Essay On Racial Tensions In America

Before we look to the future we must look to the past. Since race has been the topic of many conversations throughout the years, an extensive amount of research has been done over it. However, since the research has been extensive, this researcher decided to condense my selection to only research done over racial tensions in America, race between generations, race in colleges and universities and mixed races in America.
The research started with journals over race in America. This topic was the bases of my research and one of my main focuses. With my topic, race in America has to be fully covered to begin to understand what race in America is about. I stress America because while most believe that race is only a problem in the United States, this is not the case. Racial tensions can be found all around the world. And while they may not be exactly identical to that of
America’s, they still exist. Race is socially constructed, so with other societies, race appears to be different. In America, “the many categories [of race] were simplified into two “black” and “white. Nuances were ignored in favor of the simplest yet most irrational system possible. Anyone with a trace, in most states more than five percent, of non-European Caucasian blood was automatically labeled black” (von Feigenblatt).This created a divide that can still be seen today. Although the United States did not start the divide, America did continue the divide. After the civil war, tensions between blacks and whites flourished. Leading many to fight back. With this fight, the Civil Right Movement took hold. While lasting many years, this social movement rocked the United States forcing it to look its racial tensions in the face and make a decision. For most, the decision made, changed America and erased its racial tensions. However, for most citizens in the United States, the Civil Right Movement did not erase racial tensions, it only shifted the racial tensions.
In 2012, the death of Trayvon Martin, an African American teen sparked another shift in the racial tensions of the United States. With the acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, African Americans felt as if their lives did not matter in the eyes of the land. Thus sparking movements like Black Lives Matter. And while tensions were rising, there was still silence. Nothing was being done by the government and while people marched for equal rights, the thought that racial tensions had diminished, was still one that many citizens held. Under the “Age of Obama,” racial tensions were thought to be an idea of the past. However, “the case of Barack Obama further complicates the issue of race in America” (von Feigenblatt). With a “black” man in office, race became a topic that was not to be discussed because it “did not exist.”
In many colleges around the United States, this thought that race “no longer existed” primarily came from the integration of minorities into major colleges and universities. As more and more people of color attended predominantly white institutions, or PWIs, and as more non-black people attended historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, the lines between races began to blur. And while this is a good thing, it furthered the thought that racial tensions were no longer a problem in the United States. “Political scientist Wilbur Rich (2013) argues the United States is in a nascent post racial era, which the author defined as ‘a society in which phenotype, racial ancestry and color do not determine one’s life chances.” However, his argument neglects to acknowledge that “despite such proclamations, institutions of higher education continue to struggle with long legacies of racial exclusion, discrimination, and reproduction” (Johnston-Guerrero 2016, p.820). After generations of divide, it is hard to think that the tension created can just disappear.
With the start of the library research to be done, this researcher thought back to how she sees race versus that of the views of her parents and grandparents. It must be noted that while racial tensions have been felt throughout generations, the feelings may have shifted like that of actual racial tension. For this researcher, while race played a prominent role in her life, it did not mean as much to her as it would have her parents or grandparents. As time progressed, the thought of how race may be in the future became another major aspect of the research done. For her, race was taught in the aspect of everyone should be equal and that she should treat others with respect no matter what they are. However, while blacks fight to have complete equality, a question that this researcher wanted to look farther into was if racism was limited to white people only. If not, could black people be racist and if so are they furthering the racial tensions in the United States? This question comes without background information due to the fact that it has not been researched before.
The last topic researched before this researcher did her own research was about mixed racial people in the United States.
This topic became important mostly because many years ago, the mixing of races, especially in the south, was illegal. However, as the races gain freedom and equality, the races have begun to mix. This brings importance to the overall topic because this mixing of races forms another category of people who were not thought of before in America. Being a person of mixed races brings about different challenges and thoughts. Mixed raced people are faced, in most cases, with choosing one race over the other in America. “Some identify primarily with one of their heritages, some with two or more, and some as “multiracial,” “biracial,” “hapa,” or some other term that indicates being mixed.” However, some “choose not to identify along U.S. racial categories by deconstructing race or by opting out of the categorization system” (Renn 2004, p. 67). So in the changing of America’s racial tensions, one must look to the future and ask those who are a part of it how they feel about race in
America.