An Overview of The Current Racial Relations in The United States

Men and women in history had one major common goal – seeing a pacified world. The world that is not divided along the ethnic lines. The world that is not divided in the supernatural powers that one believes in; in the name of religion. They fought against racism; people segregating others because they come from here or there, they fought against sexual exclusion; someone being hated for who they love. They clamored for the rights of the minority. All these revolutionists had one question; we are all people on transit. This world is not our place. Why then should we be deeply divided on the nonessentials of sex, race, color and religion? It is inarguable that we can all have our differences, respect them and still live as a one deeply pacified people – people who can tolerate each other. The sad truth is that as much as pacifiers try to do their noble role of bringing the world together, there are hell bound forces who try to create even deeper divisions in the already divided world. As Barack tries to tell the Hispanics to live freely with the Whites, there are Blacks somewhere trying to alter this. As He convinces the Blacks to coexist peacefully with whites, there are Hispanics who are determined to see that this does not work. Not only is this unfortunate, but it is also a vicious cycle that will not only tear down what we value most as a society; peace. This article will investigate the current racial relations in the United States, the harm that it is causing to our society and the impact to the future generations.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his 2015 book ‘Between the World and Me’ opens to us his life when he was a youth. He explains the turbulent times he had undergone in the USA simply because he is a Black African. Mistrust and suspicion characterized his youthful life. In the book, it is apparent that Blacks were undergoing resistance not because they are few, but because the others races felt superior than them. In his Youth, Coates being Black was always suspected by police for all the wrong happenings in the neighborhood. Any form of theft, him Croates and his black friends were always the first suspects. For this reason, he ended up spending considerable time in police stations for investigations on several theft cases. From this instance of Croates, Blacks are still undermined by the American society. It so deep rooted to the extent that even the presidents are caught up in this vicious circle. During this year, president Trump was in the headlines for wrong reasons; He referred to Africa as ‘shithole country’. Such a racist comment coming from the president of the strongest nation under the sun is worrying, and it tears down the racial pacification efforts that were initiated by his predecessor, Pope Francis and other believers of equality. It is worthy to note that no one choose either the color or the country to be born in.

A nation that is racially divided has population whose self-esteem is to the extremes. Our great nation has blacks who are physiologically tortured by comments that are said unto them by the whites whose esteem is up in the sky. Someone whose esteem is down becomes inactive and consequently a burden to the economy. It is therefore unwise to risk people’s esteem based on race since this ends up as a slap to all of our faces! Justine Cook, a former director of corporate communications at New York internet firm, AIC once posted a tweet before embarking on her trip to South Africa. She posted; ‘Going to Africa. I hope I don’t get AIDS’. This statement confirms that racism is virtually in almost all the American avenues. High ranking citizens are the propagators of the same. Justine, in that tweet she directly implied that AIDS in Africa and it is meant for Africans! One would therefore ask; if the Presidents, high ranking people and other decision makers become racists, then what is the plight of the Blacks that are in our American society. Some of these Blacks have been born in this land, brought up here, educated here and therefore their here with their body mind and soul just like the whites. Therefore if we segregate them, where do we expect them to go?

The American government has shown hostility towards Hispanics. They have been labelled as drug lords, undocumented persons who enter into the country illegally. This has given the public an impression that every Hispanic who is in the country is here illegally on a drug mission. This is even justified by Ta-Nehisi Coates in his book whereby he says as a young Black youth he was ‘always on guard’ for the fear of harm by the White Supremacist who would think that he is on a stealing mission. Croates in his book, he writes a letter to his son and implies to him that he should fight for his rights, equality and do what he was not able to do with respect to pursuit of racial recognition. From this book, He says that the Whites always oppress and exploit anyone who is not White. Not only is this being ignorant, but it also unreasonable because this great nation of ours was brought up by the collective efforts of all races who believed in their American Dreams. It is a vice that should not have a place in the 21st century and should consequently end now because it will be unfortunate if the unborn finds it here and adopts it.

From the words of aforementioned revolutionists, it is evident that this undesired vice is doing us more harm and if we do not put it to a halt, then we will be tottering in precipice. It is also evident that our society has still long way to go in terms of racism, because the current racial relations between the Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and the colored is utterly unhealthy!