May 29

Blog #129 – Have we overcome racism yet?

As we talked in class this morning (please listen to the discussion if you missed class – it’s the first 10 minutes or so), most of you who talked said that we have not overcome racism yet.  So, let me modify the question to read – to what extent have we overcome racism?  This gives you some leeway in interpreting and answering the question and allows you to tackle it however you want.

Obama Is Sworn In as the 44th President - The New York Times

I think that if I asked the original question say in 1964 after the Civil Rights Act was passed or in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected, I might have gotten different answers.  From today’s vantage point, the Civil Rights Movement looks like an inevitable juggernaut where America finally wrestled with the demons of racism and vanquished their most odious forms as seen in Jim Crow laws, voting restrictions, and racial violence.  But from back then, it was anything but inevitable.  Black and white Americans were trying to defeat centuries of entrenched racism and traditions.  The fact that they did it in a mere short eleven years (1954 – 1965) belies the fact that Black Americans had been laying the ground work for the CRM for decades.  Yet, to look at racial relations today or at any point in the past thrity years or so, one doesn’t need to be Black to see that we still have so much work to do.

For instance, there is a MASSIVE wealth gap in total and median incomes between Blacks, whites, and Latinos.  See the charts below.  And this video / article from CNN explains how the coronavirus will just make this gap worse.

Besides the wealth gap, there is also structural racism in the country where the vast majority of the levers of political power and finance are controlled by white men.  Things have gotten better since 1965, but just take a look at Congress which remains about 80% white. And one Black president in forty five.

CNN published this article on Wednesday showcasing inequality in 6 different charts here.

Another thing that we have seen, specifically this week was a bad reminder of this, is that people of color are the direct victims of police brutality and violence.  With the proliferation or spread of camera phones, dash cams, and other video recording devices, murders or assaults by police that might have been hushed up are now receiving the attention they deserve.  But we have to keep in mind that this violence has always happened, primarily to Black men, but with the increased transparency we have today, bad cops are much less likely to get away with it.

Documents show US monitoring of Black Lives Matter | News | Al Jazeera

The continuing rise of respectability politics puts down one aspect of the Black community while highlighting another aspect.  This idea comes from an early 20th Century movement in the Black community itself to change “Black American culture – and Black Americans themselves – are broken and need to be fixed.  And “fixing” means improving the “Black underclass” that holds us back.”  Much of this comes from forcing Black Americans to attain the standards of white America as a way to improve upon Black culture.  (https://www.bupipedream.com/opinions/94369/the-problem-with-respectability-politics/).  The underlying thinking is that one group of Blacks is making it impossible for the “more respectable” Black Americans to rise up and defeat racism.  President Obama has been guilty of engaging in respectability politics when he talks about the role of the father in Black families.  Comedian Bill Cosby has also been a big proponent of this concept.

Next, the school-to-prison pipeline is emblematic of two things: underfunded schools and lack of real job opportunities for African Americans.  This pipeline “refers to the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.  This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education” (https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline).  With insufficient funding in urban schools and zero-tolerance educational practices, students who violate school rules in major ways are shuffled out of school and into the criminal justice system.  This kind of educational discipline, made in response to the numerous school shootings that have happened since 1999, also affects students with special needs.  Some for-profit schools are being created to treat drop-outs or “troubled children” with a no-nonsense approach and have had dismal records of meeting the needs of these students.

The intersection of race, sports and culture: Kevin Merida and The ...

But, to further cloud the picture, we should look at Black Americans as champions of perserverance.  They defeated Jim Crow and overt forms of racism.  They have achieved wealth and status that 50 years ago was unheard of – Barack Obama was elected for 2 terms!  Black Americans shape American fashion, culture, music, and entertainment in ways unimaginable 50 years ago.  When I was a senior in college, Black students held a sit-in at MSU to push for more Black faculty and an African American studies program.  Today, we have an African American History class at Groves.  And a few Black women are being considered for the Vice Presidency in a Biden run for the White House this year.  And as we have seen in Minneapolis the last couple of days, most Black people have had enough and are rebelling.

So, your job is to think and write about the extent to which we have overcome racism today in 2020 America.  Feel free to use examples that I haven’t included here or build on ones that I have listed here.  There is no right answer.

400 words minimum answer.  Due Monday night, June 1, by 11:59 pm. 

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Posted May 29, 2020 by geoffwickersham in category Blogs

59 thoughts on “Blog #129 – Have we overcome racism yet?

  1. nabeel zaheer

    The pandemic has made me more self-reliant than before and I’ve become more lonely and quiet too. My dad now works at home and same with my mom, so I get to spend more time with them especially my dad. My dad normally came back at 5 pm on school days so it’d just be my brother and I but now we spend more time with him as a result. My home is now different because my parents are more involved so we spend more time with them and my mom can help my younger brother out more, same with my dad. My life has been the same aside from the contact part as I’ve only been texting my friends, not going to their house or anything like that. The strangest thing that’s happened that has impacted me is the online school stuff, it’s been a really weird thing to adjust to and I like it but in the same time dislike it.

    I do not believe the state should open up as this would be similar to what happened to ISIS, if you look at it in that aspect. The problem of ISIS decreased so the government went soft and started opening up and softening up, and as a result the problem became bigger than ever. I feel like it’d be the same if things were to open up again, and the people protesting are simply ignorant and don’t care about their lives. They’re the type of people who are like “you only live once so go out with a bang” or “i’d rather die at 20 and do some crazy stuff instead of 80 doing nothing”. If the state opens up again(which it already has) there are gonna be problems; I feel like Whitmer should close it again because people keep on getting infected and others are dying. Now is not the time, we should open the state back up when we know the threat is fully gone.

    No, this is simply not enough to help protect a second wave. I am a huge person when it comes to science and I want to be a doctor/surgeon when I grow up. Simply, humans are humans and the best thing to do right now is keep us away from each other. The ease of bacteria spreading is a huge issue and it’s just way too easy. You cannot just make bacteria stop spreading because of limitations or limit it, when people have to sneeze they have to sneeze, when people forget to wash their hands it’s way too easy. The best thing right now would be self isolation and I’m doing it right now. The state is open but my family knows that it’s not smart, they know it’s not the right time to go out and be free.

    When school reopens in the fall, I feel like there will be a much greater emphasis on good hygiene. I also believe there will be a different curriculum than usual, because of how online school can be flawed. I feel like teachers will be taking different approaches on teaching and test taking, especially AP classes and honors classes. This is because it’s hard to know everything with online school and this can be stressful. I feel like the curriculum will be softer at first since us students have to make the adjustment from online to back to normal.

  2. nabeel zaheer

    Although racism still exists in the U.S right now, it is far better than the amount of racism that existed around the civil war and during the 20th century. Back then, there was things like slavery, sharecropping, jim crow laws, and lynching. African American lives were constantly at risk but the risk is far less nowadays. The U.S has become less racist over decades and centuries and you can see this with political figures. Barack Obama became the president and was able to be elected for 2 straight terms, something that wouldn’t happen in the time periods I mentioned above. Not only that, there are people in congress that are African American and there is a person in the supreme court that is African American. A lot more African Americans are successful now too in present day America, one of these examples is Michael Jordan and another is Jay Z. Speaking of people like Jay Z and Michael Jordan, look at how much African Americans have impacted the culture. The U.S is considered a melting pot for a reason, because different ethnicities make up the U.S, and one of these ethnicities is African Americans. Look at the music that’s played on the radio, hip hop, blues, etc; look at the shoes that people wear nowadays, lebrons, yeezys, jordans, etc. Look at the impact that African Americans have regarding sports, people like Calvin Johnson who have had such an impact in the game that they couldn’t have had in the 1900s. Not only that, look at our schools, look at the amount of African Americans that are in our schools, the teachers, the students, the school staff, etc. Back in the day this would not be possible because of segregation. Recently, lynching also became a crime and lynching in the 20th century and 19th was a huge thing but this outlawing of the act proves that America has become less racist. People have come to their senses and know that it is okay to be African American. Look at the amount of people standing up for George Floyd right now, all ethnicities are. There have been many protests for a less racist America and this shows that many many people agree for an America with no racism. Look at the NFL athletes that defended Colin Kaepernick and wanted him back in the league. All of these examples show that the U.S has become less racist than it previously was. Before, white people wouldn’t even do a thing for African Americans but nowadays both races are often on the same page.

  3. kieran kamish

    Racial and ethnic inequalities are still a large part of American society. Black people still face structural barriers when it comes to housing, healthcare, employment, and education. Racial disparities are very prevalent in the criminal justice system of the United States and undermine its effectiveness. However, that does not change the fact that we have changed since the CRM, and there are many more economic and educational opportunities for African Americans. From a social aspect, that is where we need a lot more change. Innocent African Americans such as George Floyd are being murdered and beaten by white police officers just because they’re black. My grandmother came to stay with us when these protests happened, and this was someone who remembered what happened and saw the violence happen on TV. When she saw coverage of what was happening in Minneapolis and Atlanta, to be specific, she told us that this is exactly what happened in the 1960’s with the Detroit riots. Turning on CNN every night has been extremely hard. I know a lot of people might disagree and be offended with these things I say next, So I want to come out clear. I respect all people. Whether you’re black, white, purple, or polka dotted does not matter, I care about everyone. I don’t see color, gender, religion, or sexuality, what I see is a fellow human being that can be my friend. Anyways, I have absolutely zero problems with people going onto a highway and marching peacefully. I saw the video. I am glad that the man who killed George Floyd is in custody and I think he should be in jail for the rest of his life. What I hate, and what I’m constantly seeing on TV is the rioting, looting, stealing, the burning of entire buildings, people throwing fireworks into the CNN headquarters. And most importantly, I hate seeing innocent police officers and secret service agents being attacked just because one bad apple had to make a horrible and racist decision. And yes, not all police are good human beings. But the 99% of them are amazing people and they want to protect us and our freedom. Last week, I bet there were many families hugging their relatives who went out to the city to suppress the riots, and having a tiny part of them know that there was a chance they would see them again because they were beaten up by a mob in Minnesota. And oh by the way, many of the looters I saw in Minneapolis were white. They were taking advantage of the situation, and using it as an excuse to steal and hoard. I think that situations like this can be prevented. I actually think that our generation can do something about it, and that we can be the example. There are articles published saying that our generation is the most racially diverse yet. Why? Because we weren’t taught to see race as something that defines a person. We do have a very long way to go, but if our kids and grandkids can coexist with one another peacefully, we might have a pretty good future ahead.

  4. Jacob Pasco

    I think the kind of racism that we are seeing in the 1960s and 50s has been largely overcome but now there is a new kind of racism. While there is not African American racism that is supported by the government is that now it is perpetrated by individuals. People look back on the 60s and 50s now and can all agree that racism was bad and acceptable. We don’t have rules or laws that are overtly racist, now it is a lot more subtle. For example, one of the subtleties is that it’s more the decision of an individual person to be racist. For example, the person who murdered Geroge Floyd was racist, but that doesn’t mean all cops are racists. The laws aren’t different between African Americans and white people, but the ways they are enforced is very different. There really are no checks and balances for making sure that laws are enforced without racial bias. Is it up to the individual police officers to make sure this happens. If all police in a precinct know that something racist has happened, they are responsible for reporting that event. The problem with this kind of system is that the public only sees the “bad cops.” You don’t get to see a lot of good that police officers do anymore because it’s so overshadowed by the racist incidences that occur. Also, something could be perceived as racist, but in the cop’s mind it was just self-defence. The event that happened with George Floyd was definitely racist, but sometimes a minor incident can get blown way out of proportion because these racist events have happened. It’s kind of like how ISIS changed everyone’s perspective of all Middle Eastern people or Hitler influenced how everyone saw the Germans.I believe the majority of the population would report if something racist occurred, because racism is not socially acceptable. This is an improvement over the past. Another way that racism has been overcome is that African Americans have been able to collect mass amounts of wealth, which they couldn’t do before. Also congress is about 20% african American, which generally reflects the population of how many African Americans there are in the United States. The social sphere of racism is still prevalent, but it’s not necessarily a political tool anymore. The bad thing about it being something that is controlled by individual people is that it’s impossible to stop every individual person from being racist. That’s the big problem that we are having today.

  5. Keegan Reed

    We, as in America as a whole, have definitely not overcome racism. In general the world hasn’t overcome discrimination and racism. But since we are talking about America I’ll stick to just that. Our biggest, and most obvious case of racism and discrimination, is slavery. Starting at about 1619, we have been importing Africans from Africa, buying them, then forcing them to do work for the owner. This took away their human rights and made their position very low in society. This lasted for hundreds of years, but then finally ended because of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. African Americans were released from being held captive as slaves and were able to become free people, for the most part. Even though African Americans were “free”, it didn’t mean that people would stop being racist and discriminate towards them. But just because people were racist towards them didn’t mean they would sit back and accept it. Even to today people have rioted and protested towards full equality for all minorities, including African Americans of course. So back to the main topic, have we overcome racism today? Even after hundreds of years of mistakes and consequences we have still not become able to discard this hatred that leads to acts of discrimination. The reason why is unclear. You can’t just open somebody’s head and pick around their brain to see why they think the way they do. If we were able to, I think we could have found many ways to combat mental disabilities such as autism and down-syndrome. We also could combat the feelings that hold a person’s anger, which could lead to solving racism. There are still acts of racism nowadays throughout every community. Even though more acts of racism occur to different groups of people more often, I think we can say racism happens to every race. Recent events of 2020 show how these negative feelings can build up and escape once something big happens. The death of George Floyd was an outburst in the community of Minneapolis. An innocent black man was killed by a crooked white police officer and this act of injustice broke out like wild-fire all throughout America. This event showed that racism still exists even in roles where justice and equality should matter the most. These police officers killed a black man just because of his skin color. Racism is still a thing to this day and it is shown everyday on many platforms.

  6. Kate VanderWeele

    America has come a long way in addressing racism, but there still is a long way to go to overcome it. The recent protests in response to the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer, has forced us to confront that we still are divided by inequalities, and prejudice. The most glaring example of racism in American history is slavery, when millions of enslaved African Americans were treated as property, and forced into labor. Slavery ended after the Civil War with the passage of the 13th amendment. During Reconstruction, following the Civil War, the 14th and 15th amendments were passed to give and protect African American men the right to vote. However Reconstruction ultimately failed, and African Americans faced disenfranchisement. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal, and would not be changed until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. During the Civil Rights movement, the great majority of victims of police brutality were African Americans, and police would break up demonstrations by using violent tactics, and arresting protestors for disturbing the peace. While the country has come a long way since those times, we still face many issues because of racism. Lately there have been huge protests throughout the world in response to the death of George Floyd. President Trump referred to the protesters as “thugs” and threatened to use the military to clear the streets, a sharp contrast to when he called protesters demanding that businesses reopen, “good people”, or when he said there were “good people on both sides” after the violence in Charlottesville in 2017. I don’t know if there is more racism than there was in the last few years, but people recording instances of police brutality or white people calling the police on black people for trivial things, has forced them to be held accountable for their actions. Politicians saying that the death of George Floyd was a case of one bad, racist cop may be true, but Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to be killed by the police. I think refusing to address it as a systematic problem is why we are still having to overcome racism. We have abolished racist institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, but we are now facing racism from indidual attitudes. While it is illegal to commit hate crimes, hate itself is not a crime and people are allowed to express their opinions even if they are intolerant and prejudiced. Because of this, I don’t think they will ever be a complete end of racism, and that is the problem we are seeing today.

  7. Connor Mueller

    Although racism is still very prevalent in today’s society, we have overcome a lot of it. When America was founded, Africans and African Americans (children of African slaves) were enslaved. For a long part of America’s history African Americans were not even considered people. Even after African Americans were freed from slavery and given rights by the federal government, people stoped them from exercising their rights with Jim Crow laws, literacy tests and lynch mobs. These problems, and segregation, were, for the most part, resolved with the civil rights movement. African Americans have also greatly affected American music. They created jazz and rap, and influenced rock and roll Even though we overcame so much racism, there are still many problems today. Police brutality is still going on, the most recent case being George Floyd. He was killed just because he was black, just like the victims of Ku Klux Klan lynch mobs so long ago. One of the few differences between today’s racism and racism of the past is that today’s racism is hidden better. Most people aren’t wearing white robes and pointy hats anymore but the same acts happen. In fact, most racism today is unconscious. By unconscious I mean that because racism was ingrained into the way they were raised, they think nothing of it and figure that’s the way the world works. I know this happens because my mother grew up in a racist town in rural Michigan. She was shocked when she went to collage and found out that normal sayings from her home town were incredibly racist. Fun fact, eenie meenie miney mo has racist roots. Lets just say it’s not a tiger they are catching. The fact that most racism today is unconscious will make it harder to overcome because they will raise their kids with the same biases and prejudices that they have. It is also very hard to change someone’s ways when that is all that they have known. You also just can not kill all racists, even though it would be a lot easier. Even though changing people’s beliefs is hard, I know it can be done. Every time America has made progress towards equality, it was through the result of a large conflict, and another one is starting. Protests and riots are breaking out all over the united states, and, based off of what happened in the past, a change for the better is coming.

  8. Maya-Rose Trajano

    First off, I think I’d like to (respectfully) say that this is kind of a false question, so to speak, as it sort of implies that we have “overcome racism” in some way, shape or form, and I strongly believe that we haven’t. There is no way I can shine a light to our applaud to, with some form of a meaningful reflection, how this country has overcome racism, as if I’m at a point (or even at least come point) where I’ve out distanced myself from its impact; it simply isn’t true. In spite of this, for the sake of the argument, yes; I can lay out the steps we’ve made, growing as a country, as mentioned in the blog. However, (don’t get me wrong, of course these were significant and most definitely notable steps) I really believe that these steps, when talking about the entire institution of racism itself, are almost just blips on the radar or too minimalist against the backdrop of social and political and economic climate of the day. The malicious growth of racism that has been captured throughout the years (and we can start from the story Treyvon Martin) is still something that causes great trouble in our society. I believe there is so much more to be done and so much to work on. It should be reminded, or taught, if one is ignorant to the situation, that there are more broader issues still in play. Surprise? Not at all. Yes, I am afforded a good education that I of course would have been excluded from some time ago, and classes at my school or those of varying shades of backgrounds or diverse backgrounds, but albeit, black people, white people, asian people, latino people, anybody living in this country live in a world 50 plus years outside of Jim Crow, where its ideology and pervasiveness still exist. America isn’t in a state of recovery, rather we are still fighting for the same things back then: equal government representation, equal pay in the workforce, equal protection, medical and education disparity and injustice; these things still plague us. Until America overcomes this, then I’ll be able to shine a light and applaud. To close this argument, I would like to say something that is kind of hopeful, and it’s something Will Smith said: “Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed.” I agree with this statement, and I think it’s eye opening.

  9. Joe Doroan

    Have we overcome racism? I think that we are moving in the right direction. There are many things that need to happen to get rid of racism entirely, but we have come a long way. From where we started we have come a really long way. Although racism is still out there it isn’t anything like what it was not one hundred years ago. For example, the average income for whites is over seven times more than for what it is for blacks. This is nowhere near equal but is a long stride from something like share cropping where the average income wasn’t even enough to pay rent for the land you were using to farm crops. Before the revolution slavery was everywhere in America. Slaves had no rights and were treated as property. After the revolution comes the first change for blacks. The country is split into slave owning states and non slave owning states. The Missouri Compromise says that for every slave owning there needed to be an equal number of non slave owning states. This was one of the first steps into the very long journey to beat racism. The next major component in the puzzle was abolishing slavery. The civil war was a war about slavery, and the side against it prevailed. After this slavery was abloished, but blacks were pushed by into a corner with the creation of systems like share cropping and the jim crow laws. In the 1930’s and 40’s as new technologies began to come out, the institution of share cropping was made almost extinct. This was an unexpected byproduct of technological advances in the agricultural industry. Through the 40’s and 50’s more and more black activists began to emerge wanting change. They demanded that segregation be outlawed. These demands eventually led to the inevitable civil rights movement. Blacks across america protested for years for equality and eventually succeeded. In recent years we have seen people of color in every level of government and have even seen the election of the first black president, Barack Obama. Even after all this change we are still haunted by the sins of our past. Racism still exists even after everything we as a country have done to try and stop it. However, if we continue in the direction that we have been going, maybe one day we will finally see the end of racism. Until that day comes we must never become complacent and must always move forward so that the efforts of those before us may not have been in vain.

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