Types of Racism
Institution
Student’s Name
Answer to Question 1
Institutional racism can be described as any form or system of inequality based on racial differences and occurring in institutions like private businesses or corporations, public institutions, as well as schools and universities whether private or public. Racism is said to b any action initiated intentionally or unintentionally based on race or skin color leading to subordination of individual or a group of individuals, base on racial difference like skin or racial origin. Individual Racism is enhanced individually or institutionally.
Political Racism is a kind of racism embedded on politics. People would support one political party or politician based on racial aspects such as skin color and origin. Political racism would also involve discrimination of a certain political group due to racial traits especially skin color, language, and places or origin. In this case, anything to do with politics would be characterized by racial discrimination.
Economic racism is racism involving economic differences brought about by racial differences. Economic racism result to unequal distribution of economic resources with those people of the least preferred race is discriminated in terms of the distribution of economic resources. Economic racism would also involve discrimination some racial groups based on economic resources such as job availability, prices, wages, and the availability of economic goods or services.
Housing racism is the discrimination of a certain racial group or individual by showing discrimination of people based on a status of a protected class. Discrimination of a certain race group or individual in terms of housing can be on the various types of housing including rental racism, sales racism, lending racism, or mortgage racism. People of a certain race would be discriminated against getting access to some housing facilities and services.
Legal discrimination is the racial discrimination is the legal system. In prisons, some people would be treated unfairly. The aspect of the criminal judicial system to convict some people because of their skin color or other racial differences is referred to as legal discrimination.
Educational racism is the discrimination of some individuals or a group of individuals due to their racial characteristics. People of color, for instance, would be discriminated in educational institution by being denied access to some facilities accessed by the white students. Discrimination of students by educational leaders and instructors is common among some American schools and colleges.
Culture racism involves cultural practices that despise the application of a particular culture in such practices on claims that they belong to a particular race. Some racially discriminated groups of individuals would be barred from practicing a particular culture because they posses some unique and undesired racial traits. Cultural discrimination is common and it is shown by people who consider one culture inferior against the other culture based on racial factors.
Medical racism involve the priority that one is given in hospitals and other health facilities based on their skin color, language, or other racial traits. Medical racism can lead to discrimination in health facilities where some people would not be allowed to use certain health facilities because they are from a despised race. Other people would not be willing to seek medical attention from a particular facility because of discrimination against the medical professionals in the health facility.
Answer to Question 2
Racism and prejudice are two different social practices. Racism involves practices and actions that reflect the beliefs that portray humanity as being divided into distinct groups that are biologically different. Racism involves the consideration of members of a certain group as having certain traits different from members of other groups. These differences make some groups less valuable, inferior or less desirable while at the same time, another group is taken as the most desirable and superior over other groups. Racism involves discrimination of the less desirable or inferior group based on the group’s racial characteristics. Racism involves discrimination and prejudice based on racial traits with racial discrimination involving discrimination based on cultural differences or ethnic basis. Racism brings about superiority of one race against other races making it difficult for these races considered inferior to survive in a given environment. Racism is morally condemnable, dangerous, and socially unjust. This aspect of racism makes it to have no justification whether in theory or in practice. On the other hand, prejudice is related to prejudgment. Prejudice involves making decisions before becoming sure or aware of the facts relevant to a particular case. The kind of prejudgment in this case is socially harmful and can involve making judgment on an individual without considering the facts on the ground about the person. Unlike racism which involve perception of a particular race as inferior and undesirable, prejudice involve preconceived judgments towards people based on gender, age, social class, disability, sexuality, religion, race, ethnicity, language, or nationality among other individual traits. Prejudice make some people have wrong, usually positive or negative, evaluation of other people. This social practice also involves unfounded belief and include unreasonable attitude that is purely based on rational influence. Prejudice is wide in scope since it would go beyond discrimination based on race to discrimination among people of the same race mainly due to physical or biological differences. It is based on the belief that a person with some specific traits has a higher ability that a person without the traits. The anatomy of racism unlike prejudice is based on personal differences that physical or cultural. Racism would only be brought into practice through prejudice whereby wrong judgments are made on people of a different race. This can be seen in the case whereby the white people are considered better in ability than people of color. Again, black people could be considered the most inferior. Cultural backgrounds such as the era of slave trade and the pre-colonial period cause all these differences and perceptions.
Answer to Question 3
White privilege is termed as a conceptual framework whose derivation is from the critical race theory. This theory is common and used to explain certain inequalities associated with ethnicity or race. White people understand that they have privileges over other individuals of different races. White people consider themselves as having better aspects that takes them to greater heights in development. They have cultural affirmations of their own worth and that privilege of having a greater presumed status socially and economically. The white people also have the privilege of moving freely, working freely, buying, and speaking freely. This concept of white privilege has an implication of the white people’s right to assume university of a person’s own experiences. This aspect makes other people see themselves as different from the white individuals and more to be less superior to the white people.
White privilege makes people of color less privileged and perceiving themselves as disadvantages whenever it comes to different freedoms and ability to move and speak freely. White privilege contributes to greater degree in racism. The existence of this concept in a racially built community affects the lives of the white people in various ways. White people would be viewed as indenting to take advantage of the white privilege concept to misuse other people’s privileges. This concept is mainly in existence in English speaking countries having histories of racial stratification specifically after colonialism. The white privilege has negatively affected the lives of other races socially and economically due to the privilege, the white people have to access more and better resources than other races in countries like North American countries and South Africa among other nations. The concept could be a function of reverse discrimination or racism. It generally results to problems of great heights such as social class differences and many problems associated with inequality.
Answer to Question 4
Reverse racism is discrimination against whites. Reverse racism could be done using programs, which are meant to advance the ethnic minorities through affirmative action. Reverse racism could have been known to exist in the United States but it has today turned out to be a myth. The existence of anti-racist activists in the United States has largely contributed to the inexistence of reverse racisms. People of color today hardly show discrimination against the white people. At the same time, the whites seem to dominate most of the United States and it becomes difficult to discriminate against the whites. The structure of the US government and its history has been benefiting the white and the same trend continues today. There is a strong believe by ant-racist activists that racism is not one individual’s belief of a particular race being more superior to other races. Defining racism incorporates the oppression of institutions. This aspect makes it difficult to exercise reverse racism in the United States. Again, the white people are the majority of the United States and it would too difficult for other races to discriminate against the white people in the country. White dominance is strong within institutions where the whites dominate as well. Given a situation where the whites would b discriminated by other races, the program has to start from the institutional level. Other races such as the African Americans and other people of color need to dominate the institutions and take over the privilege of the whites for reverse racism to exist, which is almost difficult and impossible. These aspects of white dominance and the history of the United States make it difficult for the existence of reverse racism since there is hardly any way of discriminating against the whites or initiating programs that bar them from access facilities used by people of color.
Answer to Question 5
The ideology of racism is the existence of human inequality. The paradox and notions of inequality among humans are the necessary preconditions to racism and its emergence. Racism is all about human inequality and victims of racism are blamed as having no power to stand for their rights. Their racial disadvantages such as being the minority or having undesirable traits place them into such racially compromising situations. When societies become premised on the assumptions of inequality, they may end up producing a hierarchy of social differences and thus create ground for human separations based on the races dominating the top positions in the hierarchy. In this situation, the less privileged societies become victims of racism and they can blame for their problems. Societies seem to have increased the notion and belief of all people having freedom and equality in which they have to strive to achieve based on their readily opportunities. The revolutionary ideas that were once about equal rights to all people are today widespread especially in the western countries. Racism arises because of contradictions between principles of egalitarian and exclusionary treatment of some ethnic groups. The ideology also extends to the issue of slaves coming to America. These slaves experienced the feeling of being inferior biologically and otherwise to themselves. The same principles have been extended to the African-Americans, who are descendants to these slaves in the United States. Since they still have the same notion of being inferior as compared to the whites, they end up being seen as inferior and discriminated against by the whites. The blacks in the US were once seen as representing a primitive race, which had low morale and lacked the aspect of civilization. They only had little intelligence and some of them still hold the same notion today. If they get out of this notion, they would be in a better position to become better off and avoid the racial discrimination of the whites.
Answer to Question 6
Racial discrimination is still persistent in the United States. The whites are too discriminative against people of color including African-Americans, Latino Americans, and other groups. Racism affects various races different. The races affected by racism include African Americans, Muslim Americans, Latino Americans, Jewish Americans, American Indians, Arab Americans, and other groups. For the African Americans, it seems that they are facing the greatest pinch of racism and racial discrimination. The whites discriminate against African Americans by being denied access t various sectors of the economy and political sectors in the United States. African American faces racial discrimination that lowers their dignity as American against other races. This aspect affects their lives negatively both socially and economically. Economically, the African Americans would be allowed access less facilities than most other races. Economically they would be less privileged to get good jobs, get the same economic opportunities as the whites, and get lower wage than the whites. The whites occupy most managerial positions in many US organizations.
The Latino Americans also have faced discrimination that affects them socially and economically. Socially, the Latino Americans would be isolated from the whites. This would bar their opportunities socially and economically. The whites take them to be as inferior as other races since pure American whites base their superiority to the superiority of the country. Latinos are among the minority groups that are discriminated in the US making it impossible for most of them to have good life. The same problem of racial discrimination affects other people of color like the Jewish American. These are sometimes confused to the Muslim Americans who are discriminated against due to the belief that most terrorists are Muslims. The Muslim Americans live in fear of being suspected to be terrorists and this bars their freedom socially and economically. This group is integrated with the Arab Americans who collectively are viewed as having negative ideology towards Americans and the United State as a country. Other groups like American Indians are viewed as less superior than the whites are and would be neglected in most of the development projects in various ways that would end up making them socially and economically inferior as compared to the American Whites.
Answer to Question 7
Racialization involves the process of producing racial identities in a discursive way. Racialization works by extending dehumanizing and racial practices or behavior in a given community. Racialization creates a condition where there is generation of unclassified relationships and significant racial social practices that creates a situation of considering on group as superior than the other groups based on racial distinctions. Racialization creates the notion of people to see various groups as different races especially when such groups were not seen as races before the Racialization phenomenon was created. Racialization could be of religion or Racialization of labor. In terms of religion, racialization would create an aspect of despise against some religions. Racialization of religion involves the notion that two or more religions are not equal and that one religion is more superior over the others. This notion is created by people basing their knowledge to the history o such religions. Racialization would work by accommodating individuals from other groups on condition that they have to accept their culture and religion but still could involve racism and discrimination. In this case, the racialized group would not have the freedom to take part in various activities. In the aspect of racialization of labor, there is the segregation as well as the appointment of workers based on perceived ethic differences. This practice would create a system of hierarchy in which employee arrangement could be based on their races.
Other than racialization, there is also the problem of whiteness. Whiteness is not a visible phenomenon but it is a concept whose creation is based on people’s beliefs and culture. Whiteness is created and shaped by the history of culture and beliefs as well as practices that are in line with social economic and legal policies of a country like the United States. Sometimes in the past, other communities such as the Jews immigrants to the US were seen as whites by the US naturalization and immigration service but this has changed, and the Jews are hardly considered as whites any more but people of color. The notion o being white is just a belief and a person is expected to have had native ancestors to be considered white.
Answer to Question 8
While race is socially accepted and applicable term, science has difficulties in proving the concept to b true. Scientific classification of organisms into various categories is easy with other organisms but it is a bit different with the humans. One concept behind this scientific failure is that humans are in a position to travel from one place to another and back to their original place making it possible to have gene flow among various groups of people that are socially considered to be of different races. The western people mainly use skin color to primarily describe people and group them into different races. The notion is incorrect to a certain extent since descendants in Africa would have the same physical traits as the descendants of Asia or other regions of the world. Again, an Asia descendant may have skin color and other physical traits that resemble people from the European countries and descendants of the United States of America. Other common feature that could bring in distinction includes hair texture as well as face shapes. Based on such traits, science can be used to create affirmatives on the notion of race. The problem is brought in by identifying the exact origin of a person in order to classify the person as of a specific race. A descendent of Africa with exact traits of a Native American will remain to be an African in which case science would not apply in this case. This means that a person would be considered of a certain race base on social beliefs based on the already defined traits used in identifying people of different race. A person with dirk skin and bold face would be classified as an African American while the whites can clearly distinguish themselves from other races.
Answer to Question 9
Internalizing racism is created in a society where racial practices and prejudice based on racial differences exist. The whites internalize racism by exercising racial prejudice in politics, in institutions, communities, and culturally. They internalize all aspects of race and consider other races as less privileged. The whites discriminate other racial minorities and make them absorb racial messages in a bombarding manner. The whites exercise their white supremacy in a way that create attention and draw the attention of other races into their minds. This aspect of white supremacy is sometimes attractive to other people of color who may end up adopting the ways of the white people. The white supremacy is absorbed by other people of color through a mindset that often result from a consideration of the whites as more superior. This kind of mindset leads to self-hatred. Other racial groups would end up hating their ways of life as well as hating their own people. The mindset makes their brains work in a way that considered the people of the same group as preferring to hang out with the white due the psychological aspect of hating their own race and cultural practices. Some people of color may go to an extent of changing their physical identity through medical or plastic surgery as a way of resembling the whites and joining the whiteness concept. Other than adopting the white culture, some members of the minority races suffering from an internalized racism would do anything possible to loathe their physical characteristics, which would make them distinct from other members of their own group racially. Their brains are set in a way that would makes them believe the white as superior and they would avoid associating with their own group due to various reasons emanating from the whiteness concept and beliefs. Internalized racism is caused by issues of the surrounding environment and communities in which people grow. The kind of environment set their minds in a way that people stop worrying about their smartness and change their behavior towards achievement of a different behavior and getting smatter like their beliefs are towards the whites. The brain works from its aspect of being the center of thoughts, ideas, feeling, decisions, and beliefs, which guide individuals’ lives. The whites attract other minority groups and make them accept their way of life by using this concept. The mindset could as well be constructed and embedded in the minds of students at school and college by educators. The interaction of faculty, white stuff, and other educators is done in a way that perpetuates racist dynamics and model them in the minds of their colleagues and students of color. The social interactions and all activities involving mental development change the minds of people of color to belief in white supremacy in that the white culture is greater and superior to their own culture. These minority groups find that the only way to become superior is to adopt their way.
Answer to Question 10
In the US, racialization, racial inferiority, and racial superiority are shaped in various ways. Racialization is shaped through the initiation of dehumanizing practices by the superior races, specifically the whites, against the commonly considered inferior races like the African American racial group. It is commonly found that domination of the US economy and politics is on the side of the White Americans with only a few individuals from other races taking part in key positions economically and politically. This happens with the exception of the current African American president, whose election and re-election as the first black American could be associated with a changing ideology of the American people against some races especially the African American race. The whites considered themselves the most superior race due to their historical origin, technological advancements, and economy. The racial superiority is brought about by historical believe and economic aspects since the whites control most of the US economy. Race inferiority is also historical. The blacks are considered inferior due to the notion that their origin in the United States was through the slave trade hundreds of years in the past. These groups of people also consider the ancestral origin to be poor and given that the blacks were less intelligent than the whites were, they are considered an inferior race. Some even have the notion within them and can hardly to have any superior ideas against the whites making the notion to persist. Other races would be considered inferior to the white Americans because of the belief that their physical traits point at some origins, which are less developed economically than their ‘foreign’ land, the United States. This aspect also makes them feel inferior and a few would attempt to fight for some economic resources or political position in the United States. This makes the white keep on dominating the US as their ancestral country.
Answer to Question 11
Most of the theories studying race issue in America revolve around blackness and whiteness. The aspect of whiteness and blackness involve sociological and psychological creation. While the distinction between black and white is through physical characteristics of individuals, there is more into the way whiteness and blackness are created. The aspect of being white is associated with a kind of supremacy. Whiteness is only created through racism, as a matter of interests and attitudes. The whites create a kind of social boundary from the basis of property and personal pigment. The same thing happens to blackness. While the issue of white supremacy exists in the US, black supremacy as well takes place. Whiteness is created from a personal feeling of being superior to the blacks and probably other races due to physical, economical, and social differences. Whiteness would involve prejudice and could result to social problems like unlikelihood of intermarriage between the blacks and whites. Only a few successful marriages between black and white partners exist in the US today. The differences in such marriages could be brought about by outside forces based on racial differences and the concepts of whiteness and blackness. Whiteness is structured as an advantage that could produce unfair gains or unearned rewards for the white generations while creating impositions to impeded asset accumulation. Other benefits from the idea of whiteness in the United States include better opportunities in housing facilities, better chances of acquiring good employment, and access to good health care provided an individual is white. Whiteness is therefore taken to be an important asset that would place an individual in a better position in life in the expense of other individuals. Whiteness is embedded to weakness in laws and civil rights. It is also constructed from the dimensions of economic aspects like economic reconstruction as well as deindustrialization. The same concept is based on job discrimination, environmental racism, as well as school segregation. Blackness is also constructed from the same concepts but its extent is less in terms of scope and popularity. Blackness would be constructed from the basis of culture and language, school segregation, and social boundaries. In both cases, there is feeling of detestation between the two groups. Those strongly embedded to whiteness or blackness would hardly have anything in common or show any freedom of free social interaction.
