Running Head: RACISM IN OUR CIVILIZED SOCIETY
Racism in our civilized society
Vivian Daher
University of Texas at El Paso
RWS 1302
October 30, 2015
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Abstract
Racism has been present in the United States since before the slave era, and
although there have been many attempts to eliminate this matter, it continues to be a
serious issue in this country. This literature review evaluates various subjects that are
related to racism. The psychological causes for racial prejudice are the first things
discussed, after that, the effects of racism in the community are examined. The third
subject discussed is the relationship between American politics and racism, and finally,
the benefits of racism are analyzed. The goal of this literature review is to explain the
various points of view that exist among the American community regarding
discrimination, racism, and prejudice, and ultimately, to expose the reasons behind
these issues so that everyone can understand why this country faces the problems it
does.
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Racism in our civilized society
Slavery was the earliest form of racism seen in the United States. It was practiced
during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. During those times, many racist acts were seen
to be expressed against African Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. Acts
such as blockbusting, redlining, and racial steering, as well as the establishment of Black
Codes, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Immigration Act of 1924, the Indian Removal Act,
and Jim Crow laws, among others.
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. This act prohibited discrimination based
on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and helped end racial segregation in
schools, at the workplace and public places. The establishment of this act decreased
racism in the United States, but it did not completely eliminate it. Nowadays racism isn’t
so noticeable, but studies show that discrimination is still present when applying for a
job, buying a car or home, in politics, and many other instances. All of these issues
greatly affect the American society, for this reason the following questions will be
answered with the goal to discovering the reason behind discrimination in the United
States.
1. What are the psychological causes for racial prejudice?
2. How does racism affect the community?
3. What is the relationship between present-day politics and racism?
4. Who benefits from racism?
The purpose of this literary review is to answer these questions which will lead to some
of the many reasons as to why racism is still a big issue in this American “civilized”
society.
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What are the psychological causes for racial prejudice?
To carry prejudice is to have negative attitudes and feelings toward people from a
different culture, gender, religion, etc. According to Myers and DeWall (2015, para. 1),
prejudice is a three-part mixture of: beliefs (in this case, called stereotypes), emotions
(for example, hostility or fear), and predispositions to action (to discriminate). Racial
prejudice is when a person discriminates another specifically because of their culture
and ethnicity. Many people would think that because the Civil Rights Act was passed,
that every person in the United States would now accept people of different races and
eliminate their stereotypes, but unfortunately that is not the case. Because racism has
such deep roots in American society, some people struggle to change their mindset
about racism and keep thinking of it as something acceptable, these are overt racists.
There are other people who believe they’re not prejudiced and are accepting of other
cultures but deep down have subtle and unconscious racial bias, these are called
aversive racists.
According to Dovidio and Gaertner (1998, p. 7), aversive racists can be identified
by the following characteristic responses to racial issues and interracial situations: they
endorse fair and just treatment of all groups, they unconsciously harbor negative
feelings toward other races and try to avoid interracial interaction (despite their good
conscious intentions), when interracial interaction is unavoidable they experience
anxiety and discomfort thus trying to disengage from the interaction as quickly as
possible, they strictly adhere to established rules and codes of behavior in unavoidable
interracial situations because they don’t want to act inappropriately or seem prejudiced,
they frequently assert they are color-blind, and they express their negative feelings in
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subtle and rational ways that may ultimately disadvantage minorities or unfairly benefit
the majority group. It is believed that these aversive racists are the way they are because
of society’s constant use of stereotypes.
According to Chris Mooney (2015, p. 25-26), “In evolutionary terms, it's efficient
to quickly classify a grizzly bear as ‘dangerous.’ The trouble comes when the brain uses
similar processes to form negative views about groups of people.” This quote clearly
explains the roots of stereotyping, as a survival instinct that has been a part of human
nature since the beginning of times, because of this, categorizing and stereotyping has
come to be something applied to everything and everyone. Stereotypes are meant to be
helpful ways for humans to make sense of the world, and although they do hold some
truths, they are often blown out of proportion and turned into negative, overgeneralized
beliefs. As stated in Mooney’s article, when humans categorize the world they also
categorize themselves and identify with a certain group, this becomes their in-group,
and the others are part of the out-group. It’s known that humans show a stronger
favoritism for their in-group and negative bias towards the out-group, and multiple
research can prove this. There is one specific form of research that has helped
psychologists study this: the IAT test.
The IAT test is an Implicit Association Test used to measure racial prejudices that
people cannot consciously control. Test takers are required to categorize as quickly as
they can pictures of people as either "African American" or "European American" while
at the same time categorizing words, such as peace, happy, awful, and evil, as either
"good" or "bad." Sometimes they are asked to categorize African American faces and
good words on the left side of the screen, and European American faces and bad words
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on the right side of the screen, and other times it’s African Americans with bad words
and European Americans with good words. According to Mooney’s article, more than 20
million people have taken this test and their group average scores show “slight” to
“moderate” bias, but big differences among groups. The following chart was taken from
the article itself to demonstrate this.
These results have surprised, and maybe even traumatized, people who thought of
themselves as unprejudiced. That is why researchers are investigating and trying to
figure out ways to diminish these racial prejudiced from society. “The key lies in shifting
people's behavior, even as we also make them aware of how cultural assumptions merge
with natural cognitive processes to create biases they may not know they have”
(Mooney, 2015, p. 28).
How does racism affect the community?
The American community has been affected by racism: economically, socially,
and emotionally. It has been affected economically when racist views from employers
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deny people from other races the jobs they are capable of undertaking. In an interview
conducted by Vivian Daher from the University of Texas at El Paso, a woman (who
asked not to be named, and will be referred to as Ms. Red during this literature review)
shared her story about when she suffered from racial discrimination while applying for a
job. Ms. Red was 28 years old when she came from Mexico to work here in the United
States. She had a college degree in marketing and some work experience in the field. Ms.
Red said that she had gone to many job interviews and that they all turned her down by
saying that the position she had applied for was already filled, or that hiring a person for
such position had been canceled because of financial issues, or other reasons. One day,
Ms. Red was at a job interview with a very rude white American who said, “I will save us
both some time. You don’t seem fit for this company so why don’t you go somewhere
else and look for a job washing dishes or cleaning.” Ms. Red said she felt so angry that
she just got up and left (Personal communication, October 2015). The situation that Ms.
Red went through was a clear act of discrimination and should be unacceptable. Holding
a position of power at a company should not be a justification to treat others like they
are less, let alone deprive them from a job opportunity. Thankfully, Ms. Red was not
discouraged by this racial comment and continued to look for a job in the marketing
business until she got one in a great company –one without racial prejudices.
The American community has been socially affected by racism in many occasions,
one of them being the Ferguson riots. These riots started when a white police officer
shot and killed a black teenager named Michael Brown. This shooting must have been
the straw that broke the camel’s back because in a documentary by Orlando de Guzman,
many residents from the St. Louis County express their feelings and talk about some of
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the abuse they experience from police officers. Chris Brown, a St. Louis county resident,
said that the money making system in Ferguson are tickets and fines. Black people are
frequently pulled over and given a ticket, and are often times fined for jaywalking, and
wearing saggy pants (De Guzman, 2015). Another instances where the community has
been affected are while buying or renting houses. Ferguson used to be a white enclave,
and its citizens went through decades with zoning laws and racist housing covenants
that effectively kept black people out (De Guzman, 2015).
A survey done by Vivian Daher from the University of Texas at El Paso, proves
that racism emotionally affects the community. Twenty people were asked to answer the
following questions which sought to discover if things such as asking people where
they’re from, small comments or jokes, or other types of micro aggressions, had a strong
impact on them: 1) Are you often asked about your racial background?, 2) Have you
been treated differently by others because of your race?, 3) Do you feel excluded at
school or work because of your race?, 4) Have you ever been hurt by micro aggressions?,
5) Do you think that people should stay in their countries because that’s where they
belong? The responses to these questions were as follows: 1) 13 out of 20 said yes, 2) 12
out of 20 said yes, 3) 9 out of 20 said yes, 4) 13 out of 20 said yes, and 5) 6 out of 20 said
yes (Survey, October 2015). If this does not prove how racial comments and attitudes
affect others, what will?
What is the relationship between present-day politics and racism?
American politics have always been affected by racism. The sole fact that the
United States hadn’t had an African American president up until President Barack
Obama assumed office in 2009 says a lot about this, and the idea of white supremacy
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may have encouraged this behavior. White supremacy is a belief that white people are
superior to people of other racial backgrounds and that therefore whites should
politically, economically, and socially rule over non-whites. Examples of white
supremacist behavior across American history can be seen with the Naturalization Act of
1790 (limited U.S. citizenship to whites only), the Jim Crow laws (“separate but equal”),
and the Atlantic Slave Trade, just to name a few. It’s been years, decades, and even
centuries, since these events took place, but this “civilized” American society still has
people who strongly believe in white supremacy.
During the past few months, the presidential candidates for the 2016 presidential
elections have discussed what they plan on doing if they are elected to office and there is
one particular candidate who has expressed strong bias against another race other than
his own, this candidate is Donald Trump. When Mr. Trump announced his candidacy,
he said he would build a two-thousand-mile-long wall to stop Mexico from sending
people that have lots of problems. He said, “They're bringing drugs. They're bringing
crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” These statements made by
Trump rattled everyone, some were in favor and others were against him. According to
Evan Osnos (2015, para. 3), Trump's favorability among Republicans leaped from
sixteen percent to fifty-seven percent, a greater spike than that of any other candidate's
début. Trump’s comments shone a light to the level of racism in this country.
Those who favor Trump do so under the belief that what he is saying about
immigrants bringing crime, drugs, and problems to the U.S. is true. His supporters have
faith in him because he is different than the rest of the candidates; he is not a politician,
he is a very successful businessman who runs a billion dollar organization. This kind of
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leadership is what the American people are hoping will “Make America Great Again”
(Trump, 2015). On the other hand, those opposing Trump believe he shouldn’t be
president because his views on immigration are incorrect and go against one of the
principles this nation is based on: that America is a land of opportunity for all. This idea
of the U.S. being a place of opportunities and economic prosperity has been heard for
decades, and that is the main reason why immigrants come to the United States. Mr.
Trump says he wants to build a wall in the Mexican border because that’s where most
undocumented immigrants are coming from, but according to an article by Karthick
Ramakrishnan, Trump’s view’s on immigration are outdated. “His [DT] singular focus
on migration from Mexico ignores the fact that Mexican migration has plummeted in
the past decade, reaching “net zero” status around 2010. Since 2008, the U.S. has seen
more migration from Asia than from Latin America. China and India are now the topsending countries” (Ramakrishnan, 2015).
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Who benefits from racism?
This question could easily be answered by saying that racism doesn’t leave
anything good and therefore no one benefits from it, but that answer would be wrong.
The term ‘White privilege’ refers to the societal privileges that benefit white people
beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social,
political, or economic circumstances.
Whites…have an important material asset that allows them to escape the greatest
liabilities and disadvantages of poverty–their whiteness. White Americans who
are homeless, unemployed and/or uneducated for the most part still believe in
the great American master narrative of opportunity and upward mobility. If they
scrape together enough money to buy a new suit, they will find it relatively easy to
obtain employment, albeit at subsistence wages. They know with the same set of
skills and level of educational attainment as the Black householders across the
street, they stand a superior chance of being hired. Whiteness creates a
comfortable social and psychological safety net for the white poor (Marable,
2002, p.219).
This excerpt from Marable’s book paints a clear picture of how the idea of white
privileges affect the American society. We can infer from Marable’s words that white
people feel like they will always be able to get a job simply because they’re white and
think that their race is superior to others. These white privileges “blind” white people by
allowing them to suppose that they will get whatever they want with minimum effort, as
opposed to people from other races, and makes them believe that they intrinsically
deserve what they want.
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As this way of thinking allows whites to feel comfortable and superior, it also
gives people from other races the will to succeed and be better every day so that one day
those who believe in white superiority and white privileges will realize that all races are
equal and that anyone, regardless of their race, has the same ability to get what they
want.
Conclusion
Several inquiries about racism were addressed throughout this literature review.
The first question asked about the psychological causes for racial prejudice and was
answered by saying that because racism’s roots date back to the slave era, this mindset
has been passed on from generation to generation and, therefore, is very difficult to
eliminate. The second inquiry asked about the effects racism has on the community and
was answered by saying that it affects it economically, socially, and emotionally. The
third question was about the relationship between politics and racism and the answer
was that white supremacy has a lot to do with the way politics and politicians have, and
continue to, shape this country. The fourth and final question asked who benefit from
racism, and the answer was that on one level, whites benefited from it because it gave
them a sense of security, but on another level, every other race benefited because it
encourages them to prove themselves to be better every day. In conclusion, this
literature review shone a light to some of the many reasons as to why this “civilized”
American society continues to witness acts of discrimination toward different races, and
hopefully helped in the process of understanding this complicated matter.
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References
Daher, V. (2015). Interview on racial discrimination in the work place. Primary
research.
Daher, V. (2015). Survey on the community’s emotional response to racism. Primary
research.
De Guzmán, O. (2015). Ferguson: A Report from Occupied Territory [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq9pHONmaLc
Dovidio, J.F., & Gaertner, S.L. (1998). On the nature of contemporary prejudice. In J.L.
Eberhardt & S.T. Fiske (Eds.), Confronting racism: The problem and the
response (p.7). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Marable, M. (2002). The great wells of democracy: The meaning of race in american
life. New York: Perseus Books Group.
Mooney, C. (2015). Are you racist?. Mother Jones, 40(1), 24-29, 63.
Myers, D.G., & Dewall, C.N. (2015). Psychology, Section 13.3, Retrieved from
http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/myers11e/1807202#/launchpa
d/item/module_pdx_myers11e_14/bsi__A4D14A69__9D59__4FA1__BDAC__
E4E9E896E4C8?mode=Preview&getChildrenGrades=True&includeDiscussion=
False&readOnly=False&toc=syllabusfilter&renderIn=fne
Osnos, E. (2015). The fearful and the frustrated. New Yorker, 91(25), 50-1.
Ramakrishnan, K. (2015). Here’s what Donald Trump gets wrong about immigration.
The Washington Post. Retrieved from
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/19/hereswhat-donald-trump-gets-wrong-about-immigration/