Touching upon the problem of improvement in race relations in the United States, we should say that it’s a rather controversial topic. Denying African Americans citizenship was deemed essential to the formation of the original union. Hundreds of years later, America is still not an egalitarian democracy. An extraordinary percentage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have been throughout most of American history. They are also subject to legalized discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service, just as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents once were.
Joe Feagin supposes: «Indeed, relatively few whites today know or care about the terrible legacies of our slavery and Jim Crow systems, including the fact that we still live under an undemocratic Constitution undemocratically made, and early implemented, by leading white slaveholders (Yancy, Feagin 5)». However, we partially disagree with this statement.
The Constitution certainly created and helps to uphold a democratic nation. It outlines and sets in place a particular democratic government and set of laws. It could be argued, however, that the creation of this document was notably undemocratic. The men who wrote the Constitution were not necessarily elected. Certainly, they were great leaders, but there was no formal election process in place to select them to write this document. The Constitution was written behind closed doors and signed by the authors. It was not voted on in the same way that laws and bills are voted on today. (Enotes.com). The people of the newly forming American nation didn't have the same ability to offer input and make a selection that we enjoy today. But anyway, nowadays we enjoy this right of choice and a lot of poor black people receive income assistance.
It is plausible to state that the views of race relations, along with results from a CBS News/New York Times Poll conducted in April 2015, represent the most pessimistic evaluations seen since the early 1990s.Obviously, the criminal justice system had problems of racial bias, much in the same way that all major institutions in our society are plagued with problems associated with conscious and unconscious bias. (Michelle 2) African Americans are more critical than whites of key aspects of society, including the criminal justice system and voting. Nearly 8 in 10 African Americans believe the criminal justice system is biased against them, up from 61 percent in 2013. (Cbsnews.com). The most striking feature of America is the racial dimension of mass incarceration. No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. (Michelle Alexander 3). These stark racial disparities cannot be explained by rates of drug crime. Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates. (Johnson, O’Malley, Bachman and Schulenberg 3).
Significantly, the findings of the previous studies are mixed at best. For example, some research data show that anti-black and pro-white attitude has changed significantly in the recent years. The swings in attitude have been particularly striking among African-Americans. During Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, nearly 60 percent of blacks said race relations were generally bad, but that number was cut in half shortly after he won. Americans' negative views on the state of race relations in the U.S. persist, with nearly 6 in 10 Americans saying they're bad, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll released that more than half, 57 percent, of Americans now say that race relations in the U.S. are bad and just 37 percent say they are good. (Cbsnews.com).
Little consensus has been reached on whether there still remains room for improvement in race relations in the United States or legal protections that were enacted in the middle part of the last century are no longer necessary (affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act). While most think there has been progress in getting rid of racial discrimination, many Americans say they personally know people who are prejudiced. Only a fifth of those surveyed said they thought race relations were improving, while about 40 percent of both blacks and whites said they were staying essentially the same. (Nytimes.com).
According to a new Al Jazeera America/Monmouth University Poll, Forty percent of respondents said there had been no change in the status of race relations, whereas 43 percent said things had gotten worse. White respondents were most likely to say things had gotten worse, whereas African-Americans were nearly evenly split on the question. Both African-Americans and Latinos were more likely than whites to say things had not changed since Obama was elected president, though Latinos were more likely than African-Americans to say that things had gotten worse. (America.aljazeera.com).
Race and racism have dominated American politics and news headlines for much of Obama’s tenure in office. Even immediately before he assumed the presidency, the 2008 housing market collapse wiped out about half the wealth of African-American households. Additionally, over the past year, U.S. cities have been hit with waves of protests in response to several recent killings of unarmed black men by white police officers.
President Obama has also struggled at length to push comprehensive immigration reform through Congress, even as his administration has set a new record for the number of deportations conducted on his watch. (America.aljazeera.com).The matter is that there is still a tendency of the whites to keep together at college of University and sometimes only whites such as friends and relatives are present at important events. (Yancy, Feagin 8-10).
A survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2013 asked a range of questions to assess how diverse people's friendship groups were. It found that while 65% of black Americans reported only having black friends, 75% of white Americans said they had only whites in their social circle. (Bbc.com).
In addition, racism in health care settings tends to be much more insidious than the type of racism that would, say, make it onto the nightly news. Patients aren’t screaming racial slurs in the ER or spray-painting derogatory signs on the sides of hospital buildings. They often won’t even say outright that they don’t want a black doctor. “Patients know it’s not PC” to directly request a white doctor, said Paul-Emile. “They come up with different ways to do it. I talked to this one doctor who said there are these older ladies who will say, ‘You know, I want a Jewish doctor, I just think a Jewish doctor is better.’ (America.aljazeera.com). It’s unclear how common these types of experiences are; there have been no major studies on the issue, so advocates and policymakers have had to rely on anecdotal evidence, the few isolated stories that leak out of the hospital wing and into the press. (America.aljazeera.com).
In his article Joe Feagin speaks about “white-virtue framing” which, to his mind, “is so strong that it affects the thinking not only of whites, but also of many people of color here and overseas”. He gives an example of «dominant American culture’s standard of “female beauty,” and the attempts of many people of color to look, speak, or act as “white” as they can so as to do better in our white-dominated institutions». (Yancy, Feagin 5, 6)
We’d like to point out that this statement may be considered rather controversial. Nowadays a lot of black people have their own ideal image of a person on their minds. And this person is not always white. We mean today there are so many popular black people like Will Smith, Jay Z, Kayne West etc. that a lot of Afro-Americans have their own beauty standard which doesn’t make them feel depreciated in any way. However, statistic shows that there are only two black billionaires in the US - chat show host Oprah Winfrey and former basketball star Michael Jordan. This compared with about 500 white billionaires. (Bbc.com)
Another important thing special attention should be paid to is unemployment rate. Unemployment remains far higher among the black population, than the white. Currently 4.8% of white Americans are out of work, compared with an overall average of 5.8% (Bbc.com).
An interesting research of ethnic groups was conducted in Texas. Each member belonged to a particular group that was either homogeneous or diverse (i.e. it included one participant of another ethnicity or race). Different ethnic groups, i.e. whites, Latinos and African-Americans were mixed together to see how they would cope with particular tasks. The findings showed that when participants were in diverse company, their answers were 58 percent more accurate and their performance improved. In homogeneous groups the opposite happened. (Levine, Stark David 2).
What is key to America’s understanding of class is the persistent belief - despite all evidence to the contrary -that anyone, with the proper discipline and drive, can move from a lower class to a higher class. Whether at home, at work, or more generally, whites report far less interaction with blacks than blacks have with whites. And a majority of both blacks and whites think most people are uncomfortable having a conversation about race with someone of another race. (Cbsnews.com).
For instance, while only 37 percent said they thought race relations were generally good in the United States, more than twice that share, 77 percent, thought they were good in their communities, a number that has changed little over the past 20 years. Similarly, only a third thought that most people were comfortable discussing race with someone of another race, but nearly three-quarters said they were comfortable doing so themselves. (Nytimes.com).
It is reasonable to draw your attention to what is completely missed in the rare public debates today about the plight of African Americans is that a huge percentage of them are not free to move up at all. It is not just that they lack opportunity, attend poor schools, or are plagued by poverty. They are barred by law from doing so.
As a consequence, a new social consensus must be forged about race and the role of race in denying the basic structure of our society, if we hope ever to abolish the New Jim Crow. This new consensus must begin with dialogue, a conversation that fosters a critical consciousness, a key prerequisite to effective social action. (Michelle 5-6). So, does racial and ethnic diversity affect learning? The authors of the above mentioned research dare say “yes”. They suppose that “Increasing diversity is not only a way to let the historically disadvantaged into college, but also to promote sharper thinking for everyone”.
Considering this approach we come to a conclusion that despite all racial differences and races’ prejudice against each other, only altogether people can perform efficiently. The improvement of race relations should first of all be based on mutual tolerance and understanding. Frankly speaking, we are sure it’s not the viewpoint of a particular researcher we should take into account, but our personal striving towards world piece and humanity because only being “human” matter no matter whether you are black or white.
Works cited
Dutton, Sarah, et.al "Poll: What do Americans feel about race relations?". CBS News 23 Jul. 2015. Web. <http://www.cbsnews.com/>.
“In what ways is the Constitution both democratic and undemocratic?” Enotes. 17 Sep. 2012. Web. <http://www.enotes.com/ >
Johnson, Lloyd, et al. “Monitoring the Future, National Survey Results on Drug Use” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH pub. no. 07-6205 Bethesda, MD. 2007
Levine, Sheen, and David, Stark “Diversity Makes You Brighter” The New York Times 9 Dec. 2015: 1-4. Print.
Michelle, Alexander. “The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”. The New Press Jan. 2012: 1-336. Print.
Resnikoff, Ned “Race relations have not improved under Obama, say majority of Americans”. New Al Jazeera. 19 Jan. 2015. Web. <http://america.aljazeera.com/ >
Sack, Kevin, and Thee-Brenan, Megan “Poll Finds Most in U.S. Hold Dim View of Race Relations”. The New York Times. 23 Jul. 2015. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/ >
“US race relations: Six surprising statistics” BBC News. 18 Jun. 2016. Web. <http://www.bbc.com/>
Yancy, George, and Joe, Feagin. “American Racism in the ‘White Frame’.” The New York Times 27 Jul. 2015: 1-10. Print.
