William Newhouse

ENC 1102

Dr. Jennifer Taylor

May 1, 2017

Racism is Alive and Well

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effects not only from a personal stand point, but from primary historical documents as well.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.

Contrary to their beliefs, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, discrimination is the

act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually;

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

documentaries, I went on to interview Caucasian educators who are fairly-young, early

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

interviewee refused to believe the racism still exists today.

Due to my research, I am better able to understand how racism has played a

major role in the history of The United States as well as how it still applies to the

African American and Caucasian discourse communities today. I believe my research,

without a doubt, proves that racism is still a prevalent issue in our society because it is

a deep-rooted issue in our political systems, educational systems, and corporate

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.