Claudia Rankine Racial Equality

“But because of affirmative action or minority something—she is not sure what they are calling it these days and weren’t they supposed to get rid of it?,” writes Claudia Rankine in her critically acclaimed American book, Citizen. Within this quote, Rankine begins to showcase the narrative of a black women in a society that strives to be color blind. Affirmative action has caused controversy as it threatens white supremacy since it favors diversity. The bitter attitude towards affirmative action expressed by whites, causes people of color to feel apologetic for their achievements and opportunities. Claudia Rankine reveals how white supremacist attitudes trigger people of color to live their life in an apologetic nature through the short stories of the cafeteria, the neighbor calling the police, and the Serena William’s celebratory dance.

Student’s name Professor’s name Course details Date Racism Depicted in “Prom Night in Mississippi” While we are created differently to embrace the beauty of diversity, our egocentrism takes us outside the path to embracing racism. Racism in my definition is a negative feeling that an individual from another race is inferior due to the abilities, characteristics and the natural outlook that they project. Such feeling then brings about the external manifestation of discrimination, prejudice, and antagonism which comes out as hate, something we call racism.

This also brings me to the example of racism. Racism has been handed down from generation to generation. We had begun to come together as a nation no matter what our race or nationality was. Lately, it seems like we are reverting back to how things used to be decades ago. All lives should matter, not just blue lives or black lives.

What is America? The land of opportunity or degradation, people can't decipher the true origins of a country of diversity that upholds the fathom sanctums of segregation. Instead, literature conveys the era of brutality and unconstitutional silence of the growing minorities. In addition, “On the Subway” by Sharon Olds portrays the idealistic point-of-view of the privilege, imagery of injustice, and the attitude of the speaker from her experiences. The aspects of superiority has been ingrained in the minds of humanity since a country fuels the flames of nationality and strengthens the matter of pride and prejudice.

The elaborate racial politics of Ernest J. Gaines’s book, A Lesson Before Dying give insight and reason as to why certain people of different ethnicities are treated as such. The racial politics in A Lesson Before Dying are more intricate with people of mixed race factored in. The hatred for African Americans by white people runs very deep in this novel, but people of mixed race complicate this system because those of mixed race are both face racial prejudice while maintaining a superior attitude towards African Americans. White people are politically, economically, and socially privileged and continue to believe that they have racial superiority in this novel.

Throughout human history, cases of racism, segregation, and the denial of woman’s suffrage have made ubiquitous appearances in America; in simpler terms, the natural rights of African Americans and women have been ignored. In these times of injustice, two obscure American citizens, a poet and a speaker, made monumental influences on the rights that people have today. Paul Laurence Dunbar, a great African-American poet, and Susan B. Anthony, a woman’s suffrage activist, each wrote a great piece of literature that showed their struggles for equal rights. Although Dunbar’s poem, “Sympathy,” and Anthony’s speech, “After Being Convicted Of Voting In The 1872 Presidential Election,” have the same theme of having equal rights among everyone, these authors’ purpose and expression of these two texts have different aspects to it that set it

Although racism has been the root for many horrible historic events such as: the Holocaust, Slavery and the Civil War, throughout the last couple decades, societies have learned to accept and embrace rather than annihilation. This being said, society is not at an ideal racism free state, to this day there are still thousands if not millions of people who are racist. Some are defined as behind door racists, these individuals do not act upon their beliefs on race, but still make those prejudice comments. However, there are individuals who attempt to recreate historic groups who focused on the assimilation of certain cultures. Groups such as Neo-Nazi’s, who push for the re-establishment of the ideology of Nazism and praise the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.

For example the artist refers to the members in the group as psychopaths and murderers, “You’ll never know the psychopath sitting next to you/ You’ll never know the murderer sitting next to you” (lines 16&17) then refers to them in the chorus when the artist says “all my friends are heathens, take it slow”(line 19). By saying this, the artist is comparing the mentally ill group of friends to heathens. Twenty One Pilots continues to make this comparison in the first verse by saying, “Just because we check the guns at the door/Doesn’t mean our brains will change from hand grenades”. The artist uses these lines to further prove the point that these people are mentally unstable, then repeats that “all my friends are heathens” in the chorus, comparing the group of friends to heathens again.

He is constantly being looked down at for issue of the 9/11 terror attack. Here we witness an immigrant and his family trying to start a new life in a new country but are being neglected from becoming a part of the society because of these stereotypes. When these characters collide with one another, it’s very unpredictable how they will react. We understand whether they choose to believe in the stereotypes that are based on that certain group or completely erase that from their memory and focus on their actions. Crash teaches us about whether we should be judging one another based on their actions or choose to conform in these racial

Oftentimes it is wondered what kind of ramifications slavery has had on American politics and our culture today. Even after a century and a half there are arguments and lectures about the lingering impacts American slavery has left on our society. In the eyes of some Americans, slavery and the civil war never ended. Currently slavery and reconstruction is remembered alongside our problems considering race, color, and history. Although there are many views on this topic, each coin has two sides that can be looked at.

Wells had an overarching effect on the progressive era as a whole by writing articles bringing lynching to light, protecting the rights of

“We are wrong to think of democracy as a gift of freedom it is really a kind of discipline that avails freedom.” (Steele 458) Shelby Steele is an author, professor, and well known commentator on race relations. He has a Ph.D. in English, an M.A. in sociology, and has written several books on racial issues. He focuses mostly on race relations and the issues that ensue from racial biased programs. His mother and father were both active for the civil rights movement and the things they did during it made an impression on his values, the article he wrote displays these values.

People can see that even in the twenty first century they have made some changes but there are still racial divide in our country. The real reason the legal system was created was to pursue justice. This system is required to use fair application of the law. All of the things humans see in the news, racial profiling

Although most believe racism is in the past, it continues to follow and haunt many today. Bringing awareness to the topic of social inequality and persecution, specifically racism, is essential for people of all ages, especially teens, who may be directly experiencing these difficulties. Authors use various genres of literature to impact readers when writing about social inequity or persecution; they help raise awareness of such injustices and their negative impact on society. In doing so, they are more likely to reduce society’s tolerance for and acceptance of racism.

Being Black In the Criminal Justice System Being in the criminal justice system racism, Blacks were treated differently from whites. Blacks were treated as they were convicted of crimes, and can shut them away in prison warehouse. A door is easy to repair, compared to a broken family. In calculating the human cost of our the criminal justice system.