Institutional Racism in America (original) (raw)
2020, Institutional Racism in America
People of color have never been free in AMERICA. The social construct of race has always been used to acquire and maintain power and to create artificial impediments that separate, control and silence the black and brown population. This social construction of “race” in AMERICA was constructed by elite white power to help construct artificial disparities between whites and blacks to describe black inferiority and white superiority. The fundamental suppositions of white innocence and black guilt are all part of what Charles Mills wrote, “The terms of the Racial Contract mean that nonwhite ‘sub-personhood’ is enshrined simultaneously with white personhood.” Racist ideas have long been intertwined into the social fabric of AMERICA. Ibram Kendi, the director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University noted that, “There has not been a society-wide and intensive challenge to racist ideas in the US…They’ve [non-black people] been taught that we are criminals, that we are violent that we are predators and think we need to be monitored.” Americans must decide whether AMERICA will truly be an interracial, multicultural democracy or whether AMERICA once again remains distinctly racist, unequal and immersed heavily in its racist past.
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
checkGet notified about relevant papers
checkSave papers to use in your research
checkJoin the discussion with peers
checkTrack your impact
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
Related papers
The Ugly Side of America: Institutional Oppression and Race
This manuscript examines structural racism through a socio-historical context of institutional oppression and its effects on modern society. The epistemological framework of intersectionality is used to focus on the overlap of oppression, structural racism, and implicit bias evident in the stereotypes and perceptions of the African American male population in the United States. Four eras of socio-historical significance are addressed: 1. Foundations of Racial Oppression; 2. Racism: Reconstruction and Jim Crow; 3. Renewal: Civil Rights and Civil Disobedience; 3. Reckoning: Embedded Racism and the Criminal Justice System.
Perspectives on Politics, 2018
At the last American Political Science Association annual meeting I attended, Charles Mills was on the lips of nearly everyone I saw speak. This is as it should be. His work on racial liberalism is key not only to understanding this political moment-a moment in which white nationalism has become more visible, virulent, and accepted-but also to opening eyes to the continuity of white supremacy in the United States. His critical engagements with ideal theory and the white episteme help us understand why whites' eyes in particular have been closed to the centrality of racial domination in US democracy, liberal theory and practice, and modernity itself. And his positive assessment of the possibilities of liberalism stands as an encouraging counterpoint to the views of racial pessimists and skeptics, while his ideas about reconstructing liberal theory in the direction of a black radical liberalism point a way forward. Black Rights/White Wrongs brings various threads of Mills' past arguments together, updating when appropriate and elaborating on them as necessary. At the heart of the book is the following claim: while there is now broad recognition of the poisonous effect of classism and sexism on liberal practice and theory, academics and the public continue to lag when it comes to seeing how racism has deeply infected liberalism. Why? White ignorance (see Ch. 4)-a powerful cognitive tendency to perceive and interpret the world in ways that filter out evidence of racial domination-perpetuates romantic ideas about liberal societies and theory. Such ignorance feeds and is fed by a variety of social dynamics and intellectual currents. Mills, particularly concerned with philosophy, highlights the mystification of central figures in the liberal tradition (like Kant-see Ch. 6) and the occlusion of racial domination by the privileging of certain philosophical approaches and methods (see his criticism of Rawls in Ch. 5 and Part 2). In both practice and theory, liberalism has been as deeply shaped by racism as it has been shaped by patriarchal capitalism. What we have in contemporary U.S. society, Mills argues, is 'racial liberalism': a regime that only recognizes the moral equality of, and thus only benefits, whites (see Chs. 1-3). This reality requires a
Racism Without Racists: The Formidable Wall of Color-blind Racism in American Society
How do institutions that are, on their face, scrupulously race neutral nevertheless produce racially imbalanced outcomes? By employing Brown’s racialized conflict theory to the case studies of Georgia and Alabama during the 1990s, it will become evident how racialized conflicts, events, or series of events make racial divisions salient and racially polarize political groups. In turn, this fuels the passage of stricter social policies by activating racial attitudes and by creating a racialized discursive opportunity structure for activists and policy elites engaged in welfare policymaking. Additionally, it will be revealed how party leaders often go-back on certain policies by appeasing white resentment and threat. Following this discussion, Bonilla- Silva’s central tenets of colorblind racism will illustrate the subtle transition into the ‘new racism’; reinforced by minority politicians like Barack Obama who made the strategic move toward racelessness and adopted a post-racial persona while representing no threat to the power structure of America. It will become evident how central elements of liberalism have been rearticulated in post-civil rights America to rationalize the state of racial inequality in the country. This ‘new racism’ gives some room for exceptions and allows for a variety of ways of holding on to the frames – from crude and straightforward to gentle and indirect. Thus, conservatives and liberals can tiptoe around the most dangerous racial minefields because the stylistic elements of colorblindness provide them the necessary tools to get in and out of almost any discussion.
Journal of Language and Politics, 2003
This essay uses a poststructural/critical race analysis, and provides a specific example of how the social practice of labeling serves to create major ideological effects, which produce and reproduce unequal race-based power relations. Certain U. S. citizens are ascribed/branded with the seemingly politically correct label, "African-American". Many believe that the shift from "Black" to "African-American" in 1988 was the result of Blacks exercising political power and achieving a hard-won right to change their identity. Also many view the new label as the common sense preferred alternative to "Black". This article deconstructs the term "African-American" and views it within the context of the macro and micro interactive forces of politics, economics, sociology, history and socio-cultural phenomena. Instead of the intended purpose of fostering a sense of self-esteem, the label has also served to reinforce the socially constructed binary dualisms characterizing "Blacks" as being fundamentally different from "Whites". Moreover, the notion of Black pride, self-esteem and heritage are concepts with the power to shift culpability and blame onto the victims of a race-based system. Power appeared to have been exercised by Black/African-Americans. However, the shift to African-American was not the result of autonomous thinking. It was a "reflex without reflection" (Billig 1991:8). It "echoed" dominating ideological structures of power. The "new" label unwittingly serves to further perpetuate racist ideology inherited from a foundational institution of slavery. America can enjoy the image of having a culture of freedom, equality and egalitarianism, while maintaining justifiable race-based political, social and economic inequality gaps.
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.