film directors attempt to implant the Euro-American values and practices into the natives.

They have continuously used white actors as the leading characters in narrating storylines meant to illustrate the lives to the natives. In their ideas, the movie-makers purport to give an accurate lifestyle of the natives, but in the actual sense they coerce their own ideas and cultural practices to the Indian people. For instance, in the movie A Man Called a Horse Richard Harris through the cultural initiation process that is deemed primitive by a majority of the Euro Americans endures the pain like the Native Americans.

He takes part in all the cultural practices of the natives Americans in the film after which he will be accepted as one of them. This illustrates the European egocentric views that they are better than the Native Americans even in their own cultural practices. These egocentric ideologies are of the opinion that the Native Americans should adopt the Euro-American monolithic culture.

The Statement that brings the authors opinion on the relational roles of the Native Americans and the Euro-Americans in the countrys history completely reverses the role. Those who stole the North American continent in the films are illustrated as the victims of phantom aggression from the Native Americans.

This statement by the author connotes that the Native Americans are leading players in the film industry in the US and therefore, the white Americans have relentlessly discerned to ape the natives in making films to bring out the cultural practices of the natives. In this case, the natives ironically are the leading key players and they have trumped over their captors and masters.

Summary

It is evident that the filming industry has played a key role in perpetuating the wrong impression in regard to the cultural practices of the Native Americans. Through its actors and directors, the industry has played a role in trying to undermine the Native Americans. Therefore, it is prudent to conclude that the filming industry has been a major of creator of the perceptions affixed to perceived primitivism of the Indian-American culture in the eyes of the rest of America.

What is Critical Race Theory?

Critical race theory is an interdisciplinary approach to viewing race and race relations, and the conceptualization of race on which the theory operates is that race is a social construct created by a dominant cultural group. The main objective of this theory is to explore race from the contra-narrative point of view, prioritizing the experience of oppressed groups over the top-down narratives. Contra-narratives are an essential element of race theory because they help recontextualize reality and see it from another perspective that exposes prejudice and bias ingrained into everyday life, using the real-life experience of the oppressed people.

The issue of master narratives

Critical race theory does not conform to the master narratives and, at times, rejects them outright, questioning the existing ideology. Unfortunately, master narratives have become so ingrained in the modern culture that many people do not even recognize the racism that runs through them. Even the emancipatory movements gained traction only when they benefited the dominant groups as well as the oppressed.

To expose the inherent prejudice and power imbalance that was built into the culture, the narratives must be deconstructed and viewed from the standpoint of the oppressed. The seemingly normal things are questioned continuously and seen from a non-white angle with a historical perspective. The real experience of real people is prioritized over formally codified laws to look at what the world is, instead of what the dominant group wishes or pretends to be real.

The historically created and culturally upheld narratives first manifest themselves as unconscious internalized racism. It manifests in a non-conditional assumption that the white identity is superior to the non-white identities.

These subconscious biases then spill into conscious interactions, creating interpersonal racism. The members of the oppressed and dominant groups communicate in such a way that minimizes, excludes, or outright abuses the member of the oppressed group. Finally, as that becomes the social norm, it becomes reflected in the institutions, serving to perpetuate the culture of racial inequality that benefits the dominant group. Notably, race is often not singular, nor the only identity that a person may have. Different cultures with different conceptions of race may perceive a person to belong to different racial groups.

How it Allows Seeing Race Critically?

By acknowledging the critical race theory, one can take a critical approach to evaluate different social, political, economic, and legislative concepts regarding race that can be oppressive or contradictory. Moreover, this allows one to work towards mitigating the consequences of oppression based on race. For instance, through critical race theory, one can recognize other forms of subordination that are connected to race and racial oppression. Additionally, it allows examining and questioning the dominant ideology that guides society and using knowledge, the experience of people, and a transdisciplinary approach for making a change. In general, critical race theory is a necessary element of viewing the world critically and changing it for the better by emphasizing the experience of the minorities.

Racism and Other Forms of Oppression

As was mentioned, critical race theory allows viewing subordination as another form of oppression that is connected to ones race. Notably, critical race theory was established after scholars noticed the inconsistencies in the way minorities were able to access different institutions and positions, including getting adequate healthcare or obtaining education and having a job in fields such as academia.

Moreover, critical race theory employs analysis of intersectionalities, such as gender, or ethnicity, social status, and sexuality, as a means of examining oppression. A black liberal Muslim female housekeeper in Mississippi has to contend with a wholly different society than a gay liberal black male executive in San Francisco. Critical Race Theory recognizes the cultural hegemonies that rule over these identities as well, primarily through its offshoots, such as FemCrit. Race is also more complicated than black and white, which is explored in LatCrit or AsianCrit.

Introduction

The term intersex refers to people who have certain biological variations that do not fit into the traditional male and female classification. The list of variations that constitute intersex varies greatly, and there are no set criteria for identifying a person as intersex. In this way, the concept of sex can be seen as similar to the idea of race. As explained in the publication by Omi and Winant, race is a socio-historical construct, and the classification of people into different races varied considerably at different points in time. This allows applying the theory of race formation to intersex individuals to better understand the concept of intersex and the experiences of intersex people.

Race and sex biological variations

First of all, it is essential to note that both race and sex are biological variations that are associated with how people perceive one another. People heavily rely on sex to predict peoples behaviors, attitudes, and values in a similar way that they see race as a factor impacting personality. For example, women are seen as more caring and sensitive, whereas men are usually believed to be strong-willed and independent. In a similar way, there are many stereotypes associated with people from various racial backgrounds, particularly when it comes to minority races.

Although people who are aware of their biases can control the degree to which the stereotypes affect their expectations, views, and communication, sex and race stereotypes impact the way in which people interact with one another in society. When people meet those who do not fit the rigid classification of race and sex, they often experience confusion as they struggle to navigate the race or sex relations. This affects the experience of intersex people since they can become the subject of intrusive questions or be misclassified as male or female, depending on their appearance. In this way, applying the theory of race formation to intersex people can provide insight into their experiences and potential challenges that they face in social interaction.

Definition of race

Another meaningful way in which the theory of racial formation can be applied in this case is to explore the concepts of sex further. In their article, the authors explain that race is both a social and historical phenomenon. This means that the definition of race and the classification applied to people from various backgrounds varied significantly over time. For example, in the past, people who had distant black ancestors were considered black despite variations in appearance. Once the concept of mixed race became accepted, the task of classifying people became more difficult. The essence of the argument put forth by the authors suggests that race classification is futile because it leads to social challenges and identity struggles, and that race is a spectrum rather than a collection of labels to be assigned to people.

Concept of gender

The experience of intersex people, who vary significantly in terms of their appearance and anatomical features, might suggest the same about sex, thus contesting the view that sex is a rigid, biologically determined notion. This idea can be extended to the concept of gender, which is now perceived to be distinct from sex. Viewing both gender and sex as a spectrum creates opportunities for us to explore the experiences of other people in greater depth while also studying the historical and social formation of both concepts.

Conclusion

Overall, the theory of race formation can be applied to the experience of intersex people in two ways. On the one hand, it can be used to understand the challenges and problems that intersex people face because it provides insight into how stereotypes about sex shape their interactions. On the other hand, it can also be used to contest the notion of sex classification itself based on the experiences of various intersex people. Because people from this group vary significantly in terms of their features, viewing intersex through the lens of race formation suggests that sex is a spectrum rather than a strict classification. This change in perception can help to address stereotypes that exist in society and improve the ways in which we address gender inequality.

June 17th was the five year anniversary of the Charleston Massacre, in which nine black parishioners were shot and killed by a 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof (Smith). Given Americas tragic history of racially motivated crimes, the Charleston shooting was deemed reflective of the current state of race relations in modern America. Liberal political representatives and numerous journalists concluded that the Charleston tragedy somehow demonstrated the countrys racial bias and ethnic war. However, the liberal medias coverage of the Charleston Massacre reflects the us vs. them mentality, which implies that blacks are targeted by whites. They fail to acknowledge the fact that the publics outrage regarding the shooting demonstrates that it was a rare tragedy that saddened millions of Americans, no matter their skin color.

The Charleston Massacre did not reflect the state of race relations in America, but rather confirmed the narratives of victimhood and institutionalized racism created by liberals. The Charleston church shooting occurred on June 17th, 2015. Dylann Roof attended the Bible study and started to shoot the members of the church (MacDonald). As a result, nine people were killed. Roof targeted the Emanuel African Methodist Church due to its history as one of the oldest black churches in the United States (Smith). The church often held events related to equality and civil rights. The shooter was sentenced to death in January of 2017. The massacres portrayal in the media demonstrated logical fallacies in social justice fighters view of race relations. Liberal politicians and journalists were prone to assume that the Charleston case is reflective of millions of white Americans. The majority of correspondents linked poverty rates in black communities to institutionalized racism, which somehow became connected to the shooting. Dylann Roofs twisted behavior had nothing to do with the current state of African American households. Republicans and moderates stood in opposition to the mass media and argued that the Charleston shooting was not so much about race as about mental health.

The victims of the Charleston Massacre were nine African American parishioners of the Emanuel African Methodist Church. The media used their race and Roofs disgusting comments about white supremacy in order to push a narrative of black inferiority in modern America. According to Barack Obama, Roofs actions reflected white Americans disregard for the rights of black people (MacDonald). The general consensus suggested that the Charleston Massacre was an act of racism that goes beyond the blind hatred for blacks. It implies police brutality, hate crimes, and even a lack of job opportunities for black men and women. Obama noted that perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career (qtd. in MacDonald). However, the opposition argued that Dylann Roofs actions were an act of mental health deterioration, and race just came to become the focus of his obsession.

Roof killed nine black people because he believed they were inferior to his race. He had attended a Bible study that lasted about an hour before he started shooting. This demonstrates how evil his actions have been. This also shows the extent of his mental problems. Critics of liberal media and Democratic representatives argued that the majority of people in America understood that racism was wrong (MacDonald). Therefore, Roofs case was not reflective of the state of race relations in the US. They also suggested that Obama and other liberals had a biased view of the Charleston shooting, going as far as to saying that the latter exploited the massacre to push their political agenda.

The bias starts with the assumption that the Charleston Massacre reflects the way white Americans feel about black people. The picture of redneck suburbs is not the objective reality. Obama and a number of other democratic politicians concluded that Roofs decision to start a shooting at the church was connected to racial disparities and outcome differences between whites and blacks. Furthermore, they argued that the Charleston case was an example to racial bias that could even be evidenced in the workplace or college. In reality, while racism is not dead, there is no race war in America. In fact, according to the 2012-2013 statistics, blacks committed 85 percent of interracial crimes of violence, even though they constituted 12.5 percent of the US population (MacDonald). The belief that white Americans are targeting black people is a logical fallacy, based on the factual reports. The US government needs to stop being so polarized. Every political party should have a platform to express their concerns, as long as it is being done in a respectable way. Campaigns should be monitored in order to make them factual. Local administration needs to enforce mandatory classes/seminars for students regarding fake news and unconscious bias. Every person can start with fact-checking the latest news article they have read.

Despite the political polarization, it is apparent that the majority of Americans want the same thing  to live peacefully. Political forces often use tragic events to enforce their own agenda using peoples bias. Everyone felt heart-broken about the fates of nine Charleston victims, so they wanted to hate Dylann Roof and everything he stood for  white supremacy, racism, and hate crimes. However, the medias portrayal of the shooting failed to show that Roofs actions had nothing to do with millions of white Americans, who are not racist. The fact that Roof chose a black church did to his mental illness is not reflective of the racial disparities in America. It is time to challenge the mindset of victimhood and fight political bias.

Works Cited

MacDonald, Heather. The Shameful Liberal Exploitation of the Charleston Massacre. National Review. 2015, Web.

Smith, Terrance. We Have Done Nothing 5 Years after Charleston Massacre, Mourner Says. ABC News. 2020, Web.

In the modern world, where globalization has impacted diverse spheres of human life and migration is a natural process, people of different nationalities, races, and classes live in the same social spaces. When one perceives race of others, he or she realizes his or her own racial identity, thus becoming aware of oneself as a member of a multinational society. The process of such an understanding is related to cognition and might evolve consciously or subconsciously. In this paper, I will reflect on my personal experience of race to claim that white racial identity is often perceived as default with more opportunities provided for them while non-whites are exposed to racism.

Since my early childhood, I have not been aware of race as a concept. My whole family is all Italian, including parents and grandparents. I did not consciously realize that I am white, and some people are not because, at an early age, I did not encounter anyone of other race than mine. However, it changed with my entrance to the school. Since I was a student of an American international catholic school in Rome, I interacted with many students coming from different cultures and nationalities. Such diversity influenced not only the way I interacted with others but also shaped my self-perception as a white Italian.

I remember my first acquaintances with people from China and Latin America. They were memorable because it was challenging for me to pronounce and remember some of their names, which were so different from those I got used to; however, they memorized my name quickly. Such a message about race and diversity came from my school community and taught me about the differences between the students of a different race and me. That was one of the first encounters with white privilege in my life.

Other messages about race I received through my life came from educational materials and media. I learned English while being in Rome, and as a part of my acquaintance with the language, I studied the culture and history of the USA, which is filled with racial disparities. The more I thought about black people suffering from racism either implicitly or explicitly, the more I understood how I have always take my whiteness for granted. When I watched movies about black Americans, I noticed that they were often portrayed as those involved in illegal actions or of poor reputation. I felt distanced from such reality because nobody ever suspected me in anything only because I was white. As Sullivan states, white privilege is about white people having unfair advantages because of their whiteness (7). However, this idea may only be understood in the context of the acknowledgment of the existence of other races, which must be equal in right with white.

Before these experiences, I have never consciously applied the notion of race to myself. Every time I heard such words as race, or racism, I immediately attributed them to African-Americans or Latinos but not to white people. Such a predisposition to being reluctant to acknowledge racism by white people imposes even more significant racial disparity in the world, where, despite striving for equality, there exists implicit bias (Sullivan 66). Therefore, in my adolescent years and later, the things I learned from my communication with the diverse school community and media shifted my self-perception from being a person who does not think about racial identity to the one who consciously acknowledges it.

When I moved to Los Angeles and entered the society that was very diverse in terms of race, the experiences I had in Rome helped me better assimilate into the new environment. Being aware of my own racial identity and the implied privilege I had as a white person, I managed to integrate into the multicultural society more easily. Nonetheless, the journey of understanding oneself as a representative of a particular race is a time-consuming and complicated cognitive process that involves self-analysis and openness. Now that I reexamine my racial identity as a representative of a dominating race, I compare white privilege to the default perception of the world by healthy people. My younger brother is autistic and has difficulties in speaking, which imposes significant complications for him in integration to the society. As people with disparities struggle to enter the world of dominant healthy people, national minorities struggle to withstand the imposed dominance of whiteness in the same way. We should understand ourselves as human beings of a particular race to be able to live in a diverse community that the modern world becomes.

To summarize the discussion, it is evident that one learns about race through different sources of influence, including personal life experience of interaction with other people, education, or media. However, being a white person, I have gone through the process of racial acknowledgment without traumatizing encounters with people of other races. In the course of my integration into a multicultural society, I observed how white privilege is a real phenomenon. That is why it is essential to understand race as a crucial element of perceiving oneself to ensure a conscious understanding of ones identity.

Work Cited

Sullivan, Shannon. White Privilege. John Wiley & Sons, 2019.

The United States has the highest incidence of incarceration of its residents. Almost 2.5 million US citizens are in detention centers, and this is about one percent of the grown-up population at any particular time (Williams & Battle, 2017). African Americans form more than 30% of the imprisoned population despite their total number being among the lowest in the country (Tucker, 2017). Therefore, a high number of African American children experience the incarceration of their parents. Children of incarcerated parents suffer psychological and socioeconomic predicaments. Superficially, punishment and felonies seem to be unsophisticated concerns. More profoundly, it is evident that crime and penalty are multidimensional issues that emanate from ethnic discrimination vindicated by perceptions and convictions about African Americans (Pettit & Gutierrez, 2018). The US has a dual justice system that has aided the maintenance of the financial and social hierarchy in the country, anchored in the suppression of blacks.

The fundamental source of the disproportionate incarceration of blacks (especially men) occurs in the disguise of the United States collective practices to become more disciplinary. Such hard-on-crime policies, which are not employed uniformly on all Americans, are upheld by the criminal justice system and are created from the heritage of racism in the US (Muller & Wildeman, 2016). Essentially, connecting criminal actions with noticeable attributes (such as religion or race) enable the majority of the society to enforce policies devoid of bearing their full burden (Temin, 2018). Mass incarceration affects African Americans and has a disastrous influence on families and society attributable to its continued generation of a cycle of discrimination that makes it almost impossible for the community to progress.

The US has the highest rate of imprisonment of its residents. African Americans form more than a third of the jailed population, even though their total number is among the lowest in the country. America has a dual justice system, which has enabled the continuation of the monetary and social order in the country, based on the repression of blacks. Mass incarceration has a devastating influence on African American families attributable to continued racial discrimination.

References

Muller, C., & Wildeman, C. (2016). Geographic variation in the cumulative risk of imprisonment and parental imprisonment in the United States. Demography, 53(5), 1499-1509.

Pettit, B., & Gutierrez, C. (2018). Mass incarceration and racial inequality. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3-4), 1153-1182.

Temin, P. (2018). The political economy of mass incarceration and crime: An analytic model. International Journal of Political Economy, 47(3-4), 317-329.

Tucker, R. B. (2017). The color of mass incarceration. Ethnic Studies Review, 37(1), 135-149.

Williams, J. M., & Battle, N. T. (2017). African Americans and punishment for crime: A critique of mainstream and neoliberal discourses. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 56(8), 552-566.