The Root of Racism in Modern America: an Exploration

Today, racism is alive and is perpetuated through both explicit and hidden means alike. What is racism? This essay defines racism as “a classification of a specific group of people based on uncontrollable factors such as ethnicity, religion and physical features.” It is thus sad to know the reality that highly developed countries such as the United States, which ranks number one in terms of economic and political powers is still grappling with this social problem. Logically, racism should not exist in the 21st century. So what causes racism? Essay on this issue helps find an answer.

Everyone is to blame for the persistence of racism. The first is the leaders. The leaders, and especially the majority whites, have been sees the occurrences of racial discriminations, but have put little or no efforts to eliminate or curb racism. Leaders are at a better position to institute laws that curtail racism and to ensure that these laws are enforced successfully. However, they have showed little concern toward racism. The black population leaders are few and thus cannot achieve to push for such laws since they are shut before they materialize.

Also is to blame is the citizens. The whites embrace supremacy from the time they are young. On the other hand, the blacks have taken law on their hands and formed retaliatory gangs that perpetrate racially motivated crimes against the whites thus strengthening persistence of racism. The police are to blame for racial profiling of the minority, racially motivated killings, and brutality. Courts are to blame for failure to reinforce the existing laws by incarcerating the minority without conclusive evidence and also dismissing cases that are brought by the minority without due consideration.

The last is the parent. Children learn from their parents at a very young age. In places where racism is prevalent, these hateful trends are passed from one generation to the other and it starts at homes. When children learn that their parents are discriminatory and hateful of another race, they take it to themselves as a good thing to do. The derogatory remarks that parents make targeting other races in front of their children are very effective in perpetuating similar trends among their children. As such, children perpetuate the same in other social places such as schools and even form groups which consist of similar race members to propagate these hateful trends against the target race effectively. When these children become adults, they propagate similar trends to their children and thus racism persists in the society and becomes a deeply-rooted social problem that is difficult to eliminate.

In conclusion, the causes of racism were analyzed in this essay. It is seen that the issue of racism is highly contested in the United States. It is evident in several occasions and everyone is to blame about it. However, there are several ways through which racism can be eliminated such as giving full support to anti-fascist organizations that help in educating people about the importance of eliminating racism among other solutions. The second way to eliminate racism is to educate children on how to embrace cultural and religious differences at a young age. The third way is to support pro-immigration movements aimed at enhancing tolerance to people of different races. All these are as discussed in details in the above essay.

Works Cited

1. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield.
2. DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.
3. Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism: An interdisciplinary theory. SAGE Publications.
4. Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
5. López, I. F. H., & Steiner, R. W. (Eds.). (2018). Post-racial imaginaries: How everyday media and cultural practices shape race in the 21st century. Rutgers University Press.
6. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2015). Racial formation in the United States. Routledge.
7. Perea, J. F. (Ed.). (2017). Race and races: Cases and resources for a diverse America. Wolters Kluwer.
8. Perry, P. (2002). Shades of white: White kids and racial identities in high school. Duke University Press.
9. Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.
10. Wise, T. J. (2018). White like me: Reflections on race from a privileged son. Soft Skull Press.