Race and My Community

Many people believe that racism is a thing of the past when in fact race related hate is still a problem in America today. There are many recorded incidences of stereotyping, discrimination, and racial issue within my community. Neighborhood segregation in the northern cities is the biggest reminder of racial division in America. New laws state that racism, discrimination, and stereotyping are absolutely illegal. Although race is not supposed to have an effect on communities today, racism, discrimination, and stereotypes are still present in America today. Racism is present in all walks of life and affects everyone, including the person that is harboring all of the hate. Racial division in the United States has primarily consisted of the separation of people into those with “white” skin and those with “black” skin. The degree to which skin tone shapes American social relationships is signified linguistically in the way we commonly identify each other as “White” or “Black” in everyday jargon. As Lee Artz outlines in his book Cultural Hegemony in the United States, “In practice, race has regulated legal treatment, economic opportunity, and social status, and the most defining characteristic of race in the United States has been skin color.

In many communities racism hides under rocks and behind the masks of individuals that would never be thought of as a person that holds hate in their heart. It is very hard to determine if someone is being racist because they hide it and use different issues, as an excuse, to show this hate. There are people out there that see, acknowledge, and accept the complications of racism, there are people that do not or cannot see racism, and there are people that are too oblivious to notice it. Racism, discrimination, and stereotyping rears their ugly head in many different forms. This type of ignorance shows itself among the young, the old, the rich, the poor, and in every race. All communities are ill with this problem in one way or another. Majority of the members of my community that looks like me but, there are some that don’t look like me. The individuals that resemble me the most are the people that work hard, love each other, try to help the weak, and attempt to make a difference somewhere along the way. The people that do not look like me are the people that rob, steal, lie, and murder.

I believe some others look different because of nationality; Missouri is a very diverse state so we see many races. There are leaders of my community that are wonderful role models that take pride in their community and they really care about the people who live here in North Carolina.

My community members treat me with respect because I treat them with respect.As with any community there are also so members of the community who only come to work to get a paycheck and they don’t care about anyone but themselves. I have never personally been mistreated by a leader in my community but I have heard of instances were other community members have been mistreated because they were different or they were from a lower class than others. In my opinion the studies associated with this course does contain information about people like myself and people of my race because there were entries regarding African American history and great accomplishments of the black members of society. Overall, I feel like minority group interests are represented in my community. There are many programs, organizations, scholarship programs, grants, and research material available to the minority groups within my community. I am very fortunate to live in a community that offers these types of programs because there are many communities that give out scholarships, grants, or loans to only the people that they like. The administrators of these programs may turn away someone because they wear a turban or because the person in need is Asian. My manuals at work are not specifically aimed toward any particular group because everyone is pretty much the same. I feel inequities do exist in my community, if I could change any inequities within my community I would change the way people treat the African Americans in my community. . Sides and Gross (2007) state that, “negative stereotypes relating to violence and trustworthiness are remarkably common towards African Americans in the public’s mind. These stereotypes are underpinned by a similar set of factors that underpin stereotypes of blacks, Hispanic, and Asians—notably, authoritarian values. Furthermore, these stereotypes have consequences: those with less favorable views of African Americans are more likely to support several measures that are part of the broader American society. African Americans are people that yearn for love, acceptance, and perseverance just as others do. This type of discrimination against the people in my community is very disheartening. It is extremely difficult to understand why anyone would want to hate another person simply because they are a different religion, race, or nationality. Racism is a problem that hurts everyone. It is pure discrimination and cannot be allowed in employment, education, in churches, or on the streets. Racism can also be blind and unreasoning hatred, malice or prejudice. Discrimination is the denial of any equality based on personal attributes. I plan to continue to raise awareness by speaking to people that I come in contact with. I also plan on making a difference by being a good role model. If I see someone acting out of hate I will love them just as I love my own family. Hate breeds hate but love breeds so much more. With love comes understanding, happiness, and most importantly love breeds change.

If one person will just stand up to make a difference then others will follow. Sometimes it just takes that one person to take the lead when others are too scared to stand up and do so. Men and women have lost their lives in the fight for freedom and equality. Racism, discrimination, and stereotypes are still present in our communities today even after everything that this country has gone through. Even though we do not hear about this hate every day is it still present. People are just less likely to be open about it because of fear. Racism has even gotten as bad as restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence or to separate institutions and facilities on the basis of race or alleged race. Racial segregation provides a means of maintaining the economic advantages and higher social status of politically dominant races. Historically, various conquerors — among them Asian Mongols, African Bantu, and American Aztecs — have practiced discrimination involving the segregation of subject races. Racial segregation has appeared in all multiracial communities, except where racial amalgamation has occurred on a large scale, as in Hawaii and Brazil. In such places there has been occasional social discrimination but not legal segregation. In the Southern states of the U.S., public facilities were segregated from the late 19th century into the 1950s (see Jim Crow law), and in South Africa a system of apartheid sanctioned discrimination against nonwhites until it was abolished in the 1990s. While many people believe that racism is something of the past, race related hate is still a serious problem in America, even today. If everyone would realize that ignorance and hate can be channeled into something productive, every single person would be able to live a happy live and thrive in a community of personalities instead of a community of color. Cultural diversity exits in every corner of the world. With diversity unfortunately comes negativity and struggles. Each one of us has our own unique story about where we came from and the different struggles we all faced throughout the years. This is more than true for minority groups Even though we may be different on the outside, we all are here for a common cause, to make the best of what we have and ensure our culture lives on. Although the fact that we are different is never going to change, the negative way we treat out fellow brothers and sisters of the human race can definitely change. The bottom line is that we must accept each other for who we are and what we represent if we are ever going to live in peace.

Race and Place: African American Community Histories, Retrieved December 4, 2009

www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/raceandplace/index.html – Cached

Sides, J. M. and Gross, K. A. , 2007-08-30 “Stereotypes of African Americans, Their Causes, and Their Consequence” Retrieved December 3, 2009 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p209079_index.html

Ethnicity and race: Nature of ethnicity

http://www.anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_2.htm, Retrieved December 4, 2009

Ethnic groups and discrimination, African American Muslim

Http://www.Everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1463139, Retrieved December 3, 2009