Racism and ethnic discrimination
Racism and ethnic discrimination has been a major problem in the United States since the slavery era. People are by nature different but the way society deals with people’s diversity is what defines racial prejudice and ethnic discrimination. The actual social context of racial and ethnic discrimination is stirred by various beliefs and myths such as racial impurity, ethnocentric subjective views, labelling and stereotyping, social and physical segregation among other such beliefs.
In the United States currently, racial and ethnic discrimination means unfair treatment or acting unfavorably towards a member of a certain ethnic society simply based on his/her ethnic grouping rather than acting on a person’s own merit or lack of it thereafter.
What is Race and Ethnicity
Race can be defined as a biological term, which is majorly based on inherited physical characteristics that differentiate a certain grouping from another one (Lentin & Lentin, 2013). An anthropological arbitrary definition of the term race identifies three major racial groups namely: The Caucasian, the Mongolian and the Negroid. Racism is still a bitter thorn in United States despite the many efforts by various civil rights movements from the days of Martin Luther King Junior.
Racism and ethnic discrimination against minority
In United States social life, the myth of race is still and remains as powerful as ever before. From the beliefs such as ethnocentrism which make some people think that their race is superior to other races (Gallagher et al, 2014). From such beliefs some people are denied access to some very important resource in the society. The aftermath of such actions is racial and ethnic discrimination based on trivial physical characteristics.
Ethnicity on the other hand means possessing distinctive cultural and religious characteristics (Gallagher et al, 2014). This can be simply understood as people who identify with each other on basis of sharing a common cultural heritage or ancestry (Lentin & Lentin, 2013). The sense belonging in a certain ethnic grouping may come from sharing a nation of origin, culture or even food and dressing associated with a certain community (Kleg, 2003).
Most the Africans in united states were brought to America starting from 17th century as slaves who were kidnapped from their homelands in Africa (Gallagher & etal,2014). Some of this people who were kidnapped were loyalties in their communities (Kleg, 2003). Although slavery was outlawed and laws prohibiting against slavery were passed, racism was and still practiced in the united states and manifested in fairly subtle ways. A case of Washington, DC a company called Fair Employment Practices Commission has conducted a research that found blacks face discrimination one out of every five jobs they interview for (Lentin & Lentin, 2013). The percentage of minority in the United States have a considerably population in different states can be clearly identified from the below population chart.
The issue of racism as well as ethnic discrimination affects a majority of the minority groups in all the states in the United States (Kleg M, 2003). The United Nations Committee on the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination imposed tough rules on the United States for their persistent racial and ethnic discrimination (Lentin & Lentin, 2013). This particular watchdog said Washington failed to meet the treaty obligation it signed on a previous convention (Kleg, 2003). The united states continue to reel from multiple issues of racial turmoil and ethnic discrimination even in this century.
Conclusion
Racism and Ethnic discriminations should not be tolerated in this century. The United states should come with more comprehensive tactics to curb this perennial menace. A country without racial and ethnic discrimination is a peaceful country.
References
In Gallagher, C. A., & In Lippard, C. D. (2014). Race and racism in the United States: An encyclopedia of the American mosaic.
Kleg, M. (2003). Hate, prejudice and racism. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
Lentin, A., & Lentin, A. (2011). Racism and ethnic discrimination. New York: Rosen Pub.
