Racism

Racism has been a controversial topic for many decades. Is racism the cause for our unjust society? Has it changed over the years? After reading Black Boy by Richard Wright, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Public Justice Report: Racism Still Divides Black and White America by Tom Skinner, and What Race Has to Do With It by Gary Younge, these documents show that even after the progress in civil right reforms over the last four decades, Black Americans go through struggles and experience discrimination today. The novel Black Boy, tells a story about a black boy’s upbringing and the obstacles he goes through growing up in the South. Not only does he experience personal discrimination, he observes how others of his color are degraded as well. In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the grandson of slaves tells a story about invisibility and how it is through invisibility that blacks "get by" in society. In the interview “Public Justice Report,” Tom Skinner explains how the law isn't reality and that for there to be a change on how others view each other, despise their color, they must be given the same opportunity as each other. In the article “What Race Has To Do With It” by Gary Younge he says that "race is about power and it is through power that resources are distributed. Race will disappear as an issue when racism disappears as a material force. In the meantime, it will be a tool to leverage resentment. People will be able to get away with treating others unfairly without being penalized. Racism is the biggest cause of our unjust society, leaving many people with unequal opportunities. In the novel Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright writes about the struggles of his childhood and the hardship of being a young black man trying to make it to The North. Life for Richard becomes harder for him when his father leaves his family at a young age. Hunger becomes a problem and working at a young age becomes a priority. Whilst working for white people Richard learns about racism. Unsure of what it is at first, Richard becomes aware that it's a repugnant thing. One of the jobs that Richard took on as a child was in a near-by brickyard as the water boy. He feared the dog of the boss who owned the brickyard and was one day bitten. Afraid of becoming ill, Richard approaches the boss to tell him: "Is this the nigger?" He asked a black boy as he pointed to me "Yes, sir," the black boy answered. "Come here, nigger," he called me. I went to him. "They tell me my dog bit you," he said. "Yes, sir." I pulled down my trousers and he looked. "Humnnn," he grunted, then laughed. "A dog bite can't hurt a nigger." "It's swelling and it hurts," I said. "If it bothers you, let me know," he said. "But I never saw a dog yet that could really hurt a nigger." He turned away and walked away and the black boys gathered to watch his tall form disappear down the aisles of wet bricks. (Wright, 163)
This quote from the novel Black Boy shows an act of dehumanization that the boss portrays towards Richard. Since Richard was black the boss believes that his skin was tougher than a white mans. He believed it wasn't necessary for Richard to seek a doctor’s help. This dialogue also shows an act of prejudice. The bosses personal belief as to why a dog couldn't hurt a black man because his skin is "tougher" is unreasonable. A person's skin tone has nothing to do with how tough they are and what they are able to sustain. It has nothing to do with what they are capable of doing and how well they can do it. That's one of society's biggest problems today. A black person will be degraded amongst white people because they don't have the same level of education or they can't do the job "as good" as a white person can. In the novel “ Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison the narrator starts off claiming that in society, he is an invisible man. The narrator is not physically invisible, he’s very clearly seen, yet others refuse to see him and the reason is because he is a black man. The narrator has his own means of living. Instead of living in an apartment like a typical being he lives underground. The perks of him living underground are to sustain his invisibility so he can write the story of his “invisible life.” Over time, visiting places and becoming involved with groups of people he thought would be a help, he winds up realizing those people become his downfall in his success and happiness. The narrator fails to realize how much racism is such a big part of society as much as he fails to realize how his value is almost as little as a penny you’d find on the sidewalk. After the black man accepts and writes about his invisibility, he decides to enter the world again. In Public Justice Report: Racism Still Divides Black and White America by Tom Skinner, Skinner is interviewed and questioned about racism and whether it is an issue today. In the interview, Skinner is asked, "What proportion is due to black people?" Skinner's response was: "If you remove all the barriers that obstruct us; allow us to show power in the local communities, cities, states, and the country as a whole, equal to our numbers; allow the tax dollars of our communities to produce the best in education and training for our young people, the best in services for our poor and disadvantaged—allow this, and we will do well. We have always done well when the rules of the game are the same for everybody. If we fail in these circumstances, then the failure is ours. Give us that right."
Basically skinner is saying that due to the corruptness of equality, there will never be complete success. All of the major barriers are against allowing equality when it comes to certain things, this outweighs the possibility of blacks and whites being equally successful. White people seem to be the only ones who are able to avoid things and seem to have better ways around issues that a black would face. Racism is the cause of an unjust society, that I do believe, although others may not. Most would argue that racism has no effect in society. Yes, there’s a possibility they could be unjust due to the other things that happen in the world that seem to make it corrupt, but only because most of those things are based off racism. There’s many ways to look at it. Racism is a very viral thing. People are stereotypical and that’s where racism derives from. There are many things that can make this world unjust, Killers, certain religions, beliefs, doings, etc. regardless they’re based off of race. If you’re a drunk, youre probably irish, if you steal you’re most likely black, if you bomb something, youre a terrorist. It all unfolds to who a person is, and that’s why they’re doing it. All because of their race a beliefs.