Introduction
Racism in the United States of America has existed for an extended period that is traceable from the colonial aeon. White Americans enjoyed legal and social authorized freedoms, while other minorities and races were denied the same rights and privileges. Leading racial and ethnically organized establishments comprise of oppression, discrimination, Native American issues, and Native American boarding schools (Graff, p. 43). Besides, immigration and naturalization laws, and detention camps form part of racial and ethnically regulated establishments. Racial stratification continues to ensue in occupation, housing, learning, financial, and government institutions. Racial politics remains a common phenomenon, and racism continues to manifest through socioeconomic inequality. The election of President Barack Obama for two terms from 2009 to 2017 as the first black American president gave hope to the nation that it had entered a new, post-racial era (Graff, p. 43). However, some political analysts view the election of President Donald Trump in 2016 as a racist backlash against the election of Obama. During the 2010s, American society has continued to experience high echelons of discrimination and racism. As Ferguson, Missouri, exploded in August 2014, and media reporters across the philosophical continuum referred to the angry response of African Americans as ‘black rage.’ Historian and author Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in ‘The Washington Post’ asserting that the eruption was a ’white rage at work.’ The author argued that the commentators had put more emphasis on the ‘flames,’ but ignored the ‘kindling’ (Anderson, pp. 27-64). Besides, author and a sociology professor, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva published his book ‘Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States’ that addresses various issues regarding race, privileges, and oppression and tries to make racism visible (Bonilla-Silva, 533-540). The purpose of this paper is to examine Caro Anderson’s and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s books on the History of America and the development of racism in the U.S.
Racism
Racism refers to a structured form of discrimination by one race against another. Prejudicial characteristics existed between races for many years, but formal racial discrimination began in the 1600s. Initially, slaves in various cultures did not undergo racial oppression since they were as a result of military conquest (Graff, p. 43). The discovery of the New World resulted in the slave trade and racial discrimination in which the White European Americans involved in the slave trade crafted a ‘scientific’ philosophy of white supremacy and black inferiority to validate their economic mistreatment of black populace. Such a movement resulted in the systematized racism in the United States.
Modern-Universal Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights offer assurances on equal social opportunities and the same safeguard under the law, regardless of race, religion, or other personal physiognomies. Civil rights politics in the United States has its roots in the movement to end discrimination against African Americans. The modern-universal civil rights movement began in the early 60s, such as in 1954 when the U.S. (Graff, p. 43). Supreme Court banned school segregation and in 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move from a bus seat in Montgomery, AL and ends with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The rights movement can also include the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 or the election of President Barack Obama in 2006.
Civil rights movement has undergone a vital transformation over the past decades since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The Declaration marked a significant milestone and the indicative foundational outline for the movement. The modern-universal civil rights movement refers to a conglomerate of social players who merge around shared values and discourse (Graff, p. 43). They work together universally to realize common objectives, such as defending, protecting and promoting civil rights, and support the structures and institutional instruments fashioned for this resolution.
Carol Anderson notes that the post-racial democracy that the Obama presidency was supposed to usher in the Unites States had not materialized. The modern-universal civil rights movement had hoped that racial discrimination would disappear with the Obama regime; however, scholars noted that over the last few years, various aspects had emerged in the way people handled racial matters (Anderson, pp. 27-64). They claim that the foregrounding of whiteness has appeared in the modern world. The Ferguson eruption resulted in protests across the United States that some scholars interpreted as a white backlash at a moment of black progress, social and political pattern that stem back many decades. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, in his book, asserts that it is essential to assist White preservice teachers to identify their role in racial inequality (Bonilla-Silva, 533-540).
The civil rights movements have undergone long and tenuous processes across the globe to fully realize their mission, leading to enhanced legal rights of some previously oppressed groups of people in certain countries (Graff, p. 43). However, in some parts of the world, the movements have not yet realized their goals. The modern-universal civil rights movements advocate for the rights of all people, such as the rights of the minorities, women’s rights, and the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender (L.G.B.T.) groups, among others.
Reparations
Reparations for slavery refers to a political justice concept that emphasizes the need to compensate the descendants of slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa who underwent toil in the United States during the Atlantic slave trade era. Some slave owners obtained reimbursement after the liberation from regimes on the abolishment of the slave trade (Kelley, p. 40). The settlement was for the loss of their assets. The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) seek reparations for the descendants of former slaves due to the many injuries caused by slavery and the continuing impact it generates to the black community.
Reparations can take many shapes, such as land compensation, economic enhancement, and other financial benefits. The N.C.O.B.R.A. also seeks an apology from the whole white populace. The debate on reparations begun in the politics of the United States from 1865 to the current 2020 Democratic Party Presidential primaries (Kelley, p. 40). Some African and Caribbean countries have also called for reparations to their states for the loss of their population. In 1865, the Confederate States of America through General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 that aimed at assuring the harmony of action in the fields of operation and address the challenges created by the populace of freed slaves. The Order provided forty acres of tillable land to the masses of freed slaves in the Sea Islands and around Charleston, South Carolina for the exclusive utilization by black people liberated from slavery (Kelley, p. 40). However, President Andrew Johnson overturned the Order after the assassination of President Lincoln, and the land reverted to its earlier owners.
Reconstruction came to an end in 1877 without the issue of reparations addressed. Segregation and oppression began in southern states, with laws such as the Jim Crow Laws trying to reinforce the existing inequality that slavery had generated. Extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan involved in the massive crusade of radicalism throughout the Southeast to keep African-Americans in their prearranged social place that presumed discrimination and prejudice (Kelley, p. 40).
Critical Analysis
Carol Anderson’s book, ‘White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide,’ reveals the historical context of racial oppression in American History. The author tries to provoke the heritage of structural racism bestowed by white rage and bitterness and to inform its continuing menace to the assurance of American equality (Anderson, pp. 27-64). The book traces racial oppression from the time of Reconstruction, in the rise of the Civil War. Aspects, such as slavery, and a robust democracy, and the desire for inclusion became an issue to the nation.
The author illustrates how President Andrew Johnson aggressively opposed the empowerment of black Americans through the reversal of some laws already enacted to address inequality and discrimination (Anderson, pp. 27-64). The author further describes the dreads of paramilitary intimidation conducted by extremist white groups like the Klan and its associates.
The author argues that the Southern Democrats settled on supporting Rutherford Hayes bid for the presidency in exchange for an end to Reconstruction (Anderson, pp. 27-64). This action reverted the South into white hegemony. Anderson dwells on an old catalogue of white backlash, rather than a concept about its origins. The book avoids exhausting argument among reformists over the contending urgencies of class and individuality politics, selecting to point the threat posed by a power that vents at instants of advancement to frustrate the development of democracy and racial egalitarianism. The author’s conclusion revolves a description of the Ferguson eruption and the rising star of President Donald Trump (Anderson, pp. 27-64). She urges her readers to choose a different future for the betterment of society.
Bonilla-Silva on the other hand, in his book ‘Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States,’ focuses on the shifting undercurrents of racism in the modern United States. Bonilla-Silva notes that people consider Whites throwing racial appellations or physically attacking people of color as offensive; new approaches have emerged to support racial oppression (Bonilla-Silva, 533-540). The author explains how teachers can enhance students’ awareness regarding racial discrimination. Bonilla-Silva wonders how a society where most White populace proclaims themselves fair, with repressive policies, and institutions remain uncontrolled can maintain social democracy.
Policy Development and Advancement
The founding ideologies embrace the principles of freedom and equality, but America remains a country created on systematic segregation and suppression of people of color. So many of the laws and policies that should assist as the framework that guides development, clearly inhibit communities of color from fully getting involved (Kelley, p. 40). For example, the incapacity to completely partake democratic processes renders the colored a lack political control, that is, the authority to elect leaders with collective ideologies and the influence to ratify public policy priorities.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its successive adjustments steered in a new epoch of equal contribution. The voting rights, however, did not eliminate the structural racism in the U.S. democracy. In 2012, the national voter turnout rate among black populace surpassed that of white community for the first time in American History (Kelley, p. 40). However, two U.S. Supreme Court verdicts overturned vital voting rights safeguards and endangered to reverse decades of advancement toward a robust democracy. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Shelby County v. Holder shattered Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by proclaiming the procedure applied in defining covered jurisdictions unconstitutional (Kelley, p. 40). Without a coverage procedure, Section 5 remains unenforceable, which makes states with a history of explicit white supremacy and voter oppression can once again influence their voting policies and processes without first pursuing consent from national...
