Racism in the United States has existed for a very long time and has continuously evolved. In the past, racisms manifestations were much more obvious, whereas now there is a complexity to the definition of what is and is not racism. The ways in which minorities are oppressed, the identities of the oppressed and the effects of racism in America have all evolved.
In the past, racism was manifested in a more aggressive and blatant manner. From 1619 when the first slave was brought to North America in Jamestown Virginia to boost tobacco production up until 1865, black people in the United States were enslaved. In 1877, racially segregating legislations were instituted what we know as the Jim Crow laws and they were only abolished inn 1965. During this time, black people were lynched at extremely high rates and had no rights to education, voting, employment and much more. Thanks to activists and fighters of the civil rights movement such as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King much has changed for black America. Slavery and lynching for the most part is a thing of the past. However, many problems persist and many have evolved. It seems that nowadays, racists have found new ways to oppress minorities.
Racism being a problem for a long time is now deep-rooted into American society. Paulo Freire, a critical pedagogue, touches on the subject of oppression in his book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. The concepts found in this book are relatable to the current situation in the United States. Government and society are the oppressors to the minorities, otherwise said the oppressed, being dehumanized by the means of racism. People of colour are having their humanity stolen from them in many ways. The list of racially divisive and oppressive acts is definitely a long one but a few come to mind. First off, African-Americans are being severely neglected in society. Most of ethnic minorities find themselves living in slum areas of cities, what we call ghettos. These neighbourhoods are disadvantaging its communities in numerous ways. These areas are usually surrounded by illegal substances and liquor stores, exposing minorities from very young ages communities to a higher risk of addiction. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is schooling. There is a big problem with the education that these disadvantaged youths receive. By the year 2006, black students in the United States were attending institutions in which 59% of the students came from low income families. Therefore, a lot of the time allotted for actual learning is taken away because personal problems interfere. We see this in Ira Shor’s book Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change Shor believed his students would never be able to properly work while facing all their underlying struggles, he tried to help them but this sometimes took up a lot of valuable time. The issues surrounding these youths makes them less apt or willing to learn and teachers feel that they need to focus more on discipline. Henri Giroux another critical pedagogue views the education that has become a way to indoctrinate these youths. Henri Giroux, yet another critical pedagogue believes that the way that kids are being taught nowadays has no regard for the individual creating mass consumers with zero critical thought. This further submits them to their oppressor, being society. Henri Giroux believes that this form of education is the reason why black youth find themselves in what “a mass incarceration state”. In fact, according to the NAACP, African Americans and Hispanics made up 56% of the incarcerated people in 2015.
Another example of neglect towards black communities in the United States can be seen in the city of Flint, Michigan. The Flint water crisis, in brief started once the city changed its water source and has been exposed to lead contamination back in 2014. Ever since, the city has been without clean water. We could wonder how this happened and why this issue has not been resolved much quicker. The explanation underlies in the statistics regarding the people of Flint. It is predominantly habituated by racial minorities with 41.2% of its population living underneath the poverty line.
Lastly, one of the most evident problems marking black Americans is police brutality. Black people are most likely to be killed by police, a lot of the times over non-violent infractions. A research collaborative called “Mapping Police Violence” has been collecting statistics in order to determine the effect of police violence. Their data is extremely extensive. However, I think it is important to state that police in 2015 murdered around 104 unarmed black males and 36% of unarmed people being killed from police brutality were black although black people make up only 15% of the United States population. A very marking example of this tragedy is the case of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black boy in Ferguson Missouri. He was shot by a white police officer over an alleged robbery of a convenience store, he had reportedly stolen a box of cigars. Michael Brown was unarmed and had committed a minor infraction and this cost him his life. This sparked outrage in Ferguson over the ongoing police brutality that black people are facing and how it is costing them their lives.
Racism in the past was greatly focused on Black people. Even though discrimination against African Americans in probably the most spoken of form this does not mean it is the only one. As years have gone by multiculturalism has grown tremendously. Immigrants have been coming to the United States in hopes of finding the sought for American Dream. Therefore, there are now many different types of minorities. This means there are different types of identities to the “oppressed”. According to the census conducted by the United States Census Bureau, “more than half of the growth in the total U.S. population between 2000 and 2010 was because of the increase in the Hispanic population. Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population grew by 43 percent, rising from 35.3 million in 2000 to 50.5 million in 2010”. Additionally, “The Asian alone population grew faster than any other major race group between 2000 and 2010, increasing by 43 percent.” This growth in minority populations has led to more harmful racist acts. Ever since Trump has been elected he has been trying to get laws instated fighting immigration under the pretext that immigrants are the cause of crime. He centered his campaign around his project to build a wall between the United States and Mexico in order to keep illegals out. This has caused numerous hate crimes and discrimination against Latino population. Furthermore, while analyzing present racism we cannot forget about religious minorities. Ever since 9/11, when the two twin towers were collapsed by Al-Qaeda, Muslim-Americans have been extremely persecuted as well. Many Muslims or people who fit a certain description, one of a Middle Eastern have been labeled as terrorists by many and have become a pariah in society. President Trump has even recently instated a travel ban, impeding many Muslim countries from being able to enter the United States in an effort to secure the borders and fight terrorism attacks. These actions have only been growing the hatred that Americans have for one another.
As we have seen the evolution of racist acts and racial minorities we have also seen the evolution of the effects of racism. In the past, racist acts have been for the most part physical. As we know, slavery and lynching’s are extremely uncommon these days, violent and physical effects have logically been diminished due to the diminishing of these physical racist acts. Any psychological effects were disregarded and taboo, therefore we did not have much insight on them. In the midst of racial segregation black people were less concerned with facing the internal pains they felt but more focused on getting through the day. Nowadays, the psychological effects of racism are being documented and analyzed to give people a different insight of the harm that racism and discrimination can do. Studies done on African American teenagers have shown that in those who say have experienced discrimination seem to have a lower level of subjective well-being, mastery and higher levels of psychological distress. Many other symptoms of psychological distress are found in these young people such as somatization, depression and different types of anxiety disorders. Some studies have also found physical effects linked to racism. A study conducted by the American Journal of Public Health has been able to link racism to certain health problems. They found that people who have endured discrimination and did not report it have been found to have higher blood pressure and have other problematic cardiovascular activity.
Finally, we see that racism has evolved into a much more complex matter. Racist manifestations have greatly changed, minorities are not oppressed in the same ways. The oppressed have also taken a new identity, there are many more minorities being discriminated against in America today than there were previously. We also have a greater understanding of how detrimental racism can be to a person and their health. We have definitely made progress in combatting racism. I don’t believe it is possible to determine whether or not the USA has gotten more or less racist because of the evolution. Laws and organizations have been put in place in order to protect black people in the United states and any other minority for that matter. Nonetheless, this does not mean that there isn’t still major room for improvement. Hopefully, one day the United States of America will see great progression thanks to the movements protesting racism and trying to bring a change such as the Black Panthers who operated from 1966 to 1982, and nowadays, the Black Lives Matter movement.