Running head: RACISM IN AMERICA

Racism in America
Jordan Lewis
University of Arkansas/Little Rock
Composition I
Mrs. Scaife
November 18, 2015

Racism
For as long as humans have recognized differences between groups of people, there has
been racism in the form of cultural prejudice (Sechandice, 2015, para. 1). So in a way racism
was an inevitable thing to happen. Racism affects the very world we live in every day. Every day
you hear on the news of another unarmed African American or Minority person being shot and
killed by law enforcement, being taken to jail, called thugs and future criminals, being both
verbally and physically attacked. However, you see others defending the so called heroes and
criticizing and demeaning the so called crooks and criminals. Can you explain why a teenage
African American male is stopped in a store and forced to walk back to the front of the store like
a criminal with his head down, for having a handful of clothes in hand ready to try them on, all
because he looks like a criminal who is going to steal, even though he has $200 cash and a credit
card with about the same amount, ready to buy what he likes or can you explain why every time
he enters a gas station he is looked at with disdain because they think he is up to know good
and going to cause trouble even though he just wants a bag of chips and a drink or being stopped
and searched by the police on your way home from school because you look like someone they
are interested in but come to find out that the only thing you and that person of interest have in
common is your skin color, nothing else. I cannot even explain it and I was the victim in all
cases. Being looked at like a criminal and an eyesore by others just cause of your skin color is
wrong, yet happens so much.
Racism is a social phenomenon of separation through the inherent differences in culture
and the color of skin, leading one race to believe it has superiority over another ("Racism,"
2001). This perception of degrading these differences essentially created a hierarchy in society
where whites deemed themselves superior and people of color inferior. Racism was inevitable.

Looking back on history in the United States, the Civil War expanded constitutional rights
beyond the white man. However, racism was prominent in the South finding ways to deny black
people their rights, such as the use of Jim Crow laws that enacted racial segregation. In later
times, racism was seen constantly in the South. For example, the South is where the KKK
headquarters is located; the Little Rock Nine made headlines during school integration in the
south; and it was the setting for the Civil Rights Movement. Amongst the younger generation in
todays society, racism is still prevalent in the South. Members of University of Oklahomas
Sigma Alpha Epsilon performed a racially insensitive song to show that they were not accepting
black students in the fraternity. These racist incidents can be seen throughout southern history
and its modern day. Racism still thrives and is very much prevalent in the South due to several
factors; income inequality, fear, the concept the south is where it all began, news coverage, and
the misconception and categorization of the African American race.
For Racism in the United States of America, the southern half of the Mason Dixie line is
where it began. During Slavery the South held the most enslaved Africans compared to Northern
half of the U.S. because of the higher demand for them to work the agricultural fields. They
believed in the inferiority of the Africans (due to the ideology of Social Darwinism), and that
they were just tools to be used. However after the Civil War and Reconstruction period, these so
called tools gained rights on par with their white counterparts. This deeply angered them, how
dare these tools, these animals that we owned have rights like us. Thus hatred and anger grew
and was directed towards the Black race. Attacks on the black race in southern United States
became a common part of society and the KKK was birthed from the hatred they felt. The basic
rights the so called inferior black race had could not be taken away from them but, many
southerners would not accept them.

In protest, they enacted Jim Crow laws for racial segregation and the Supreme
Court in Plessey Vs Ferguson issued the claim separate but equal. As the want for equal rights
grew in the black community, the Civil Rights movement came into full swing. However this
was met with great opposition. Protesters male and female, black and white- for African
American rights were beaten, jailed, hosed by fire hoses, mauled by police dogs, and murdered.
The majority of the attacks were taking place in the south. As times got better for the oppressed,
this racist outlook held by the superiors was passed down to the future generations. This hatred
towards African Americans was like a seed planted in the ground. Watered by the blood of
thousands of Niggers and Nigger lovers, eventually this plant (racism) sprouted forward and
grew bigger producing a tree. This tree was used by these oppressors children and their
childrens children to play on, using the branches to house swing sets. When they grew older
they built their homes from the wood of this very same tree. This racism and hatred was a part of
future southern generations everyday life growing up. The term People in the south never leave
the south was very true, over 50 percent of southern states populations stayed in their respective
states (Aisch, Gebeloff, & Quealy, 2014) so this ideal of racism was passed down to future
generations. Thus leading to the south never changing its racist outlook when it comes to the
African Americans and still being prevalent in the south.
The prevalence of racism in the south pays its due to the misconception and
categorization of the races. By categorization I mean purposely grouping certain traits
exclusively with one race and judging everyone in the race by those categories. For example say
you have three categories; Black race, White race, Asian race and a list of words; intelligent,
ghetto, well spoken, thug, ignorant, broken English. Most people would associate white race
with intelligence and being well spoken, Asian race with intelligent and black race with ghetto,

broken English and thug. This categorization of races, happens a fair amount in our world and
we do not realize it, myself included. There are times when we say you talk white when we
mean youre well-spoken and talk intelligently or times when we say you talk black, when we
mean you talk unintelligently or talk with broken English not acceptable in todays society. This
categorization leads to preconceived perceptions and prejudice views of a person based on color
of skin. Instead of seeing everyone with open eyes, you allow misconceptions and
categorization to slowly close their eyes, leaving them blind to the world and others.
Categorizing races leads to serious complications in the world. For example the categorization of
the African American race, they associate words like; thug, ghetto, criminals, ignorant, loud
and misbehaving. When people let this categorization dictate, resentment, disgust, and overall
negative outlook, leading to racism. Examples are evident in high profiled cases like, Trayvon
martin and Michael Brown. Unarmed African Americans killed are portrayed in a negative
fashion, comparing them to the likes of thugs, using untasteful pictures to portray them as
criminals just to excuse the crime committed. Majority of these actions occur in the south,
keeping racism alive and well thriving there.
Another reason why racism is still prevalent in the south is due to institutional
racism that occurs in the southern half of the United States of America. Institutional racism
occurs when one group specifically targets and imposes oppressive and negative conditions on
another group based on their race or ethnicity ("Institutional Racism). In the south this form of
racism is more commonly seen in education. For education the south has always lagged behind
compared to other parts of the United States but once you look deeper you see the real
underlying problem. In poverty stricken minority areas in southern states, you see education and
opportunities are worse compared to middle and upper class areas. Schooling in these areas are

under financed and hold completely unrealistic teacher to student ratios. They send all these
minorities to the same school, where there is an overabundance of children yet not enough
teachers to teach them. The schools end up placing 40 plus students in one classroom with one
teacher when normally youre not supposed to exceed 30. Those teachers cannot teach and the
children will not learn as simple as that. Along with this insane teacher to student ratio you have
the problem of being under financed. These poverty stricken areas are the last on the list to get
aid from their governments, leaving them with hand me down books and supplies thats been
outdated for years. They are not able to keep up with todays curriculum, leaving them way
behind compared to everyone like them. However the problem does not end there, you have the
problem of better well off schools trying to keep the minorities out who come to their schools.
Desegregation laws were enacted to make sure everyone had the same opportunities to resources,
for example they issued laws that moved minorities to nonminority schools, and they called this
M to M transfer. The problem is schools started to oppose this. For example Maumelle High
School in Maumelle, Arkansas decided they wanted to become their own county for the purpose
of getting rid of M to M transfer. The people who benefited from this were predominately
African Americans and Hispanics from Little Rock and North Little Rock. Without M to M
transfer, these minorities are now forced to go to schools like JA Fair, Central, and Hall High
School, where education is terrible and bullying and harassment is a major problem. This in fact
keeps the minorities under the rest of the people in the south.

Many people argue that, due to historical events and the root of impoverishment of
minorities in the Southern states, it is easy to imply prevalence of racial discrimination in these
territories. However, signs of racial discrimination can be seen in all areas in this country. This is

true racism is seen thoroughly throughout the United States, however to say that racism in the
south is comparable to racism throughout the U.S.A is not possible. The states that are deemed
the most racist include; Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, and
Alabama all are included in the southern states of America. Deaths of Eric Garner, Treyvon
Martin, and the racist chant of the University of Oklahoma SAE fraternity all came from the
south. In other parts of the United States-besides the south racism is less tolerant and acted upon
more harshly compared to the south. The south is more able to get away with what they do,
which in turns perpetuate their behavior. Yes, racism does happen in the Northeastern, western
and mid-west part of the United States but the majority of it takes place in the south.
Racism is believed to be a learned behavior and not associated with genetics. Modern
racism is not associated with the burning of crosses as in the pass. It comes in the form of
narratives by Bill OReilly and media outlets such as FOX NEWS that preach and perpetuate
racial discord in America. According to Sean McElwee, It is beyond dispute that the United
States contains deep structural racial issues (McElwee, 2015, para. 5). To discharge the problem
as not having one perpetuates the problem and dismisses any chance of a resolution.
Racism is ugly, with everyone suffering from it. From minorities becoming victimized
because of their skin color and looked at like just another thug that will never amount to
anything, these people become another statistic destined to live a life full of crime and never
give back to their community or helping others escape the cycle. However that is not the case for
all, Bill Strickland, A person considered as an at risk teen during his time was able to turn his life
around completely and give back to his home town by helping others-at risk teens doing bad in
school, single parents, people out of work- better themselves. He provided them with a world
class environment to help influence them positively. When everyone gave up on these people, he

was the only one to stay because he knew what it was like to be given up on. According to Bill
Strickland we've discovered is you can solve the race problem by creating a world class
environment, because people will have a tendency to show you world class behavior if you treat
them in that way. If more people were like him and more people tried to find the roots of racism
and fix it then we would not have to worry about it anymore, there would be only one race left,
the human race.

References
Aisch, G., Gebeloff, R., & Quealy, K. (2014, August 19). Where we came from and
where we went, state by state. The New York Times. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/upshot/where-people-in-each-state-wereborn.html?_r=1
Institutional Racism. (). Retrieved from
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/raceequalopportunity/g/inst_racism.htm
Racism. (2001). Retrieved from http://archive.adl.org/hatepatrol/racism.html#.Vlj6U_mrTDd
Sechandice, A. (2015). Scientific racism. In Scientific racism. Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com
Strickland, B. (2002, Febuary). Bill Strickland: Rebuilding a neighborhood with beauty,
dignity, hope. Retrieved from
https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_strickland_makes_change_with_a_slide_show/transcript?
language=en#t-1420000