Racism In America From 1970-Present Day Research Papers Example

Racism is the discrimination of human beings due to the differences in physical characteristics that they possess mostly skin color. In America, due to slave trade that was practised, most of the black people were discriminated against and they had no rights they were seen as property to be used for manual labor (Blank,1977), however, with the uprising of various groups and great leaders such as Martin Luther king the black community begun fighting for their rights. With this uprising women who were mainly marginalised also started fighting for their basic political rights like voting rights. The even that have led to the state of America today in terms of racism have been driven throughout the year by a number of factors.
The 1960 to 1970 decade characterized the rise of movements against violence and social inequality. The anti-war match was the first movement that happened in Washington in 1964 and it was the largest demonstration in all of American history against war mainly the use of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange. The civil rights movement and the free speech movement were aimed at ensuring people got equal rights especially for the African Americans. In the same decade 1968 civil rights activist martin Luther king was assassinated. King advocated for the economic equality of all regardless of skin color (Blank, 1977), his assassination rose up rises from all parts of America and riots broke out however the event changed people’s perception of the coloured persons and it started a wave of acceptance by all.
Not all people of the African American community agreed with king’s non-violent approach and believed that it had failed and it would take too long to realise change in the outmoded civil rights. The Black Panther’s civil rights movement believed that using violence was the only way to get change and get it fast. They fought for equality in housing education employment and civil rights. The Vietnam War was an intense war between the US and Soviet Union. This war affected millions people in the us and Vietnam, the war was due to the change of govern ship in Asia into communism due to the fact that the black panther movement was on-going at the same time as the war the FBI was alerted to the black panthers activities and they shut them down.
The 1970s spelled the change in civil rights in America more and more people started to rise up to defend the weak and marginalised. Over the years racial policies and attitudes have improved while the acceptance of the African American community into America by granting them equal rights has been slow but progressive (Riches, 2010),some parts of America are still resistance and there is tension. However a factor such as segregation in schools has been removed and white people are no longer stereotyping the African American community as much as they used to. With the election of a black president into office the future or race relations can only be optimistic and positive; it will allow the different races in America to interact in a fait manner with equal justice for all.
The 1980 came to be known as the looting decade where the minority groups such as the blacks lost economic ground and the rich who were mostly white grew richer and richer. This was evident with the degradation of the public schools in America. During Regan’s rule homelessness increased especially for the poor as he sought to oppose much civil rights legislation such as voting rights, civil rights act and fair housing acts (Riches,2010), he supported tax breaks that allowed for discrimination of students in schools and refused to support sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid. He was also opposed to women’s rights on the choice of life in abortion and the induction of anti-choice judges which led to the successful removal of equal rights amendments that fought for the equal rights of all regardless of sex. Regan helped kick off the war on women.
Chicago is comprised of many minority groups from all over the world from Mexicans to Italians and African Americans. This factor has over the years continued to affect the political status of the state as corruption is rampant and instances of racism are still evident. It is important to note that some scholars have identified Chicago and the most corrupt and most racist state in America. In much of the 20th century Chicago had been one of the democratic strongholds advocating for a democratic government and ruling out republicans, in the 1960s (Boggs, 1970), police corruption led to the degradation of the political scene of the state. Extreme cases of wealth and poverty and also worker exploitation all existed in the early 20th century, with the lack of local or federal government power to confront social and economic injustices the immigrant poor could not get assistance from the government as the favours went to rich business men. In the 1980s racial segregation of the black community was very high and there were definite black neighbourhoods and white neighbourhoods. The black neighbourhoods had a lot of crime and most of the youth emend up being involved in gangs further leading to poverty in the African American community.
In the last decade extreme displays of racism towards African Americans and other minority races has reduced however this does not mean that racism has completely diminished. On the contrary there are white supremacy groups that still believe that white people are superior over clack people and that they should rule over them. This is mostly seen in politics and also in economic franchises. The election of a black president in America did change the whole dynamics of racism and the notion that one has to white to rule. However as the changing times are unpredictable there are still few members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) who still believe in white supremacy and use violence to defend it (Bobo,1988),Once the white people are threatened by the change it would lead to a major uprising of white supremacy groups.

References

Blank, O., Knowles, L. L., & Prewitt, K. (1970). Institutional racism in America. Prentice
Hall.
Bobo, L. (1988). Group conflict, prejudice, and the paradox of contemporary racial attitudes.
In Eliminating racism (pp. 85-114). Springer US.
Boggs, J. (1970). Racism and the class struggle: further pages from a black worker's
notebook. Monthly Review Pr.
Riches, W. T. M. (2010). The Civil Rights Movement: Struggle And Resistance, (Studies In
Contemporary History) Author: William T. Ma.