Nathaniel Cox

McGinnis
English 4
September 15, 2014
I. Introduction
A. In recent news stories, incidents, and reports have arisen with the dreaded topic of
racism resurfacing. With the variety ranging from things such as the Mike Brown
scandal in Ferguson, Missouri, the crisis over the name of the Washington Redskins,
or the ISIS terrorists across the world. In prior generations, racism was a commonly
accepted practice of society; since then situations and conditions have changed but
racism still exists in America in a subversive manner.

II. Body/Supports

A. Racism was a commonly accepted practice of American society in preceding
generations (Defining Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination).
1. Ashmore (1970) defined it as a negative attitude toward a socially defined
group (p. 253).
2. Jones (1972) defines discrimination as those actions designed to maintain
own-group characteristics and favored position at the expense of the
comparison group (p. 4).
3. Racism is the process of false information and fear-based emotional
conditioning. (Goleman, 1995).
4. When most people think about the term racism they think of the various
attitudes and beliefs individuals may hold about different racial groups,
particularly negative stereotypes about one or more racial groups as well as the
opinion that ones own racial group is superiorthis common understanding or
racism is more accurately termed prejudice.
5. Racism, as defined by modern racists, is consistent only with the tenets and
practices of old fashioned racism: beliefs about black intelligence, as well as
support for segregation and support for open acts of discrimination.
6. racism is a modern and Western ideologyRacism originated as a theory of
Western civilizational superiority.
7. Racism is therefore a representational form which, by designating human
collectivities, necessarily functions as an ideology of inclusions and exclusions
8. Poussaint points to two characteristics of the racist: he concocts
stereotypesand he develops prejudices
B. Americas social and political attitudes toward race have changed.
1. Yet despite the continuing significance of racial discrimination, discrimination
has declined considerably, since the middle of the twentieth century.
2. When the unequal treatment of people based upon their race is
bureaucratized and rationalized in the Weberian sense, one can say that
racism has been modernized.
3. Racialism is not, in itself, a doctrine that must be dangerous, even if the racial
essence is thought to entail moral and intellectual dispositions.
4. It is widely believed that racism remains a major international problem at the
dawn of the twenty-first century.
5. Racism is not considered racism unless it wears a hood and burns a cross and
explicitly keeps blacks down
6. the ideology of racism can constitute for some sections of a population a
description of and explanation for the way in which the world is experienced to
work.
7. racism can successfully (although mistakenly) make sense of the world and
thereby provide a strategy for political action or sections of different classes.
C. Racism still exists in a subversive manner.
1. Blackstend to see racism as different in appearance today but not in reality;
for them racism may have burrowed underground but it remains deeply
embedded in the national psyche and in American institutions.
2. racism is always in the process of transformation
3. Racism caused by internalized ideals and societal institutions can be essentially
one and the same in the absence of an equal distribution of power, which
people of color do not have.
4. In the realm of proper political discourse, where overt racial slurs can destroy a
career, the expression of prejudice takes a more circuitous route.
5. In American public life, where it is no longer admissible to assert the mental
inferiority of black people, it is perfectly fine to argue policies that grow out of
that assumption, so long as the core stereotype is left unstated.
6. The label racism is such a fierce and categorical condemnation that its
features are commonly disguised and submerged to create a benign mask of
subtleties.
7. These social advantages that are allotted to this group of lighter-skinned Blacks
emphasize and reinforce a system in our society that privileges light skin over
dark skin this classification structure and system of preference is the general
definition and forms the building blocks of colorism.
8. Thus begins the liberal project to offer an elaborate and shifting rationale for
black incapacityIn short, the liberal position on black failure can be reduced to
a single implausible slogan: Just say racism.
9. One might say that the most formidable ideological barrier facing blacks is not
racism but antiracism.
10. Racism is clearly one of our greatest domestic problems.
11. But in whatever way persons or institutions contribute to the social conditions
wherein minorities receive lesser social and economic rewards, they help
maintain racial injustice and racism.
12. African Americans in particular and society in general have the daunting
mission to address the serious internal problems within black culture.
13. If blacks can close the civilization gap, the race problem in this country is likely
to become insignificant.
14. And nothing strengthens racism in this country more than the behavior of the
African American underclass, which fragrantly violates and scandalizes basic
codes of responsibility, decency, and civility.
15. Even if racism were to disappear overnight, the worst problems facing black
America would persist.
16. Racism undoubtedly exists, but it no longer has the power to thwart blacks or
any other group in achieving their economic, political and social aspirations.
17. The contemporary division between whites and blacks in America arises out of
the white conviction that the civil rights movement achieved its antiracist
objective and recognized the basic rights of blacks, and the black conviction that
despite the changes in the low, racism remains the central problem.
18. It is utterly exhausting being black in America physically, mentally, and
emotionally. There is no respite or escape from your badge of color.
19. Racism is based on ignorance. Ignorance generates prejudices and
stereotypes. Such predispositions lead to irrational fear. Fear produces
hate, hate produces discrimination.
20. The contemporary mood of frustration and pessimism about racism springs
from the conviction that American society may never be able to get rid of it.
21. The problem, then, is that being black in this society puts you at risk on almost
every indicator of wellbeing and opportunity we can calculate.
22. Racism is a problem because there continue to be major disparities between
black and white citizens which reflect the fact that the historical biases have not
been ameliorated
23. The only way we are going to begin to combat, some of the inequities that
result due to common beliefs and ideologies associated with colorism is by
becoming more aware of the prejudices we have regarding skin tone, due to the
images we are exposed to on a regular basis.