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Student Name Professor Name Subject 8 May 2000 Racism in the 21st Century Until the color of a mans skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes there be war sings Bob Marley in one of his songs and it is true. Although today is the beginning of the 21st century, the problem of racism is still the actual one. It has transformed into a new form, different from cruel and violent racism of the past. However, social inequalities still immensely influence peoples lives. This paper aims to research and analyze in what circumstances mono-cultural attitudes are seen now and how they can be changed. Monoculture being the idea that a concept should be viewed by only one cultural perspective (Pitres and Ray 67) is reflected in America through referring its culture to Western civilization (Reed). Reed disproves the theory proclaiming that America refers to Western civilization because American government is derived from European. With the help of historian findings, he assures that Benjamin Franklin was inspired by the system of government of Native Americans, which existed long before European. Moreover, based on the example of puritans, Reed shows that leading culture may be just an illusion that creates an image of superior quality. Further, he provides the striking examples of European pieces of art, which can hardly be called completely European due to influences of other cultures: Beethovens Ninth Symphony which included Turkish marches, French paintings, whose author was motivated by Japanese art. Thus, Western civilization is not the appropriate model of culture for America to adopt and imitate. Mono-cultural attitude leads to spreading the ideas of ones ethnic group on others and often results in disrespect of cultural values and concepts of other groups. The Black history program speaks out against disrespect of teachers with Eurocentric views for Black History (Pitres and Ray). The need for Black history is obvious. It forms self-consciousness of African American children, as well as their conscious perception of the environment. Every nation must

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be aware about its heritage and history in order to understand how the past events have created the current situation and how it can be changed. Also for white students, Black History program can be helpful in learning to look at life from different perspectives. Unless history is represented from the perspective of the major group that forms a mono-cultural attitude, students gain more knowledge and understanding of their life realities (Pitres and Ray). The problem is that white people still have control over the education of the masses of African Americans (Pitres and Ray 76). With the help of it they can rule and control the thought of black people. If the mind of a person awakes, the rulers lose their sources of power. The knowledge of self is an essential component for awakening the persons mind. If the people are given the proper knowledge, they can become free from the pressure of the ruling class. However, not only colored people are discriminated today. White people are put into the narrow relational frames as well. Black people have developed a great deal of different programs: United Negro College Fund, National Association for the Advancement of colored people (NAACP), Black Entertainment Television (BET) that fight for the rights of black people. But, what is interesting, if there were created organizations, funds, or television for only white people, their creators would be called racists and persecuted for their activity. Advancing of black Americans and bans for whites creates confrontations among people of different color against each other. Such an equal injustice, when the opportunity is created based on race, separates people. It must be realized that separation is a powerful weapon in the hands of rulers. To look at all people as personalities with different characters and talents, regardless of color of their skin, is the main achievement of the developed civilized society. Racism is like an infection that touches people who are narrow-minded or have little knowledge for living in harmony with self and other different people, and who are eager to support ideas of others not having ones own. If representatives of different nations tolerate each other and celebrate their difference giving back to their community, only then the society can develop and prosper. The world is here speaks Reed about the USA, and thanks to the mix of various cultures, the USA can become the brain of the world. For that, we must learn to be citizen of the world.

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Works Cited Pitre Abul, Ruth Ray, and Esrom Pitre. The Struggle for Black History: Foundations for a Critical Black Pedagogy in Education. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2008. Print. Reed, Ishmael. America: The Multinational Society. Voices in Italian Americana, 2004. Web. 25 Sep. 2012.