Tell Me Who I Am: What Obligations Does My Skin Color Give Me?
Annotated Bibliography:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TlY_UwtDH8CB8TrXwWMKNWn4QPnNbb8fVRs6cED3GSs/edit
In my previous post before I made this one, I talked about the issue of Racial and Economic Discrimination along with Ethnic and Racial Inequality in our society, and the Discrimination of Economic factors and the hierarchy of lower, higher, and middle class, and what causes this. According to, http://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/3-7-reducing-racial-and-ethnic-inequality/ , did you know that Old-fashioned racism has been replaced by a modern, symbolic racism that still blames people of color for their problems and reduces public support for government policies to deal with their problems? This is a unfair treatment, because If Old-fashioned Racism didn't still exist, and the government policies would deal with the growing problems of today, we wouldn’t have so many problems today. I know some of us want to make a change. Something we all want to do so we can better society or change an issue. but how can we talk about change if we don’t even address issues properly? Discrimination and Racial and Ethnic Inequality are two reasons why most of us want to change the way we view people and society itself.
Let's not forget Racial Prejudice. Racial Prejudice is an insidious moral and social disease affecting populations all over the world. It can be identified by its various manifestations which are fear, intolerance, separation, segregation, discrimination and hatred. While all of these symptoms of racial prejudice may be evident, the single underlying cause of Racial Prejudice is ignorance. People are too ignorant to really figure anything out anymore, so because of this, this is the reason why today’s society has so many problems. I also talked about facts and important details that related to Ethnic Inequality and Racial Discrimination. I talked about the unfair employment and issues with Economic Discrimination as well. Since my last post, I learned new interesting facts about these issues.
I learned that, black Caribbean and Black African men and women have had persistently high levels of unemployment over the past twenty years, more than twice as high as the White rate and in some cases more than three times as high. This is because they continue to have much higher unemployment rates than White men and women and the fall is mainly a result of a large rise in part-time work, with a fall, rather than a rise, in full-time employment rates. While reading this, I came across Racial profiling, which is a popular method used by law officers in order to hypothetically enhance crime prevention by targeting minorities, because they are more likely to commit a crime due to the fact that they may be aliens, or not from here. In other words, It means that it is targeting specific Ethnic groups because they are more likely to commit certain crimes. So it makes us question can we stop the unjust practice of racial profiling? Is it correct for Police Officers to stop a black driver for an alleged traffic offense to question and sometimes search the black driver?
These questions provoke the need to understand racial profiling and racism along with what problems are involved and the possible solutions. Doesn't the use of race make sense? Isn't it really just good police work? The guarantee to all persons or people of equal protection under the law is one of the most fundamental principles of our society. Our government must continue to evaluate the facts and take appropriate action to resolve this controversial issue instead of just sweeping it away. I decided to interview my mother on these issues. Because America created and perpetuated the institution of slavery, this institution served as the basis for the creation of racialized ideas about people of color. Under the institution of slavery, racialized ideas (stereotypes), were created to justify this immoral systems. An example of the racialized ideas at this time to justify the Institute of this slavery, where African people were 3/5th’s of a man, African people needed the institution of slavery to civilize them, and they were biologically inferior because of white people.
Me: Where did you Face Inequality?
Mom: At my job; first experience as an M.S.W student
Me: What were some of the issues you faced during Racial Inequality?
Mother: one of the first issues that I encountered during my internship as an M.S.W student, was covert forms of discrimination. For example, some of the things I specifically encountered was the director of the social work department, would exclude me and other black interns from certain learning experience, while permitting our white counterparts. I was sent to a different unit to shadow and different social worker, and he got mad, and said to my mentor, why is she up here? But he didn't say anything to any other of my white mentors. She flat out told me to watch my back while I was there. Another example of discrimination was the director of the program held secret interviews, at the white interns, against the excluded black interns.
Me: have you ever experienced covert or overt forms of discrimination?
Mom: Yes, I think the worst form of overt discrimination was when I was working as an intern at Temple University. It was like you knew somebody was out to get you, and it was just hard. People were making faces at me and you could tell.
Me: Okay, Do you think Racial Inequality still exists in the world today?
Mom: Yes absolutely, I believe it exists today because of the institutions that were created that helped to create it. Because of the social institutions such as the school systems, juridical systems, the governmental systems, economic system, all help to maintain the social status of non-white people. The media is a huge factor because when the TV shows this, people are able to formulate their opinions from that.
Me: Do you believe stereotypes play a huge role in racial inequality?
Mom: Yes, Stereotypes plant racialized ideas of a particular group of people that leads to the internalization of that particular belief. If you're looking at that TV, and it shows a black male appearing to be aggressive and loud, my particular belief would be he’s dangerous. When you're looking at those images that are associated with those stereotypes, it evokes that negative belief about that particular group of people.
Some remedies for these issues, in my opinion, are equal treatment in employment and occupation'; forbidding employment discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age disability and equality for all.
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