Racism and
Discrmination:
Past and Present,
A Comparison
What is Racism?
 Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that
race is the primary determinant of human traits and
capacities and that racial differences produce an
inherent superiority of a particular race. People with
racist beliefs may resent certain groups of people
according to their race. In the case of institutional
racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or
benefits, or get preferential treatment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
What is Discrimination?
 Discrimination toward or against a person or
group is the treatment or consideration based on
class or category rather than individual merit. It is
usually associated with prejudice. It can be behavior
promoting a certain group, or it can be negative
behavior directed against a certain group. The latter
is the more common meaning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination
1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson
 Facts of the Case
 The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway
cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Adolph Plessy--who was
seven-eighths Caucasian--took a seat in a "whites only" car of a
Louisiana train. He refused to move to the car reserved for blacks
and was arrested.
 Outcome
 The state law is within constitutional boundaries. The majority, in an
opinion authored by Justice Henry Billings Brown, upheld stateimposed racial segregation. The justices based their decision on the
separate-but-equal doctrine, that separate facilities for blacks and
whites satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment so long as they were
equal. Basically, segregation preactices was legalized.
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1895/1895_210/
Jim Crow Laws
 The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the
United States enacted between 1876 and 1965.
 Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of
public schools, public places and public transportation,
and the segregation of restrooms and restaurants for
whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/
Jim Crow Laws
americanhistory.si.edu
www.eurekacityschools.org
Jim Crow Laws
Executive Order 9066
 Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February
19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all
persons deemed a threat to national security from
the West Coast to relocation centers further inland.
 Affected Japanese-American citizens
 Supreme Court ruled in favor of order in Korematsu
v. United States
www.ourdocuments.gov
Executive Order 9066
www.ourdocuments.gov
ocw.mit.edu
Nazi Germany
 Adolf Hitler was the leader of the
German Nazi party and, from 1933
until his death, dictator of
Germany. His rule resulted in the
destruction of the German nationstate and its society, in the ruin of
much of Europe's traditional
structure, and in the extermination
of about 6 million Jews and
another few million
“undesireables”. He was eventually
defeated, but his temporary
success demonstrated
frighteningly, at the brink of the
atomic age, the vulnerability of
civilization.
http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_hitler.html
www.holocaust-history.org
Nuremberg Race Laws
 The Nuremberg Laws (1935),
geschichtslk.blogspot.com
defined anyone who had three or
four Jewish grandparents as a Jew,
regardless of whether that
individual identified himself or
herself as a Jew or not. Jews were
required to carry identity cards,
but the government added special
identifying marks to theirs: a red
"J" stamped on them.
 Jews were excluded from schools,
government service, teaching and
even medical service. Eventually,
they even had all of their rights
including citizenship taken from
them.
http://www.ushmm.org
Holocaust
 The Holocaust was the
systematic, bureaucratic, statesponsored persecution and murder
of approximately six million Jews
by the Nazi regime and its
collaborators. "Holocaust" is a
word of Greek origin meaning
"sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who
came to power in Germany in
January 1933, believed that
Germans were "racially superior"
and that the Jews, deemed
"inferior," were an alien threat to
the so-called German racial
community.
http://www.bgcs.k12.oh.us
http://www.ushmm.org
Holocaust
Genocide
 The term "genocide" did not exist
www.genocide.change.org
before 1944. It is a very specific
term, referring to violent crimes
committed against groups with the
intent to destroy the existence of
the group. Human rights, as laid
out in the U.S. Bill of Rights or the
1948 United Nations Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
concern the rights of individuals.
 Genocide is the deliberate and
systematic destruction, in whole or
in part, of an ethnic, racial,
religious, or national group.
http://www.ushmm.org
Darfur, Sudan
 In Southern Sudan, serious human
rights abuses by the government
and Peace Keeping troops were
reported during 2008, including
killings and physical abuse; poor
prisons and detention centers;
arbitrary arrests; use of child
soldiers; abduction rape of women
and children; and child labor.
 In Darfur government-aligned
militias killed and injured civilians,
including during attacks on
villages; raped women and
children; destroyed and looted
civilian property; and used child
soldiers.
http://www.state.gov
http://www.unmis.org
Conclusions
 The United States never participated in or practiced
genocide though racism and discrimination were.
 Genocide is still practiced by various governments and
peoples around the world.
 Since WWII incidents of genocide have occurred in:




Cambodia
Bosnia
Rwanda
Sudan
 Currently, many world governments and organizations and
humintarian agencies are addressing the issue but the
practice continues with the loss of thousands of lives yearly.