Since the colonial and slave era, Racism and ethnic discrimination affects the way of life in the United States. The White Americans subjected legally certified racism towards the Native Americans, Asia Americans, African Americans, and Latin Americans. These groups were discriminated against and denied privileges and rights compared to the Whites. The law denied them access to education, land acquisition, immigration, and citizenship until the 1960s. Also, the American society looked down upon the Jews, Poles, Italians and Irish people who emigrated from Europe. The groups experienced xenophobic exclusion while in the United States. The U.S Human Rights Network argued, “Discrimination permeates all aspects of life in the United States and extends to all communities of color” (Biron, 2014). Since time immemorial, the U.S government and Human rights organizations had put into place efforts and structures to eliminate racial prejudice, and the impacts indicate favorable results. The paper will comprehensively address why the United States has succeeded towards fighting racism and present the need to include more efforts in the progress.
The 2008 presidential election in the United States provided a platform to clear negative perceptions regarding racial prejudice. The election of Barack Obama was instrumental, and it proved the blacks were not undermined. In surprise, President Obama was elected by more whites (43%) compared to his competitor, John Kerry (41%). This indicates that the whites judge Obama on his ability to push the American dream into reality and not on race relations. It was unbelievable for whites to vote for a president with an African origin as this was unimaginable (Truth and Action, n.d.). The results indicated that racism was on the end because the whites had agreed to support someone who was not of their origin. The voting patterns of the blacks and the African Americans indicated that they were tired of the discrimination that they had gone through for a long period, and that is why majority of the population sided with Obama. The events during the presidential campaigns illustrated the improvements achieved throughout history as the two candidates equally enjoyed equal media coverage. Media presented campaigns in a fair and transparent manner and the candidates received equal chances to convince their supporters to vote for them.
As efforts to diminish racism, different organizations have emerged to compensate and improve the lives of the persons who suffered from the racial prejudice in America. The establishment of the Greenwood Cultural Center was a sign of confronting the past racism activities that led to Tulsa riot. The center was founded as a result of the efforts of the civic leaders; both black and white. Consequently, this was a symbol that different race can work collaboratively to attain a mutual goal. The center has moved forward to condemn the act of racism and promotes the cultural heritage of the African American community. The Greenwood cultural Center has enhanced cultural interaction between the communities living in the state of Oklahoma and county of Tulsa. The aim of Greenwood Cultural Center is to promote the cultural events and education for not only American African but also the disadvantaged children from all walks of life. As a result, the center has enhanced interaction of people from different background and hence helping to diminish and avoid the racial prejudices in and around the county of Tulsa. The effort does not only provide fair compensation for the victims of the Tulsa riot, but also as a campaign against the racism in the county and the entire United States. In additional, different non-government organizations have emerged to compensate the life of Tulsa riot victims, through education scholarships. According to the OSRHE (2003), the Oklahoma Legislature established scholarship programs in the year 2003-2004 for the student in the Tulsa region. As part of the Reconciliation Education and Scholarship program two students for every public high school in Tulsa received $1,000 as one-time scholarship. That move was anticipated to facilitate reconciliation efforts for the people who suffered in a race riot nine decades ago. Therefore, this is a clear indication that the United States as a nation has developed various effort to bury the culture of racism in the country.
The Tulsa race riot can be seen as the genesis of the fight against racism in the United States. It can be argued that it is upon this race riot that the ugly face of racism was uncovered. A small incident of racism exploded to a massive destruction to provide a sigh of how racism seems to be small, but have a multitude impact. According to Mullins (2014), the racial incident started as a result of allegedly young black man who attempted to assault a white girl in a public elevator. Consequently, impact extended to an attack by American men that resulted to an estimated death toll of around 300 lives as well as destruction of property worth $1,500,000. The impact of the riot has gathered national wide attention and awareness to inform the people about the effects of racism. According to the New York Times (2011), “three-quarters of Tulsa residents in a recent survey described themselves as very or somewhat knowledgeable about the riot.” The result of this has attracted activists such as Mr. Pegues who has taken the race riot as a high road to make the city favorable for both black and whites (The New York Times, 2011).
Recently, the United Nations examined the progress made by the United States government towards racial discrimination and found that a lot must be done. A delegation sent to the United Nations by the Obama administration was expected to present evidence on the progress towards eliminating discrimination. The report failed to indicate much success towards the war clearly. The United States representative to the U.N Human Rights Council, Keith Harper confessed that, “While we have made visible progress that is reflected in the leadership of our society, we recognize that we have much left to do ” (Biron, 2014).An official summary during the United Nations Convention expressed dissatisfaction towards the elimination of racism. The shocking summary indicated that, “to realize than in spite of several decades of affirmative action in the U.S to improve the mixing up of colors and races in education institutions discrimination was today much worse than it was in the 1970s ” (Biron, 2014). Moreover, an expert in the convention argued that 39 million African Americans are still victims of structural racial discrimination. Some races consider racism as normal, and this should be rejected by all parties.
Conclusion
Although there is a substantial evidence that more has to be done to diminish racism, it is evident that various efforts have contributed to a reduction of racism in America. Such efforts include scholarship programs for the people affected by racism and cultural interaction enhance by centers such as Greenwood Cultural Center. Significantly, 2008 presidential election in the United States provided a platform to clear negative perceptions regarding racial prejudice. It is due to this reason that this paper concludes that United States have moved beyond the culture of racism.
References
Biron, C. L. (2014, August 25). US Has “Much Left To Do” On Racism: Segregation Worse Now Than In 70s. Retrieved from http://www.mintpressnews.com/us-much-left-racism-segregation-worse-now-70s/195751/
Greenwood Cultural Center. (n.d.). Greenwood Cultural Center. Retrieved from http://www.greenwoodculturalcenter.com/
Mullins, D. (2014, July 19). Survivors of infamous 1921 Tulsa race riot still hope for justice | Al Jazeera America. Retrieved from http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/19/survivors-of-infamous1921tulsaraceriotstillhopeforjustice.html
OSRHE. (2003). Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education | Welcome. Retrieved from http://www.okhighered.org/news-center/tulsa-recon-scholars.shtml
SULZBERGER, G. (2011, June 19). 90 Years After a Bloody Race Riot, Tulsa Confronts Its Past - NYTimes.com. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/us/20tulsa.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3
Truth and Action. (n.d.). New Common Core Book: Whites Were Racist For Not Voting For Obama | Truth And Action. Retrieved from http://www.truthandaction.org/new-common-core-book-whites-racist-voting-obama/
