History and racial relations in the United States

History and racial relations in the United States

Introduction

The history of segregation against the blacks dates back to the era of slavery (Omi & Winant, 2014). In the 20’Th century, blacks were prevented from attending the same schools with the whites. This resulted in various riots and discriminatory killings across the states. The story of Elizabeth Eckrord recounts events that occurred one morning of September 1957 (Finnerty, 2018). Elizabeth was to attend Rock central high school which was set to be desegregated. It talks of how Hazel Bryan, full of hate, was shouting at Elizabeth not wanting her to attend the school because she was black. This story about Elizabeth is symbolic of the present race relations in the U.S. Recently; there have been cases of racial paradigm on social groups such as African Americans, black immigrants, and citizens of Mexican-origin (Valdez & Golash-boza, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the racial relations against the following groups of people in the United States.

Discussion

Racial and ethnic inequalities are still looming large in many American societies where people of color encounter structural barriers when seeking quality housing, healthcare services, employment and education (Valdez & Golash-boza, 2018). 66% of non-whites believe preconception is still a serious problem in the US institutions (CNN, 2018).This is evident form the increase in the average wealth gap between African American families and those of white families. This racial wealth gap has been brought about by systemic barriers which include structural racism, policies, programs, and institutional practices which enable accumulation of wealth for the white families while taking wealth from African American families.

Racial disparities are also seen in the criminal justice system (Kijakazi, 2018). According to a poll by CNN, three in four  people in the U.S feel that the country’s legal system is in favor of the whites (CNN, 2018) .There has been a number of cases of black Americans shot and killed by the police, like, , Michael Brown in Ferguson  and Eric Garner in New York City. A poll by CNN/ORC conducted in 2015 reveals that 76% of the people agree that the country’s criminal justice system acts in favor of whites.75% of the blacks interviewed said that there is a likely chance that the police will apply force against a black person as compared to when it comes to a white person(CNN, 2018).

These racial disparities have also been reported in religious institutions. Some Christian organizations such as the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention have apologized for causing racism in the past years. However, many religious institutions still remain largely racially segregated. Many white Americans feel they have a right to deny blacks service because of the belief that it is a violation against their religious beliefs. According to Omi & Winant (2014)., this religious intolerance was found in 10% of the Americans.

Many cases of racial segregations have been reported in various workplaces and the job market (Kijakazi, 2018).. According to a poll by CNN, majority of blacks (54%), feel they don’t have a good chance in getting the jobs they qualified for as compared to the whites (CNN, 2018). Research also shows that occupational segregation has led to an unequal share in pensionable jobs with African Americans holding jobs that do not provide employer sponsored savings plan whereas similarly situated workers get aces to such plans despite their contributions not varying by race.

Conclusion

The structures of power have exhibited racial segregation against black African American as was the case of Elizabeth back in Central high school. This is despite the efforts by various organization and activists to promote racial equality and address institutional racism at various structural levels.

References

Kijakazi, K. (2018). 50 years after Martin Luther King’s death, structural racism still drives the                 racial wealth gap. Retrieved from https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/50-years-after-martin-luther-kings-death-structural-racism-still-drives-racial-wealth-gap\

Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2014). Racial formation in the United States. Routledge.

Ryan Struyk, CNN. (2018). Blacks and whites see racism in the United States very, very differently. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/politics/blacks-white-racism-united-states-polls/index.html

Valdez, Z., & Golash-boza, T. (2018). Retrieved from             https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01419870.2016.1262052

Finnerty, A. (2018). Elizabeth and Hazel — By David Margolick — Book Review. Retrieved      from https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/books/review/elizabeth-and-hazel-by-david-margolick-book-review.html