Paper Example on State of Racial Discrimination in US Today

The problem of racism in America is yet to be defeated. Someones skin color defines many variables in their lives from vulnerability to poverty to how the police handle them. Nothing pertaining racism has changed significantly concerning the recent presidential campaign and election because Democrats used to get a bulk of the African-American votes, but Trump garnered less than one percent of the black voters in certain polls. This is because he was deliberately labeling the Mexican-American immigrants criminals and rapists. He requested that Muslim immigration should be banned to stop terrorism. Moreover, he described the African-Americans as a group of the unemployed, uneducated, poor, and violent criminals. The affirmative action case ruled in 2016 by the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the controversial program by the University of Texas, which uses race as one of its admissions procedure ("Affirmative Action Should Replace Top 10 Percent Rule, - The Daily Texan"). The advantages of this affirmative action are that it helps increase diversity because there would be an admission of some percentage of people from different races. It enhances moral commitment by the university because it will strive to treat students equally and ensure justice for all. Additionally, the affirmative action helps protect Black American students from cases of hatred within the school. This is due to the strict punishments on those found guilty of attacking others based on race. Lastly, the affirmative action helps provide better opportunities to children of the minority groups who face poverty and violence. However, the affirmative action is disadvantageous because it is a demeaning action. It makes the minority to feel they are given special help and cannot thrive on their own. It enforces reverse racism as it protects the majority leaving the minority to feel angered for being considered bad people. Lastly, it leads to stigmatization because the minority students might feel they were admitted based on their race, and not because of their potential. Most White Americans claim that they do not uphold racial discrimination but the affirmative action makes their approval rates against racism to drop below the Black Americans. This could be because they realize that their actions are pertaining racism speak louder than words to evade racism (Lynch, 11). Through the affirmative action, the Black Americans are given a minority chance to be employees and students. Hence, racial discrimination is upheld contrary to their say that there is no racial discrimination.

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Should people discuss racial-ethnic issues and categories or be color-blind?

Issues concerning race are painful to debate because they pose controversy and stress. Hence, people have opted for colorblindness for discrimination to end as people would be treated equally regardless of their culture, race, or ethnicity. Colorblindness seems good as people would be judged on what unifies them and not on their differences. However, it is not the best because it will not bring harmony at a personal and national level. To some extent, it acts as the practice of racism. Colorblindness makes the society reject its negative racial encounters, nullify their unique views, and discard their cultural heritage. The minorities agree that race matters because it influences perceptions, opportunities, and income ("Colorblindness: The New Racism? Training Tolerance - Diversity, Fairness, and Justice"). Colorblindness works by making shortcomings and conflicts become an individual rather than a societal problem. Therefore, people should change and see multiculturalism to celebrate and acknowledge ethnic racial dissimilarities. This makes it easier to recognize the value of each tradition.

Do European Americans benefit from invisible privileges?

Yes, they do benefit from invisible privileges because McIntosh recounts that he has received undeserved skin privilege several times. In school, he was taught that the Whites are normative, morally neutral, and ideal. He claims that his African American friends, co-workers, and acquaintances are not privileged to experience many conditions like the Whites. For instance, he can protect his children from those who dislike them, get a job with an affirmative action manager without being suspected to have gotten it because of his race, and if, in need of medical or legal help, his race will help him get it faster unlike the Black Americans.

W.E.B Du Bois might say that the issue of color line is still rampant as concerns race relations today. There is much exploitation, domination, and small opportunities for the people of color. The minorities still have double consciousness because the Whites still view the Blacks as copycats when in real sense they are acting as they are supposed to (Kirkland, 138). The minorities often compare themselves to the majority who look down upon them. Hence, makes them realize better their differences from the majority. Therefore, double consciousness is still in existence.

Solutions to prejudice and discrimination

Prejudice is the uncompromising and ridiculous opinions and attitudes held by one group about another, whereas discrimination is the behaviors focused on a certain group. These can be solved through various theories, for example, the selfesteem hypothesis, which holds that gaining greater selfesteem and education helps eliminate prejudice and discrimination. The contact hypothesis claims that bringing together the different groups for them to learn and appreciate their backgrounds and experiences helps eliminate the vices. Through the cooperation hypothesis, the conflicting groups are required to collaborate by putting aside their personal interests and work collectively to attain common goals (James, 1200). Lastly, legal hypothesis helps solve the issue of prejudice and discrimination through the application of laws that condemn the discriminative behavior.

Works cited

"Affirmative Action Should Substitute the Top 10 Percent Rule, Not The Reverse - The Daily Texan". Dailytexanonline.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

"Colorblindness: The New Racism? | Training Tolerance - Diversity, Fairness and Justice". Tolerance.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.

James, M A. "Racial Discrimination. Prejudice Exaggerated.". BMJ 306.6886 (2014): 1200-1200. Web.

Kirkland, Frank M. "On Du Bois Notion of Double Consciousness." Philosophy Compass 8.2 (2013): 137-148. Web.

Lynch, Frederick R. "Affirmative Action Is Dead; Long Live Affirmative Action." Perspectives on Politics 3.02 (2005): 10-11. Web.

Rudolph, Dana. "The National SEED Project - White Freedom: Unpacking the Unseen Knapsack." Nationalseedproject.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.