Issues with race and ethnicity in the United States
Starting from 4 million people in 1790, population of the United States has grown up to 326 million today. Over this period, racial composition of the US consisted predominantly of Euro-Americans. This racial group is what we call “whites”. Other racial categories of the US include Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and African Americans (blacks). Today’s trends, mainly characterized by immigration process, indicate the growth of current minor racial groups’ portion in the United States population. “Never before has America been more diverse, and that diversity will in all likelihood continue to expand”. According to some predictions, Euro-Americans are going to comprise only 50% from the total by 2050.
Today problems and predictions for the future
For many years, racial, ethic, and cultural background of people has been one of the main reasons for different conflicts in the US. Racial diversity has probably been one of the most significant issues in the country’s history. Two main concepts connected with racial differences are prejudice and discrimination. The first implies different and usually negative stereotypes and beliefs about racial minorities, whereas the second notion describes real actions towards racial minorities which in this or that way infringe on their rights and freedoms.
I strongly agree that race as we are used to see it is not a biological creation, but a human constructed concept. In my opinion, the only race that is created by biology is the human race. Separating people into blacks and whites, Hispanics and Asians is unreasonable and incorrect. Physical appearance has nothing to do with people’s level of intelligence, abilities, and talents. Therefore, race is socially constructed. Some people may argue that in the US white people have always been at the highest positions, or that only blacks used to be slaves. For that, there are historical facts and circumstances which cannot be went back into and changed. Whites have become dominant over other because they used their power through force, and other racial groups and blacks in particular gave their consent. All the things like racism, prejudices and discrimination were constructed over history by different cultural, social and political circumstances. It is a big problem that nowadays “many people see differences in physical appearance and assume they must reflect differences in intelligence”. From my point of view, all the problems related to racial diversity, as well as ethnicity and race-based conflicts are direct consequences of misunderstanding of the “Race”. Notwithstanding, there is a positive trend and the situation is changing for the better. The US society is not that strictly divided by races and ethnicities, it may be easily demonstrated by the example of Barak Obama. Moreover, people are becoming more educated and are more likely to avoid racial prejudices and stereotypes.
