The major thesis in this book, are broken down into two components. The first is how we define racism, and the impact that definition has on how we see and understand racism. Dr. Beverly Tatum chooses to use the definition given by “David Wellman that defines racism as a system of advantages based on race” (1470). This definition of racism helps to establish Dr. Tatum’s theories of racial injustice and the advantages either willingly or unwillingly that white privilege plays in our society today. The second major thesis in this book is the significant role that a racial identity has in our society.
What is the purpose of racism? In Theorizing Nationalism, Day and Thompson discuss how racism and nationalism are precisely the same. Racism has the ability to help build nationalism, especially in our young country. LeMay and Barkan in U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Laws & Issues talk about how this racism is used during a specific time period, 1880 to 1920, in the United States of America. Both of these articles argue that when the United States was in a time of peril, they used racism as a unifying factor to bring the country together and as a way to put a group of people lower than themselves to bring their status to a higher point in society.
Annie Ascunce Social Justice Professor Watkins December 18, 2017 The Rise of White Nationalism in Trump’s America Otherness: a concept that scares most. With the rise of Donald Trump came a resurgence of white nationalism in America.
Over the last 500 years people of color, especially African American, have endured a pattern of state-sanctioned violence, civil and human rights abuse. To enforce capitalist exploitation and racial oppression the government and its police, courts, prisons, and military have beaten, framed, murdered, and executed private persons, while brutally repressing struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination” (Fitzgerald, 2007). More often than not, police brutality has been a persistent problem faced by African Americans. “Historically, racist violence has been used to impose racial oppression and preserve white power and privilege. Racist violence has served five primary purposes: to force people of color into indentured, slave, peonage, or low wage situations; to steal land, minerals, and other resources; to maintain social control and to repress rebellions; to restrict or eliminate competition in employment, business, politics, and social life; and to unite “whites” across ethnic/national, class, and gender lines” (Fitzgerald, 2007).
White privilege is defined as “…………..” After reading this and comparing it to my life and experiences I can recognize the resemblance. As a white person in my society, I hold copious privileges and forms of power that I have not earned, but has been handed. Although, I cannot speak for my entire race when I state this, I believe that any Caucasian person living in Canada, who would be willing to take the time to stop and think about their lives, would realize that they hold power over other racial minorities. This power is acquired solely due to the fact that they have a different colour of skin.
This paper will discuss the difference between the Ku Klux Klan and The Black Panther Party two extremist groups. The historical foundation of these two groups along with the comparison of their extremist activities, and the motivating factors which fueled and heighten their motivational actions. The movement of these two groups were prompted by the two different beliefs with the Ku Klux Klan motives being from racism, and the Black Panther forming for the protection of their communities from racial tension. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee by veteran confederate soldiers lead by General Nathan Bedford in 1865 during the time of the Reconstruction Era as a result of resistance to the Republican Party’s support of the Reconstruction
White Privilege: Essay 1 White privilege is a systemic issue that has roots in our history as far back as the creators of our country. Searching back, we see our norms and values created into habits that have been woven into how we view and act around specific groups such as African Americans. This essay is going to explain how the average Caucasian individual experiences white privilege on a day to day basis and the solutions to insure that white privilege will stop and true equality can be handed out. This paper views the latter issues through symbolic interactionism, with supporting sub theories such as; labeling theory, looking glass self, and selective perception.
Whiteness in America stems from power. White people feel they only have power with domination over black people, and thus without it, it simply comes apart and disappears. “ “White America” is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies. Sometimes this power is direct (lynching), and sometimes it is insidious (redlining). But however it appears, the power of domination and exclusion is central to the belief in being white, and without it, “white people” would cease to exist for a want of reasons” (Coates, 42).
White are attached to their own identity and violate the civic solidary of others because they expect others conform to these ideas or be oppressed and have to feel unwelcomed. Many people like Sam Huntington “calls for immigrants to assimilate into America 's “Anglo Protestant culture” (Song). If this culture seems to be violated then people can become defensive of it and violent. As Lorde says, “there must always be some group of people who, through systemized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the place of the dehumanized inferior” (Lorde). This group was blacks for many years and in the future any other minority could take the mantle as the oppressed because it violates one’s ideals and expectations of others.
Jackson argues that the KKK believed that the spirit of Americanism and the spirit of Protestantism were one and the same and in order to protect America it required a defense of Protestantism against forces that would weaken or denounce the faith like millions of immigrants that were non-Protestants and would not assimilate to the KKK’s version of American culture. Samuel Campbell, who was a lecturer for the KKK argued that “there needs to be a greater education of American nationalism and Protestantism to save the American ideals of this great country against the swarm of foreign born immigrants that seek to change our style of government and force new ideals that will break down Americanism.” Campbell demonstrates the KKK’s paranoia about foreign immigrants having different ideals than American ideals, which would destroy White purity and superiority in America. Therefore, this shows that by making nationalism a white supremacist religious experience, American men and women justified any violence or terrorism against immigrants as protecting pure Protestant tenants linked Protestantism and
W.E.B. DuBois, one of the pioneers in Critical Whiteness Studies, emphasizes the interrelation between “the relative invisibility of whiteness” (ibid.) and the maintenance of white supremacy, which underlines the political nature of Critical Whiteness Studies insofar as its premise is to question and challenge existing societal structures. According to Frankenberg, whiteness is a construction or an identity that is inseparable from racialized dominance (ibid.: 9). White therefore refers to a position in racism as a system for categorizing racialized groups and for the identity formation of the subject positions within racism
Racism is a huge problem in our societies currently. We see it everywhere from the news articles on our phones, news stories on our TVś or smart devices and we even see it in our own communities. Which brings me to my next point that although it is not the same ¨racism¨, that we have learned about in our history classes, it still exists because it has evolved and it will continue to to evolve and exist, unless we put an end to all racism. Racism is when someone is judging or putting someone else down who is a different race with the belief that their race is more superior over the others. Putting an end to all racism would not be something that happens by tomorrow or the next day, but with the right people in charge, the right ideas put into action and right attitude, it can happen a lot quicker than people think.
It is said across multiple sources online that 90 to 95 percent of people are affected by racial prejudice each day; yet how much of this is actually true? In today’s society, racism is very controversial and often debated about. This causes tension between different racial groups around the world. In the past, racism was discrimination, violence, or any other type of harm to a certain race, especially African-Americans. This included segregated schools, unfair treatment, and even separate water fountains for “white” and “colored” people.
The major racial discrimination in the 20th century happened with the formation of the separatist movement called the Ku Klux Klan. The movement was received positively across the nation especially among the whites in the southern states. The movement was being regarded as a racist movement because they were against the idea of racial equality in social and economics. According to Jonathan M. Bryant (2002), pointed out that the Ku Klux Klan
Racism: a curse for the society INTRODUCTION:- "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." Racism is one of the oldest truth around the world .Racism, is said to be as old as the human society. Racism is nothing but only the belief that all members of each race possess the characteristics, abilities, or qualities which are specific to that race, especially, so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. And this differentiation change the people’s mentality and bring death among themselves.
