Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
ENC 1102
May 1, 2017
Racism can be a sensitive topic for many people, whether that be because they are scared
to address the issue or theyve been subjected to racism first hand. However, there are some
American citizens who overlook the thought of racism or try to dilute the issue. Throughout my
research on the topic of racism, Ive been able hear fear hand accounts as well as witness the
effects not only from a personal stand point, but from primary historical documents as well.
To fully understand racism and how it works, you must first understand how the term
race was created as well as decipher the difference between Racism and Discrimination
from a sociological standpoint. Dating back to early colonial times, colonists profiled those who
were different from them by the color of their skin to determine positions in the hierarchy of
early America; which means if you were darker you would fall in a lower class than the colonists
who came to the New Land. However, this ideology wasnt completely enforced until the age
of slavery. This system of race allowed white slave owners to justify their enslavement of
Africans, categorizing the lives of darker skin of lesser value than those whose skin were white;
this system sparked what weve learned to call racism. According to the scholarly article
Sociology of Racism from Harvard Scholars, the term racism is an ideology of racial
domination (Wilson, 1999, 14) in which the presumed biological or cultural superiority of one
or more racial groups is used to justify or prescribe the inferior treatment or social position(s) of
other racial groups. This system was universally accepted in the United States for centuries and
allowed for Slave Codes, Segregation, and Jim Crow Laws; which allowed slavery to become
deep rooted within the structure of the United States. Many citizens who refuse to accept the
existence of racism in society today often mistake the term racism with the term discrimination.
this treatment is derived from the word idea of racism, but it isnt racism itself.
According to my research racism is alive and well within the United States. My
first step to understanding racism in America, aside from understanding the definition,
was to gather first hand experiences within the modern discourse communities of
African Americans and Caucasian young adults. To acquire this information, I generated
a survey which asked a series of questions asking if they knew the difference between
the terms racism and discrimination as well as asking for personal experiences with
racism; this survey allowed me to better understand if the issue was still prevalent in
society today. After reviewing the survey and the responses I then looked at previous
occurrences in history that proved the theory of racism to be true. The documentaries
13 th and Hidden Colors: The Series allowed me to witness firsthand accounts that
havent made mainstream television as well as look at primary resources of the events.
For example, the film 13 th showed the many speeches made by previous US
Presidents that supported the systematic oppression of blacks through many laws such
as the 3-strike law (which allowed courts to sentence criminals to life sentences on
the third offense, regardless of the crime). A member of the audience in doubt may
refute this by saying the law didnt directly target African American communities,
however the film also had interviews with past officials who come clean about the main
targets of the laws which led to mass incarceration. The film series Hidden Colors
shows the beginning of the idea of race, then shows the many ways racism was enforced
within our nation as well as globally, and ends highlighting our society today and how
racism was transformed to apply to our everyday lives. After finishing these
to late-twenties, in order to see if they understood the ways racism plays a role in our
everyday lives or if they were a victim of White Privilege; white privilege is the
theory that Caucasian individuals are unable to see racism and its effects because they
arent directly affected. After asking them the same questions from my survey and
showing them some of the historical occurrences I came across in my research, they
were dumfounded at the fact that these things occurred in America. In fact, the second
major role in the history of The United States as well as how it still applies to the
without a doubt, proves that racism is still a prevalent issue in our society because it is
America. Not only has my research showed that racism played a role in the chain of
power in America, but it shows that it still effects these discourse communities directly.
My research, along with my many sources, proves that Racism is without a doubt alive
and well within the African American and Caucasian discourse communities of modern
day America.