Szporluk’s (2009) article on accountability and Easterly’s book titled, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest have Done so Much Ill and so Little Good (as cited in Howe, 2009) place the majority of responsibility with the organization and those who are providing the service. Szporluck (2009) argues that INGOs should be accountable for the effectiveness of their clients and the communities that they work in, rather than the donors or the desires of governments.…
Feagin addresses multiple different factors for defining and understanding systemic racism. White race establishes power, creating racial hierarchy. Whites promote and display racial framing, which includes but goes far beyond instances of stereotyping and prejudice. Dominant race discriminates and spreads discrimination against the subservient race. Propagation of disparities and inequalities through the social and governmental systems.…
Silva’s Frames of Color-Blind Racism provide the logic used by governmental leaders to explain the place dominance has in a society. In addition, the frames demonstrate how dominance is managed and maintained in a society. Abstract Liberalism, Naturalization, Cultural Racism, and Minimization of Racism are the four frames that Silva introduces. Since Anti-racialism, as defined by Goldberg is opposing the categorizing of people according to their outward characteristics, Goldberg’s frames Naturalization and Cultural Racism do not support anti-racialism. Naturalization makes it possible to deny racism by attributing racist behavior to occurrences that are said to happen naturally e.g. white and blacks do not live in integrated neighborhoods because…
In America, the racial divide between whites and blacks is quickly growing. To fully understand racism, it is necessary to look at how power in the hands of white people has consequently led to oppression and racism towards people of color. Many people, particularly whites, believe that racism stemmed from physical differences between whites and people of color; however, if one truly examines racial differences they will see that these so called “differences” are more social than physical. For centuries, white people have held specific biases and prejudices against people of color, claiming that they were inferior to whites. This notion of subordination began because the white men held the highest form of power one can hold; the power of…
Many people could say that white Americans are living with the fear that they didn’t really deserve their success, and that maybe luck and privilege had more to do with it, than brains and hard work, but there is always two sides to every story. That other side conflicts with that and say white Americans worked hard to get to where they are in life and it had nothing to do with privilege. There are numerous reasons for the widespread discrimination at all levels, but the main reason for the existence of discrimination is a privilege to certain groups of people, and widespread social prejudice towards certain groups of people. Differences between people have always existed, but they gain importance only when different importance are given to…
There is a difference between race as socially constructed and race as biologically constructed. Understanding race as a social construct is critical to understanding the capacity of a given race to affect and intersect other domains and aspect of life and the society (Omi & Winant, 2014). A social construct is ontologically subjective in that the continued existence and construction of social constructs depends on social groups as well as their imposition, collective agreement, and acceptance of such constructions (Rutherford, 2017). Race is that regarded as socially constructed since it is ontologically subjective in that it is real in the society and shapes the way individuals see themselves and…
As a white American citizen, I know that I take my freedom for granted. I never experienced the years of fighting for our independence and justice. Today in America, it is still possible to witness racism and segregation. Many citizens are escaping their countries because of their cruel laws and lack of human rights. Therefore, America is now forced with the problem of illegal immigration. This problem could possibly be solved if more people would stand up to their countries government as Oscar Romero and Desmond Tutu had in the past.…
“Race is a cultural construct, but one with deadly social causes and consequences” (Lipsitz 2). In his book, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit From Identity Politics, George Lipsitz argues that it is in the best interest of white Americans to “invest in whiteness, to remain true to an identity that provides them with resources, power, and opportunity (Lipsitz vii).” Lipsitz’s book gives a substantial amount of evidence to show America’s investment in whiteness with historical facts, stories, and statistics. Although at times Lipsitz’s arguments are biased and hard to reference, because overall he gives competent, emotional, and logical evidence, it does not deter from his main argument that Americans do indeed have an investment in whiteness and his assertion that it is the duty of every person of color to take action to rid of this investment.…
Imagine living in a world where citizens preached that their country is the new free world and were granted rights and opportunities like no other country has done in the world. This may be true but as the matter of the fact, minorities and people of color could not get jobs, vote, or have rights like everyone else but instead live their lives as slaves and never treated like a human being. That is what the United States of America felt like and faced this reality from the day pilgrims settled on American soil all the way until 1965. During this period of American history. White Americans were extremely inhumane, racist and belittling towards slaves and minorities that were placed in the U.S. resulting in only benefiting the upper-class and…
This is evident amongst the predominant white members within my community who are trying who are trying to push non-whites out due to their racial beliefs when they have every right to live within the community. Unfortunately, racial beliefs also affects policies, too, as outlined by the documentary. Even though the United States was founded on the idea that “all men are created equal”, our government has given whites an unfair advantage by creating policies that provide whites with wealth, power, and resources; this unfair advantage is ultimately why we have a wealth gap. In order to address the wealth gap, we must acknowledge race. Ignoring race, and the privilege associated with race, will only promote the illusion that difference by itself is the problem (Johnson, 2005).…
Many white people fail to realize that this nation was manufactured for them, on the labor and bodies of minorities. With the slave work of Africans, to the dangerous work in mines and on railroads by Asians, to the genocide of the Native Americans, this country was established for the benefit of white people, on the labor of those they hate the most. Still, white privilege is rampant and prevalent in so many areas of this country, from governmental to economical fields. Living in a colorblind society, where all the history of race relations in this country are magically disregarded, continues the perpetuation of white privilege, which in the end, only benefits white…
What I have to say to that is that the main problem will get solved eventually and there is nothing we can do but let the lingering hate fade away which may take along but I believe it can and will happen. A woman named Jena McGregor wrote an article on how the Oscars was very much lacking diversity because all of this years winners were all white. She says also says that the Hollywood entertainment industry is also not cherishing diversity because in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences out of the 6,000 members 93 percent of the members are white and 76 percent of them are male and the average age is 63. Although that is pretty outrageous facts I believe that over time things like this will not happen…
Racism and prejudice have always existed in human history. Being a taboo subject and a debated issue, many people have tried to explain and find the reason to such conduct concerning another group of people. Such researches are the hope of many to see the racial discrimination ending. Vincent N. Parillo, through his essay "Causes of Prejudice" tries to explain the reasons of racism in the U.S. Parillo divides his essay in two parts, one for the psychological causes and one for the social reasons. In the first part, Parillo cites the main psychological causes as: levels of prejudices self-justification, personality and frustration. In the second part he transactions into the social explanations, which are: socialization, economic competition and social norms. For each cause he gives strong arguments based on historical data and actual facts and statistics which made his essay reliable. Along the same lines Hua Hsu in “The End of White America?” argues that America is becoming post racial. According to him race will matter less and less and whiteness will come to an end. Hsu is positive and confident that Americans will overcome resentment stimulated up by these changes and produce a culture in which race won’t be an important factor. These feelings might have been embedded within the people over a really long time and it will take a lot of time and determination to overcome the resentement that is stirred up from within the people. Parrillo provides a great deal of emphasiz into prejudice and the potential or future problems posed by the changing power dynamic between the roles to help us understand the shift and the reason behind the shift. Will Hsu’s words come true? Will white regain their power? Or will they remain threatened about their fading culture and value in America. In my opinion white people have lost power but the only reason that happened is because now there is a…
The people that make Cooke, “And I go downtown somebody keep telling me don't hang around” (Cooke). This quote applies two different groups of people. Firstly, it is the politicians who don’t want the “race problem” hanging around. It is messy and clouds the spotless picture of America, they hold so dearly. They were given their change and they should stop asking for more and hanging around. This is why racism in cyclical. Whites have their liberal nationalism, which is a “shared belief among a group of individuals that they belong together, historical continuity stretching across generations, connection to a particular territory, and a shared set of characteristics constituting a national culture” (Song). Whites believe we have a history that possess no blemishes so they should not be brought up in conversation once they have been given a Band-Aid. Secondly the uneducated whites don’t want blacks like to Cooke to hang around because they don’t want their liberal nationalism to be questioned. By sticking those who are similar they can try to find a little more happiness in their hard lives. This white complacency and participation is why change has not come to…
This essay will focus on the basic tenets of critical race theory (CRT), a theory that identifies analyses and challenges racism as it is experienced, responded to and accounted for in the U.S and the world over, in relation to the American Literature. The theory also seeks to explain the role of racism and race in the United States and challenges the other many forms of human subordinations such as class and gender. This essay will also attempt to answer the question about what critical race theorists believe. The CRT theory was brought forth by collection of scholars and activists who were interested in in transforming the relationship among race, racism and power.…