This Town Racism

The Progressive Era of the early 20th century marks a period of extreme political, social, and economic reform in the United States. Many of the movements that began during this time are still active in today’s world, such as the progression of civil and labor rights. Since the 1920s, civil rights have made the largest advancements out of any Progressive Era campaigns. For example, segregation has transformed over the last century from being the norm to being almost non-existent. On the contrary, labor rights have failed to change significantly since the early 1900s, evident by the fact that workers are being paid a similar amount as they were 100 years ago when accounting for inflation.

Racism will always exist. It exists everywhere. Continents. Countries. Cities. Communities. Even school playgrounds. Everywhere. Of course, many societies have evolved and are much more accepting of difference than they were sixty years ago, but there is always work to be done. The documentary Prom Night In Mississippi explores a community in Mississippi called Charleston, which segregates its prom for black and white students, until 2008, when the first integrated one was held. Morgan Freeman, who lives in Charleston, offered to pay for their prom as long as it was integrated. His first offer in 1997 was turned down, but in 2008, it was finally accepted. It is shocking to think that such blatant racism still exists in the twenty-first century, but, unfortunately, it does.

Racism is around us. It is everywhere. One might not notice it but, there sure are racist people out there. On television screens, on papers,

The book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, tells the tale of a young boy named Saul Indian Horse who goes through the struggles of trying to fit in, in a society controlled by white people. Saul tells the story of his life and the challenges he goes through. The change and abuse he receives, and the supports he rarely gets, Saul really showed how he was treated and what it was like to be a First Nations in the 1960s. Just like the book, the movie 42 by Brian Helgeland showed struggles of trying to fit in, in a society controlled by white people. The main character, Jackie Robinson, also showed the changes and abuse he received throughout the movie. He showed how black people were not seen as equals and how people reacted to a black person being in a white person’s territory. Both sources showed the challenge of being different. The challenge of what it’s like to live as a minority. How people can be cruel and condescending just by a person’s race and change is not easy to accept and achieve.

Racism in today’s society is definitely not as brutal and fearful as it was back then. I think that our nation has made many improvements of our time. I don’t think there will be a time in this world where it will completely be erased. Throughout history racism has just changed forms. Though it may not be in your face, it is the quiet kind that no one

As a young child I learned how information can be corrupted and distorted through a classroom game I use to play called telephone. In the game you would start with a message and try to make it around the room with the same message, and even though this game sounds easy the classroom never made it through with the same message. To me this game represents society and the media on how not everything you see is what it seems. I think that information can easily be corrupted and that it happens in our everyday life.

“Hating people because of their color is wrong.And it doesn't matter which color is doing the hating. It’s just plain wrong”. The author’s message in TKAM is that no matter what race we are we should all be treated the same, but that's not always what it comes down to. in today's world it’s not about love, it’s all about hate. Anywhere you go someone will always be disapproving what you do or what you wear, even what you look like.

Racism is alive and well in our modern day society. The fact that racism is a prominent form of social justifications cannot be neglected. On the contrary to this, Angeline Price’s article titled, “Working Class Whites,” she argues that racism is gone but this idea of “classism” would be the “last available method of prejudice in our society.” However, Michael Omi and Nell Bernstein think otherwise. Omi argues that inferential racism already exists in our society, and it is the prime tool in categorizing people based on the color of their race. In Bernstein’s article, “In Living Color: Race and American Culture,” he provides vivid examples of younger generations adapting and abiding to their definitions of racism. Similarly, the article

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird shows how racism affected people in the 1930’s and how terrible people were treated. Since then, things have changed and racism is not a problem. Racism has changed drastically since the 1930’s; now we do not have a big problem compared to how big of a problem it was in the 30’s. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, we learn how racism affected people, now, things have changed and racism doesn’t affect people as much, because race is a social construct, is not as relevant today and we have developed acceptance of every race. Now, race has changed, but even back in the 1930’s, race had to be taught.

Slavery is over therefore how can racism still exist? This has been a question posed countlessly in discussions about race. What has proven most difficult is adequately demonstrating how racism continues to thrive and how forms of oppression have manifested. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, argues that slavery has not vanished; it instead has taken new forms that allowed it to flourish in modern society. These forms include mass incarceration and perpetuation of racist policies and societal attitudes that are disguised as color-blindness that ultimately allow the system of oppression to continue. Popular opinion in the United States is that race is no longer an issue (Pew Research Center, 2014) (Gallup, 2014) and point to examples

Racism is still a very prominent issue in America today. Yes, it has improved from the days of slavery, and we do have a black president; but society is nowhere near equal, and that is not acceptable. White Privilege by Paula Rothenberg truly opened my eyes to the extent of the social injustice on African Americans. Many people are implicitly racist, meaning that they are unaware of their racism. And in fact, just by being white, one is oppressing another race because the privilege and respect that comes with the skin color. Whether intentional or not, the racism is still there and present and that is not acceptable. Being white, I’ve never suffered from the repercussions of racism, but after reading and becoming more aware of the suffering

The quote is basically a response after the dramatic and controversial picture of Hazel and Elizabeth came out. The person talking was a segregationist father of one of the students of Central High school, which is against the desegregation of the school. However, he does not think that the way Elizabeth was treated or the other black students was fair. The purpose for this quote is to make the readers understand that even whites were against this violent treatment and harassment toward the black kids. This quote cannot be interpret differently, it is a straight forward comment. It is the father’s point of view of the whole ordeal that went down on the first day of school. This quote relates to many peoples point of view on how the whites where

Racism can be defined as a major problem in United States history, and can be dated back to the 1400’s. Racism can be viewed and defined in many ways, but most accurately is seen as the state of characterizing an individual based on his race, and or believing that one race is superior to another (Shah) . Racism is as big of a problem in the USA as anyone can think, starting way back to when the country had just began to form, when Europeans started settling into the 13 original colonies (Shah). Ever since then, it seems that the problem has only been on the rise, rather than the opposite. Racism has always been a major issue, although hundreds of years have passed since the birth of racism, the problem just seems to never go away.

Racism is an ever growing issue in the world, and something we can’t hide behind. According to dictionary.com the defintion of racism is: “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” Race was created socially by how people perceive ideas and faces people are not used to yet. It is the “hatred” of one person to another individual, solely based on that person's belief that the person is inferior because of their language, birthplace and skin colour. Racism is an issue that has lasted throughout history, providing justification for a group’s dominance over another. In this essay the main focus will be looking at a wide array of perspectives, including local in Hong Kong, global in USA, some solutions, and my own personal perspective.

"Racism is an ideology that gives expression to myths about other racial and ethnic groups that devalues and renders inferior those groups that reflects and is perpetuated by deeply rooted historical, social, cultural and power inequalities in society."