How Racist are We?

This week in class we discussed Barrack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union", when he still was a senator and a presidential candidate hopeful, given in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008. It was a speech about race. In it he states,

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years.

(If you'd like to read more of the transcript of Obama's speech, click here.)

Racism is notoriously a large part of history, and although we take baby steps every day, we are still caught in between the disparities of each other. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Indugenous, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. They're all labels we categorize each other in. And many seem to think one is better than the other.

As much as it saddens me to say, I do think our society is fueled by racism. That does not mean that I believe everyone is a racist. But look at the situation of the pastor in Florida wanting to burn the Koran just because he had deep hatred for a specific ethnicity. Just because he believed all Muslims were responsible for 9/11 and he categorized them all as terrorists. Does that mean he has the right to "punish" the entire Islamic religion by burning their holy book? Absolutely not. Does that mean that we have the right to believe that all Muslims or Middle-Easterners are terrorists? Absolutely not.

Another example is the Arizona immigration law that allows authorities to detain anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. This is a huge example of racial profiling. If the law enforcement is given the power to stop a car they believe is being driven by an illegal immigrant, just by how they look, then racism has to be a driving force. Not only does it take away the rights of those living in our country, but it also promotes community distrust. Lastly, I just want to discuss an article I had read in the New York times. Click here to read. It says that new research discovers "strong evidence that all-white juries acquit whites more often and are less favorable to black versus white defendants when compared to juries with a least one black member." However who is to say that a conviction by an all-white jury is necessarily false? I think you also need to take in account the number of false convictions versus correct convictions for this research to really prove substantial.

Image copyright of New York Times.