Race Relations in America
According to the Oxford Dictionary, race relations are defined as “relations between
members or communities of different races within one country.” It is no surprise that America
has its own set of race relations problems, which include, but are not limited to, the ever-growing
differences between Black vs. white people with respect to educational differences, job access,
and health disparities, and minorities vs the American media. ABC News states that more than
twice as many Americans trusted Clinton (58%) to handle race relations than Trump (26%).
Even though both Liberals and Conservatives agree that race relations are a problem within
America, the similarities stop there, as neither side can agree on how to solve the problem or
who to blame. Studies have also shown that 75% of Americans believe that race relations will
get worse (46%) or not change at all (26%) during Trump’s term, according to the Pew Research
Center. While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has been the spokesperson for “poor white
America,” as the National Review calls it. Within the first 100 days of Trump’s Presidency, he
issued an executive order that denied people from specific Middle Eastern countries entry into
the United States. Along with his plan for a wall built on the border of Mexico to keep out
illegal immigrants, Donald Trump has encouraged racial tensions between Americans of
different races, backgrounds, and religions. NBC News says, “The Southern Poverty Law Center
(SPLC) reported that more than 400 incidents of harassment or intimidation against blacks, Jews,
gays and Muslims occurred in the early days of Trump’s Presidency.” Race relations in America
are bad, as there is a clear divide between Blacks and Whites, and the Middle East and
Americans.
As the rash of police brutality in Black communities continues to make headlines under
Donald Trump as President, race relations have gotten even worse. From the murders of Eric
Garner to Freddie Gray, people of color were told to put their trust in the hands of the justice
system in the hope that something would be done and the necessary action would be taken
against these guilty officers, but that has rarely led to a conviction. Recently, however, the tables
were turned, and a white woman was shot by an officer of color. Six days after the murder, the
police chief was forced to resign, yet there were few to no convictions for the number of Black
people killed by police. When asked about their thoughts on what they have seen on the news
and how they view race relations now, liberals and conservatives had two vastly different points
of view. African Americans, who typically identify as liberals, say that it is scary to think about
what could happen to their loved ones because Black people are seen as a target, especially when
it comes to the police and being incarcerated. This is especially a concern for fathers and
brothers of Black families, as Black men have been the victims of the media’s false and
inaccurate depictions of them as thugs and murderers, and are at a higher risk when encountering
the police. Many older African American liberals say that seeing the growing number of
murdered Black people at the hands of whites is difficult because many can relate, as they are
forced to relive their own experiences or imagine if that were their brother, father, or friend. On
the contrary, conservatives are less concerned about police brutality, and some even believe that
the police are being judged too harshly by the media. One conservative man said that what
concerns him about race is “ Everything you see on TV… what's going on right now… blacks
kill people, and the police kill blacks.” Among whites, there have been occasional spikes in
concern about race relations since the killing of Treyvon Martin in 2012, whereas in the Black
community, pessimism continues to grow steadily. According to Gallup polls, before Treyvon
Martin died in 2012, a large number of people (57%) found race relations to be somewhat good
between whites and Black people. After his death, (68%) of African Americans thought that
race relations were bad. Now, a staggering 75% of African Americans find it to be bad. After
the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, mass protests broke out around America,
sparking the Black Lives Matter Movement and also drawing national attention to the issue of
police brutality. Though race relations were not always bad, when Obama was elected President,
the positive belief that race relations were getting better quickly rose to a record-breaking 66%.
That did not last long, as people are now saying race relations are as bad as they were during the
beating of Rodney King back in 1992. This distrust in the American justice system is yet another
reason for the racial divide within America.
Beginning in 1619, African people were brought to America in shackles and chains after
being torn apart from their families. When they arrived in America, these people were forced
into slavery and were beaten and tortured with mental and physical effects that lasted over
generations. Almost 400 years after slavery was abolished, Black people have moved into a new
kind of slavery, where instead of being whipped, they are beaten by police if they dare step out of
line. Instead of being shipped by the boatload to another country, they are shipped by the
busload to the privately owned prisons and jails that force inmates to complete labor for pennies
and are forced to live in inhumane conditions. This has become a trend that is leading black
people to distrust those in charge, straining race relations even more in America today. Though
many Black scholars believe that education is the key to breaking the shackles of white
supremacy in America. The Souls of Black Folk at first talks about the significance of a proper
education to Black people in part two, when DuBois clarifies how the Freedmen's Bureau's most
noteworthy achievement was the structure of schools in the South. He further clarifies how this
headway was met with counterattacks from the white community, as they understand the peril of
an informed Black man. Dubois composes, “The opposition to Negro education in the South was
at first bitter, and showed itself in ashes, insult, and blood; for the South believed an educated
Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all
kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of
dissatisfaction and discontent.” (27). The education gap between white and Black Americans is
one of the many reasons why African Americans have a disproportionately lower rate of success
than their white counterparts. The discovery of this education gap by African Americans can
have a positive effect, as it did on DuBois, who came to realize the differences between himself
and his majority white classmates at a young age and vowed to maximize his education as a way
to obtain the wealth and prosperity that whites had. However, this education gap can have
negative effects, as it does in the story of John, who had just returned to the South from his
“good school” only to feel like an outsider in his own home. Due to his pursuit of higher
education, John no longer felt intellectually compatible with the people that he once knew. This
feeling caused John to separate himself from his community instead of using the opportunity to
advance and further them. When people understand the importance of investing in an education
in themselves and their community, then Black people will have more access to more
opportunities that will allow them to progress as a community. According to the United Negro
College Fund (UNCF), “Only 57 percent of black students have access to the full range of math
and science courses necessary for college readiness, compared to 81 percent of Asian American
students and 71 percent of white students.” Many minority children are deterred from pursuing a
higher education because they have been conditioned to believe that an education will not benefit
them, and they can not see themselves beyond the limits of their poverty. People who are in a
similar position to John should utilize their newfound knowledge to help advance the people of
their community so that, as the cycle continues, there will be an increase in highly educated
minority individuals. Furthermore, as more children and adolescents witness the individuals
around them successfully attempting higher education, they will be inspired to achieve this
prosperity for themselves. This will consequently lower the need for welfare and other
government assistance, allowing for money to be used for infrastructure and expanding and
advancing schools. It will also decrease the high school dropout rate as the importance of
education will be stressed to children, and they will be more likely to stay in school and pursue
higher education. This pursuit for higher education will also allow Black people to get the
opportunities and background to solve some of the issues that the Black community faces, such
as health disparities.
With the recent coronavirus outbreak affecting millions of people in the world, now more
than ever is America's true colors are showing. In communities and cities such as Chicago, St.
Louis, and Michigan, Black people are contracting and dying from the COVID- 19 at
disproportionately higher rates than their white counterparts. Why is this? Well, many factors
come into play when trying to find the root of this issue. First, many Black Americans do not
have the privilege of quarantining, as they are living paycheck to paycheck and need to work to
provide food for their families. Second, many of the African American people in these
communities work minimum wage jobs, such as at Wal-Mart or other jobs in service, and are in
contact with more people for longer periods of time. This increases their risk greatly.
Furthermore, Black people are known to have a higher number of health defects that decrease
their chance of mortality if they do catch the virus. These diseases include, but are not limited to,
asthma, high blood pressure, and certain cancers. As DuBois writes in The Souls of Black Folk,
“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of
hardships.”(6). Living in poverty comes with its own unique difficulties and struggles, but to be
in poverty and not even be given a chance at attaining wealth is even worse because you are
forced to witness everyone else’s riches grow as you continue to live in the heavy shackles of
poverty. In segregated, low-income areas, Black people are faced with several environmental
factors that will impact their lives. According to the U.S. Poverty Statistics, Blacks have the
highest poverty rate at 20.8% and Non-Hispanic whites have the lowest at 8.1%; the poverty rate
for Blacks and Hispanics is more than double that of non-Hispanic whites (Haskins 2012). These
impoverished families reside in poorly funded high-concentration neighborhoods that have less
public access and amenities than other neighborhoods. For example, high-poverty neighborhoods
have fewer public services and are more likely to have fast-food chains, liquor stores, and
convenience stores, as opposed to healthy food grocers. African-American neighborhoods,
specifically, often have higher rates of poverty and death from heart disease and all cancers
(Bethea 2013). High-poverty neighborhoods also have greater exposure to pollution and violent
crime. Research shows that communities with high proportions of racial and ethnic minorities
also have less access to doctors. These factors, combined with a substandard education, place
low-income African Americans at a disadvantage.
DuBois writes about the issue of desegregation versus integration within the prime of the
race issue; yet, many of the issues he presents in 1903 are still relevant today. He states that “It is
usually possible to draw in nearly every Southern community a physical color-line on the map,
on the one side of which whites dwell and on the other Negroes… Usually in cities each street
has its distinctive color, and only now and then do the colors meet in close proximity” (125).
This same neighborhood segregation is still prevalent over 100 years later, especially in large
cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Dustin Cable of UVa’s Weldon
Cooper Center for Public Service used data from the 2010 U.S. Census to create a map showing
the racial and ethnic makeup of the country, right down to individual blocks within a city. The
images from this map show consistent evidence that neighborhood segregation is still a problem.
Though segregation was abolished in 1954 with the Brown vs Board of Education ruling, places
such as Cleveland, Mississippi, have failed to integrate. The Cleveland School District is still
segregated, with Black families living on the East side of the train tracks and white families
living on the West. Fifty years after the ruling abolishing segregation, the Cleveland School
District is only recently being integrated as the U.S. Courts voted to build one high school for all
the children in the district to attend (Domonoske 2016). Because desegregation only means that
Black people are allowed into white spaces, African American people are being done a
disservice until they are completely integrated into white spaces. Black people in low-income
families do not have the access, financial support, or services and amenities to achieve success as
easily as their wealthier white counterparts. By understanding the difference between
desegregation and integration, one will understand the disparities between the opportunities
presented to White people and those presented to Black people as it relates to the quality of
education and job opportunities. This information can inspire a more concerted effort to ensure
that the economic gap between White Americans and Black Americans is diminished. When this
economic gap is diminished, Black people will have better opportunities to attain success for
their families and will be given the chance to build legacies, and will eventually reap the benefits
of generational wealth. Furthermore, the infrastructure and the community will improve as a
result, as African Americans will change how their communities are run and organized.
Environmental deterrents such as liquor stores and low access to adequate grocery stores will be
eradicated as they will be replaced with the amenities and services that African American
communities need to thrive. Furthermore, when more communities are integrated, people of
different ethnicities will be able to interact in a peaceful and controlled setting, allowing for
racial tolerance to be built from childhood. This will allow for better race relations to be
established between various ethnic groups and will reduce hate crimes and other race-related
grievances.
Another group of people who experience severe inequality and prejudice in America is
the Middle Eastern people. Because of 9/11, people from the Middle East have garnered a bad
reputation and hatred, and fear from many Americans. With the media always portraying Middle
Easterners as terrorists and barbarians, it is even harder to escape the false narrative that the
media continues to perpetuate. After 9/11, a man in Texas was shot after an assailant accused
him of "blowing up the country". Another four immigrants were also shot and killed by a man
named Larme Price, who confessed to killing 11 people in total and admitted he killed them as
revenge for the attacks in September of 2001. He also said that he shot these immigrants because
they were Arabs, when in fact only one of those people was. There have been multiple reports of
attacks on people of color ever since then. This mistreatment of Middle Eastern people has only
been furthered by Trump’s temporary “Muslim Ban”. Under this Executive Order, people from
Libya, Sudan, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia are banned from entering the US for 90 days,
outside of the "bona fide" relationship exception. Trump says, “ As President, I cannot allow
people into our country who want to do us harm," he added in a statement. "I want people who
can love the United States and all of its citizens, and who will be hardworking and productive. "
Even though studies have shown that Americans are less likely to be killed by terrorists than by
people from their own country. Minority people have long been fighting against the false
narratives that the media continues to perpetuate about them, as they have long-lasting and
damaging effects on the people in these communities. Hispanics being depicted as drug dealers
and members of the cartel, Black people being depicted as convicts, thugs, and gangbangers, and
Middle Eastern people being depicted as terrorists are all terrorizing the people in these
communities and are placing targets on them. As a result of these generalizations and
stereotypes, Trump has garnered support for a wall to be built on the border of America and
Mexico to keep Mexicans out of the country, police have garnered the support of Americans to
kill unarmed Black people in the streets under the pretense, “Blue Lives Matter”, and Middle
Eastern people have been unfairly targeted and killed by Americans out of ignorance, anger, and
fear that they may be terrorists. This kind of fear-mongering behavior and language used in the
media to demonize minority people has had a severe negative impact on race relations, as people
fear one another and are as divisive as ever.
Overall, race relations in America have significantly declined, and some would even say
they are at an all-time low. With the policies that President Trump plans to put in place, race
relations could get even worse because of the racial division that these new laws encourage. It
would be naive to say that there will be racial equality in the next decade, or even two decades.
The fight for acceptance of all races by white America is a slow and painful one, but one that
must be fought. Yale University psychology professor John Dovidio said in an interview with the
American Psychological Association, “ Attitudes develop with the accumulation of experience
and associations over time. They are inherently functional—they help us orient ourselves to
others and the environment in ways perceived to benefit us. . . attitudes typically evolve slowly,
often becoming more complex and nuanced over time; rapid, wholesale change in attitudes is
rare. . . One of the best ways to change attitudes is through intergroup contact. Attitudes are not
simply about the way you think about a group; they are also about how you feel about a group. In
America, whites have been able to change their minds about racism faster than they have been
able to change their deep-seated, and often unconscious, feelings.” When asked what the key
psychological factors are that shape racial attitudes, and how ingrained those attitudes are? Can
people with deep-seated racial prejudice ever completely change those attitudes? Through
contact and education, we can alleviate the racial problems that have been plaguing this country
since it was founded. By understanding these various concepts, there will be a decrease in high
school dropouts as more people strive to become educated, which would result in lower
incarceration rates. Furthermore, the race relations in America will improve greatly as people
move from viewing people by race and start accepting minority people as equals, which would
also result in lower risks of suicide in minorities. There will also be a decrease in the amount of
money spent on welfare and other government assistance programs, as there will be fewer
impoverished people.
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