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In light of the conducted interview, the idea that African-Americans continue to face racial discrimination appears true, at least anecdotally. Consequently, this confirms the assumption that it is indeed justifiable to analyze the explicit and implicit forms of racial discrimination against African-Americas in the U.S., as one of the society’s most pressing issues. In my paper, I will explore the validity of this thesis at length while discussing what can be considered the issue’s overall significance.
The main explicit examples of racism in the country’s public sphere are as follows:
The practice of IQ-testing. As of today, it represents a commonplace occurrence in many American colleges and universities to require students to be IQ-tested, as the mean of defining the measure of their academic adequacy. However, this specific practice can hardly be considered thoroughly appropriate, because it helps to legitimize the racist assumption of African–American students not being particularly bright (Reproducing Racism: White Space, Elite Law Schools, and Racial Inequality, Moore 35). After all, the methodological principles of IQ-testing are strongly Eurocentric, and consequently – ill adjusted to the multicultural realities of today’s America.
The unfortunate racist quality to the functioning of the system of criminal justice in the U.S. It has been observed since a long time ago that African-Americans are overrepresented in the country’s population of jail inmates. One of the reasons for this is that the criminal justice system is fundamentally biased towards the people of color. According to Crutchfield, Fernandes and Martinez: “Racial and ethnic differences are pronounced in the stages of pretrial processing, resulting in an overwhelming disadvantage for African-American defendants who are less likely to be granted release (50%) than white (67%)” (Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Criminal Justice: How Much is too Much? 925). Apparently, it still remains the case that, while proclaiming their adherence to the ideals of ‘colorblind’ justice, many judges simply cannot help being affected by the racial prejudices deep on an unconscious level. As a result, the intensity of racial riots in the U.S. continues to rise (Racial Inequality after Racism: How Institutions Hold Back African Americans, Harris, Fredrick, and Lieberman 18).
The economic hardships, faced by African-Americans. Nowadays, it becomes increasingly clear to more and more people that the ‘backwardness’ of African-Americans is socially (rather than biologically) predetermined, which means that the government should be held directly responsible for failing to guarantee that the country’s Blacks are provided with enough of social support, while on the way of trying to achieve social prominence (Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk? Racial Experiences, Socioeconomic Status, and Health Status among Black and White Adults, Bratter and Gorman 368). As Mullainathan noted in his article The Measuring Sticks of Racial Bias: Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions: “We know… African-Americans tend to be stuck in neighborhoods with worse schools, and perhaps that — and not race directly — explains the wage gap” (par. 3). In its turn, this implies that the white people’s racial biasness is not solely emotion-driven, but that it is also being brought forward by the thoroughly rational considerations on these people’s part. After all, the less prosperous the population of African-Americans in this country, the more wealth is left for whites to lay claim upon – something that explains Coates’s observation in his article The Case for Reparations: “Black families, regardless of income, are significantly less wealthy than white families” (par. 48).
There are also a number of rather implicit indications that American society continues to remain innately racist. Among them can be listed:
The fact that the currently dominant social discourse in the U.S. results in the intellectual marginalization of blacks. The suggestion’s validity can be illustrated, with respect to the racist overtones in American pop-culture, which often portrays African-Americans in the strongly stereotypical manner (Deconstructing Subtle Racist Imagery in Television Ads, Haseeb, Reast, and Hyman 426). For example, it has become a common trend to portray blacks as people who have plenty of physical vigor, but who could hardly be referred to as being particularly quick-minded. This, of course, cannot result in anything else but in undermining the sense of self-worth of African-Americans – hence, making it less likely for them to be able to live lives of significance.
The continual deployment of the racial profiling practice, despite the fact that this practice is considered ethically inappropriate and even illegal (Racial Profiling, Risse and Zeckhauser 126). These days, more and more Americans see the practice of racial profiling increasingly sensible – all due to the ongoing war on terror. Such a state of affairs, however, is rather disturbing because even though it can be rather effective, racial profiling inevitably results in assigning the status of ‘natural born criminals’ to the ethnically visible representatives of racial minorities. The same applies to the implications of the affiliated practices, such as the DNA-testing. As Fox pointed out in her article The Second Generation of Racial Profiling: “Forensic ancestry testing could promote the idea that certain races are more inclined than others to commit crimes” (59). What is even more, as many studies indicate, a considerable number of African-Americans believe that their experiences of having been racially profiled did contribute rather substantially towards these people’s decision to choose a socially withdrawn lifestyle. This, of course, suggests that the practice’s quasi-legal status can hardly be deemed fully appropriate.
The fact that most of the self-actualization opportunities in this country are ‘symbolically racist’ in one way or another. As practice indicates, many of the currently enacted social initiatives, meant to serve the purpose of helping African-Americans to attain social prominence (such as ‘affirmative action’, for example), reflect patronizing attitudes towards blacks (The Functions of Symbolic Racism, Brandt and Reyna 54). Partially, this explains why most of these initiatives prove ineffective in the long-run – many of them can be viewed as touching on the unconscious race-related anxieties among whites. What it means is that despite the rhetoric of political correctness, which defines the realities of a contemporary living in America, African-Americans continue to be exposed to racism/discrimination, without being able to do anything about it (Embracing Racism: Understanding its Pervasiveness & Persistence, Williams 41).
Thus, the racism-related themes and motifs contained in my interview, do correlate with the insights obtained from a variety of studies and articles. In its turn, this leaves only a few doubts that, despite having been proclaimed ‘dead’ by the country’s top-officials, the legacy of racism/discrimination continues to live on. This is the direct consequence of the fact that the very system of governance in America, as well as the dominant socio-cultural discourse, remains strongly Eurocentric – even though it is only a matter of another few decades before whites will themselves become yet another representative of this country’s racial minorities.
As it was shown earlier, there is indeed plenty of evidence to the fact that African-Americans continue to suffer from racism. This, in turn, undermines the validity of the popular assumption that, as of today, American society has been firmly set on the path of becoming ever more tolerant. As it appears from the conducted interview and cited references, the situation in question is directly related to the fact that the country’s overwhelmingly white establishment is emotionally comfortable with the continuation of the described state of affairs (Racial Attacks on President Obama and the White Nationalist Legacy, Fishman 240; Exploring how African American Faculty Cope with Classroom Racial Stressors, Pittman 67). Thus, it will be thoroughly logical to conclude this paper by reinstating once again that the complaints by African-Americans, as to the lack of racial equality in this country, are perfectly legitimate. The key to addressing the issue is raising people’s awareness of both: the explicit and implicit (symbolic) manifestations of racism. Probably the most effective strategy, in this respect, should be providing people with the opportunity to learn about the sheer wrongness of racial stereotyping in the highly interactive social environment.
Works Cited
Brandt, Mark J., and Christine Reyna. “The Functions of Symbolic Racism.” Social Justice Research 25.1 (2012): 41-60. Print.
Bratter, Jenifer L., and Bridget K. Gorman. “Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk? Racial Experiences, Socioeconomic Status, and Health Status among Black and White Adults.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 52.3 (2011): 365-82. Print.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi 2014,The Case for Reparations. Web.
Crutchfield, Robert, April Fernandes, and Jorge Martinez. “Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Criminal Justice: How Much is too Much?” Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 100.3 (2010): 903-932. Print.
Fishman, Darwin. “Racial Attacks on President Obama and the White Nationalist Legacy.” Western Journal of Black Studies 37.4 (2013): 236-48.Print.
Fox, Dove. “The Second Generation of Racial Profiling*.” American Journal of Criminal Law 38.1 (2010): 49-79. Print.
Harris, Fredrick, and Robert Lieberman. “Racial Inequality After Racism: How Institutions Hold Back African Americans.” Foreign Affairs 94.2 (2015): 9-20. Print.
Haseeb, Shabbir, Jon Reast and Michael Hyman “Deconstructing Subtle Racist Imagery in Television Ads.” Journal of Business Ethics 123.3 (2014): 421-436. Print.
Moore, Wendy. Reproducing Racism: White Space, Elite Law Schools, and Racial Inequality, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Press, 2008. Print.
Mullainathan, Sendil 2015, The Measuring Sticks of Racial Bias: Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions. Web.
Pittman, Chavella. “Exploring how African American Faculty Cope with Classroom Racial Stressors.” The Journal of Negro Education 79.1 (2010): 66-78. Print.
Risse, Mathias, and Richard Zeckhauser. “Racial Profiling.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 32.2 (2004): 131-70. Print.
Williams, Gary. “Embracing Racism: Understanding its Pervasiveness & Persistence.” Multicultural Education 20.1 (2012): 42-44. Print.
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