Racism can be defined as an act that discriminates, alienates, or prejudices a specified category of people who are perceived to be different in terms of color, race, ethnicity, tribe, among many other groups in a particular society. The fundamental theory of racism postulates that racism typically involves the assumption that people of various races in a community holds various chrematistics. Therefore, the group with the highest percentage of shared characteristics are granted advantages, while the minority groups are discriminated against. In the united states of America, various minority groups were consistently discriminated die to their foreign nationalities, color, and ethnicities. During this course, four of these major groups were discussed, namely, the Asians, African Americans, Native Americans ad Hispanics. However, this study, a research study involving racism of the African Americans was conducted in-depth. By definition, African Americans are a definite ethnic group that is found in the USA who are either has a partial or total ancestral history from one of the racial groups found in the continent of Africa.
The central aim of this study is to determine the historical events of the African Americans, regarding the roots of racism and how it has emerged up to the recent decade or world. History has it that these group of people consists of those who were majorly brought from their ancestral homes by force during the slave trade to help in the labor activities for the new developing USA by then. The research will also study on the ideology of racism, how it affected the African Americans, the policies or laws that have been set in place by the federal or state governments to curb the unjust act of racism and finally, recommendations that should be put in place to strengthen the laws in one way or another. The study comes barely after the outcries by the United Nations, and other international organizations expressed their need for having a unified world that treats every person equally devoid of their color or ethnic groups. To achieve these goals and objectives, the study incorporated a review of the literature works (available in the course material) that were previously done by scholars, researchers, and professionals to build a vibrant understanding of the study topic.
The Ideology of Racism
With the increasingly growing need for freedom and equality, there have been revolutionary ideas to have equal rights and responsibilities that aims to restore the extraordinary deficiencies that some group is deprived thus making them seem as less than fully human. Well, the ideology here is based on the fact that that some different racial group is characterized with specific faults that make the significant category consider them as minority or less significant. Once this unbalanced scoreboard is established, the dominant class is convinced that to gain achievements and goals, a particular category of people is not useful; hence should be eliminated. It is also important to note that science has been recently misunderstood to be the primary cause of racial discrimination. In (2003), Shelby found that the emergence of racism was pure as a result of human notions. Therefore, if society holds assumptions of inequality, thus making up different hierarchical levels among members of that community, then there is no need to put blames on other specific characteristics that make one feel les worth than another.
Nevertheless, Shelby (2003), in the same article, noted that scientific notions had been widely misused to act as the causal factors of racism. These explanations include one that racial interbreeding has lots of biological dangers to human health. This has made most of the significant category racial groups undermine and distance themselves with minority groups such as African Americans. Fredrickson claimed in Shelby's (2003) article that scientists found that mutations led to weaker immune systems. The second scientific belief is that to ensure integrity for the gene pools. Then prejudice must be considered as both natural and vital phenomena, which is critical to promote the overall evolutionary process. In this perspective, the whites believed that engaging with blacks would stop their ancient evolutionary process and result in future hybrids. The last justification based on scientific reasons is that particular groups are naturally less endowed in the significant cognitive and behavior personalities. All these represent the scientific and human justifications or ideologies that both tend to support the existence of racism. Perhaps, it is these reasons that propagated the rate of racism on the foreign cultures that settled in some sections of the United States if America.
Scientific Justifications on Racial Discrimination
As noted previously, science has been widely used inaccurately to justify racial discrimination. Throughout history, these inaccurate reasonings were believed by the majority until late when laws were set in place. The main ideas and explanations are the three pre-stated justifications, which would be discussed in depth. The first argument ascertains that racial interbreeding is associated with several biological dangers. In reality, this belief restricted the whites in South Africa from intermarrying with the blacks in South Africa. From this belief. There were fears by the whites that they would indeed suffer from biological complications if they attempted to engage in inter marital practices. Verwey and Quayle (2012) found that during the 1960s in South Africa, the urban areas were granted for the whites, highly paying jobs were also for employment due to the fear of mix up. In the mid-19th century, physicians claimed after carrying out a study that individuals who have mixed blood had weak immune systems, thus became susceptible to diseases compared to their parents who had pure breeds of blood.
Moreover, anthropologists hold the view that when persons of various races engage in a marriage, there is a higher likelihood that the partners would become less fertile and eventually develop into being completely sterile. Gregor Mendel further reiterated that intermarriage of races would lead to genetic disharmonies. However, many scholars state that Africans. Nevertheless, other scientists contrast these ideas by arguing that children of parentage of a mixed-race are generally genius and intellectually inferior.
The second explanation considers prejudice as an essential phenomenon in the maintenance of the evolutionary process. Schaller's (2010) article explained that people's belief in this justification was that racial groups were to remain separate in all aspects so that the evolution of a racial group progressed homogenously. Again, certain anthropologists in the 20th century have discussed and advised racial groups to distrust and repel as a way of enhancing the development of human personality and particular pillars of civilization. This scientific reasoning explains why in the USA, the northern regions were populated with the whites, as the southern areas were left for the African Americans and other non-white racial groups.
The last reasoning based on science states that some racial groups are les endowed than others, hence perceive different cognitive and behavioral characteristics. This may not necessarily mean racial groups, but the categorization is based on the potentials and genetic abilities to perform in one area better than the other. With this idea, scientists not only recognized the whites where their intellectual inferiority, but also their abilities to control themselves more systematically. According to genetic tests, scientists stipulated that blacks were good at perfuming labor activities. Therefore, the whites took these scientific results and beliefs positively and considered blacks for businesses that needed much strength (Schaller, 2010). It is a postulation that is widely believed to have motivated racial discrimination against African-Americans in various fields such as that of health, education, politics, and economic activities.
How Understanding of Racism Have Changed
Several changes in the manner in which people define racism significantly occurred in the 20th century. From a broader perspective, people have reestablished new ideas that fade way the beliefs of the 1800s, hence creating a realistic universe with a balanced scoreboard of the sociocultural view. Today, many intercultural practices and activities attempt to promote unity. Perhaps, the most industrialized nation in the 21st century USA is ultimately distinguished by the presence of its different racial and ethnic categories. Besides, most large organizations and countries are engaging in bilateral talks. The meaning of the word of racism has evolved since the 1800s, 1900s, and now the 21st century. In the past, African-Americans were completely marginalized from accessing facilities. In fact, by the 1870s, the conflicts between the northern and southern American regions were coming into an end. However, the benefits were only promising to the whites who signed laws such as the white supremacy.
The laws were integrated by one term known as Jim Crow, which had many anti-black laws. Example of restrictions as stipulated in the Jim Crow includes: banning of blacks in the USA from voting, restricting intermarriage following the scientific inaccurate meanings and separation of races in public and business areas. In today's world, racism is not as open as it was in the past as several leaders and organizations have come out in collaboration with the affirmative actions to help in curbing the cases of racial discrimination. In the past, the anti-black laws were open and nationally accepted. Meanwhile, laws have been put in place, and the minorities now can be represented in the supreme court against racial discrimination. Statistics also have it that about 40% of African Americans in the USA have moved to the middle-class. 42% also have individual homes (Haydari et al., 2009).
Impacts of Racism on African Americans
Racial discrimination has had detrimental and disproportionate effects on the lives of African- Americans. Examples of these inequalities include wide gaps in insurance coverage, the unequal access to national services, and inadequate health care treatment plans among African-Americans. Moreover, racism has had a significant impact on the development of the white political supremacy, hence lowering the political abilities of the blacks and other marginalized groups: Notwithstanding, racial discrimination among blacks led to higher rates of poverty. In the early 20th century, most whites were employed in office duties and wee earning a reasonably large amount of income, which enabled them to live good lives offer all the kinds of necessities to their families (Yang, 2014). Consequently, blacks were deprived of getting these advantages and were only forced to do jobs that needed more human resources with comparative less payment. All the same, for the blacks and whites who secured high ranking positions s, were paid poorly despite engaging in the equal task opportunity with a white. With all these limitations and restrictions, most Africans were forced to reside in the ghettos, with comparatively cheaper high-rise buildings (Yang, 2014). Blacks could also not afford to pay for school fees; thus, their children ended up involved in criminal activities. Challenges such as inadequate housing, poor education, low income, and poor health care, among many others, are today's challenges in the ghetto areas of the USA. Jim Crow Act is an example of a law that highly promoted racism of the African-Americans.
