Racial Discrimination: Unraveling the Societal Divide

Racial discrimination is a deeply rooted social issue that continues to affect individuals and communities worldwide. In a sociological context, racial discrimination refers to the unfair and unjust treatment of individuals or groups based on their race or ethnicity. It is a reflection of power imbalances, prejudice, and stereotypes that perpetuate inequalities within societies. This article delves into the complexities of racial discrimination, exploring its historical roots, impact on marginalized communities, and real-life examples that illustrate its enduring presence in contemporary society.

Understanding Racial Discrimination in Sociology

• Definition: Racial discrimination is the act of unfairly treating individuals or groups differently based on their race, skin color, or ethnic background. It encompasses both individual acts of prejudice and systemic inequalities perpetuated through institutions and social structures.
• Prejudice and Stereotypes: Racial discrimination is often fueled by prejudice and stereotypes that negatively portray certain racial or ethnic groups, leading to biased attitudes and discriminatory behavior.
• Structural Racism: Structural racism refers to the ways in which racial discrimination is embedded in societal institutions, policies, and practices, leading to unequal access to resources and opportunities.
• Intersectionality: Racial discrimination often intersects with other forms of oppression, such as sexism, classism, and homophobia, creating unique experiences of discrimination for individuals with multiple marginalized identities.

Impact of Racial Discrimination

• Psychological and Emotional Toll: Racial discrimination can lead to psychological distress, anxiety, and a diminished sense of self-worth for individuals who experience it.
• Inequality and Disparities: Racial discrimination perpetuates social and economic disparities, limiting access to education, healthcare, employment, and housing for marginalized communities.
• Social Exclusion: Discrimination can lead to social exclusion and isolation, as individuals and communities may face barriers in fully participating in society.
• Generational Effects: Historical racial discrimination has long-lasting effects, as the consequences of past injustices continue to impact generations of marginalized communities.

Examples of Racial Discrimination

• Employment Discrimination: Instances of racial discrimination in the workplace can include hiring biases, wage disparities, and limited opportunities for career advancement based on race.
• Housing Discrimination: Racial discrimination in housing can manifest through redlining, where certain racial or ethnic groups are denied access to housing opportunities in specific neighborhoods.
• Racial Profiling: Racial profiling by law enforcement targets individuals based on their race or ethnicity, leading to increased scrutiny and suspicion, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
• Education Disparities: Racial discrimination in education can result in unequal access to quality education, resources, and opportunities for students from marginalized communities.

In Conclusion, Racial discrimination remains a deeply entrenched social issue that requires collective efforts to address and eradicate. In a sociological context, understanding the historical roots and systemic nature of racial discrimination is vital for dismantling its influence on contemporary societies. Embracing diversity, promoting intercultural understanding, and challenging prejudiced attitudes are essential steps toward building more equitable and inclusive societies.
Sociologists, policymakers, and activists play crucial roles in advocating for policy changes, promoting social justice, and creating spaces for dialogue and reconciliation. By acknowledging the pervasive nature of racial discrimination and taking decisive action, we can work toward a world where every individual is valued and respected, regardless of their race or ethnicity. Only through collective efforts can we break the chains of racial discrimination and move towards a future that embraces diversity and upholds the principles of equality and human rights for all.

By Khushdil Khan Kasi

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When individual act and think as the group members, people tend for accentuating similarities among themselves, and also members of the personal groups. It also exaggerate the differences among members in their group, and also other groups- social categorization. Individuals evaluate people differently and distinctively depending on their group members or other group members- in-group or out-group. Particularly, individuals typically shows the members’ preference of their personal group, like that, evaluation is done positively, and more positive attributions are done for such behaviors in comparison with how evaluation is done for outgroup members. This tendency is known as in-group favoritism (Stephan, 2018).

Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate annihilation of the targeted, mostly the subordinate group. It is very toxic form of intergroup relation. Historically, it can be seen that genocide include intent of exterminating the group and function for exterminating a group, unintentionally or intentionally. Possible the famous case about genocide was attempt of Hitler for exterminating Jewish citizen in first part if 20th century. It is also called as Holocaust-the explicit objective of the “Final Solution” of Hitler, which was an eradication of the European Jewry, also the minority groups’ discrimination like Catholics, individuals with homosexuals and disabilities. Due to forced emigrations, mass executions and concentration camps in the gas chambers for 12million individuals’ death, Hitler Nazi was responsible and 6 million were Jewish. The objective of Hitler was obvious, and this the genocide, which is now the greatest example for the world. Genocide is not only a historical act, but it practice today even. Currently, geographic and ethnic conflicts causes several million deaths (Luman, 2018; Granovetter, 2018).

Expulsion

Expulsion means when subordinate group are being pressurized by the dominant group, for leaving the specific country or area. It can be seen in an example of “Trail of Tears” and “Holocaust”, an expulsion could be the factor and major element in genocide. However, this could stand as the personal interaction of destructive group. An expulsion has mostly caused historically, with racial or ethnic bases. In United States, Executive Order- 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, right after the attack of Japanese government on the Pearl Harbor. This order authorized establishment on the internment camps related to everyone with the little ancestry of Japan (Lumen, 2018).

Pluralism

Pluralism is presented as the mixture of multiple distinct cultures, and groups, where every culture retain the personal identity and still has the capacity of adding more cultures. The true pluralism further characterize by the mutual respect on part of total culture, both subordinate and dominant, developing the multi-cultural environment and field of acceptance. In reality, the true pluralism considered to be a difficult goal and objective to attain. In many countries, mutual respect needed by pluralism is not present, and it is also observed that several countries across the globe do not accept cultural differences, but still believes in maximizing the gap among different groups and cultures (Brown, and Hewstone, 2005).

Amalgamation

It is the process through which majority group and minority group jointly form the new group. The amalgamation create a classic analogy of “melting pot”. This reflect the scenario where every culture retain the individuality, and combination of different cultures, which results in new and unique culture. Amalgamation is also called as miscegenation, which is achieved by inter-marriage among races (Stephan, 2018).

It has been concluded that, intergroup relations have broad range from the pluralism’s tolerant approach to intolerance approaches like genocide. In the pluralism, groups have to retain their personal identity. In the assimilation, groups need to conform the identity of dominant group. And in amalgamation, individuals, or groups need to combine and form the new identity.

References

Brown, R. and Hewstone, M., 2005. An integrative theory of intergroup contact. Advances in experimental social psychology, 37(37), pp.255-343.
Granovetter, M., 2018. The sociology of economic life. Routledge.
Luman, 2018. Intergroup relations. [Online], Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/intergroup-relationships/, [Accessed on: 29th April, 2018].
Stephan, C.W., 2018. Intergroup relations. Routledge.

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The common definition of Stereotypes is- people who characterize other members of the same group which he/she belongs to in typical features. The stereotype is considered as oversimplified lists of values and beliefs, about groups or social stratums, they are associated with. The strict perception of the characteristics help people for characterizing other people in manner of attributing them for specific groups. Stereotypes sometime incorrectly describe some members of social groups. The characterization of stereotypes are mostly based on salience principle. It states some events which are obvious and initially appear as prominent. Thus, individuals are salient related to those events. For example, skin complexion is salient and obvious characteristics. The skin tone is very first thing noticed by people, which is why, it becomes a basis for the stereotyping. In some places, salient characteristic is determined through culture. Lips, nose, shape, size, body structure, skin color or hair texture are the salient characteristics (Sociology, 2017).

Prejudice is an attitude or behavior towards individuals who are being discriminated. It basically means what exactly individual think about adherent of any similar social group. It refers to thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and feelings someone holds against anyone or with group. It does not depend on experiences, instead, depends on prejudgment, developing outside the real experience. A documentary of 1970 called “Eye of the Storm” focuses on the ways of developing prejudice by presenting one category of individuals’ superiority, outcomes in the prejudice against others, who are not privileged by that category (lumen, 2018).

Discrimination is irregular and negative attitude of a person towards any member of same group due to the fact of members in definite stratum or group. People perceive discrimination as an action and consider it as an act towards deprived people. Two forms of discrimination exist. Income and housing discrimination. The major difference among them is subordination of law. Discrimination reflects to behavior, and prejudice reflects to attitudes. Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or race can take several forms, from biased hiring to unfair housing activities. Overt discriminations is seen in many countries, and several cultures. In late 19th century, it was common for owners and entrepreneurs for holding the boards of “No Irish, No Black, No Muslim, etc.” However, discrimination could not be erase from culture only by enacting and announcing laws and legal action for abolishing it. Not even magic pill could completely eliminate it from human minds, and cultures across the globe (Sociology, 2017).

Racial, religious, political or any other prejudice makes the ground for the international misunderstandings. Bias, stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice have an illusory correlation with the truth or reality. Therefore, they lead individual to racial wars, and misunderstanding. Hence, it is necessary to aware about preventive measures and avoiding techniques for such creations. In general, it is running our society, people are getting judgmental, and materialistic. They do not want to talk to people who does not belong to their groups, social societies, or culture. UK is still one of the best example of having discriminated societies and people, who do not want to interact or associate with black, Muslims, Latinos, etc. (Enteman, 2003).

References

Enteman, W.F., 2003. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Images that injure: Pictorial stereotypes in the media, pp.23-27.
Luman, 2018. Stereotype, prejudice and discrimination. [Online], Available at:  https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/stereotypes-prejudice-and-discrimination/, [Accessed on: 27th April, 2018].
Sociology, 2017. Stereotype, Prejudice, and discrimination. [Online], Available at: https://essays-writer.net/essays/sociology/stereotype-prejudice-and-discrimination.html, [Accessed on: 27th April, 2018].

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American media is one of the biggest exports of the American culture. It is one of the widely consumed and distributed forms of culture in United States. It clearly means that Americans not only consume own media in large quantities, but other countries also consume American media. However, nationals of other countries do not understand or interpret the media same way as Americans do, however, different aspect and angles of the American reality and culture are viewed in other countries through media content. Media is one of the most significant tool for discussing class, gender or race in America. It takes viewer for discriminating and understanding the accuracy of proportion found of minority and ethnic groups. As stated by (Omi, 628-629) “Film and television have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave, and , in essence, “who they are”. The power of the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology, but in their capacity to shape that ideology in the first place”. (Cook, 2017).

Even during the Presidential election of Barack Obama, who was the first nonwhite President in history of United States, has contributed in distorted perception, which decreases racial barriers in American society. White people in America have the privilege in United States and different perception related to the effects of class, gender and race on their culture and to nonwhites. White Americans are seen in lower classes and upper-middle class but nonwhites exist more below poverty line as compare to white Americans (Yanow, 2015).

According to Goldberg, (2016), Columbus sailed Ocean Blue in 1492, and everyone is aware about his story, as it is taught in primary schools or before it. When he was landing in United States, he was unaware that he is exploring or developing the biggest Melting Pot of the world. This “Melting Pot” means that a new country, which is made from the mixture of different beliefs and cultures, hence, creating the new changing-culture and new country. The complication with the “Melting Pot” is that individuals are unable to put individuals of different ethnicity and race together without the conflict. The conflict is defined as “A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.” (Murji, and Solomos, 2015)

It all started from the columnist, who work and farm by themselves on the land, which mostly were stolen. Gradually with the passing years, they started to realize that they should not work on their own, if they have other people for doing this for them. And then shipping of the slaves from Africa started. Thousands of slaves were gathered and brought in this foreign lands as slaves by the white people on the basis of race. And then these racial differences formed America. The foundation of United States was on conflict and tension. And so this strained was obvious and continued after the abolishment of the slavery. People lash out on other races for making themselves better. The use of phrases like “hating crimes” were also popping up. In the last century, American Africans were considered as the inferior groups because of their race. Areas were designated for the colored and white people. Colored nationals were forbidden to eat at certain places, and not even permitted to drink water from same fountain white drank. The discrimination was also done on the basis of ethnicity groups. They degrade minorities and do not protect their rights. Minorities were humiliated at many times (Yanow, 2015).

References

Cook, B., 2017. What impact has Ethnic Studies had on Black men (Doctoral dissertation, San Francisco State University).
Goldberg, D.T., 2016. Racial subjects: Writing on race in America. Routledge.
Murji, K. and Solomos, J. eds., 2015. Theories of Race and Ethnicity. Cambridge University Press.
Wade, P., 2017. Race and ethnicity in Latin America. Pluto press.
Yanow, D., 2015. Constructing” race” and” ethnicity” in America: Category-making in Public Policy and Administration. Routledge.

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Functionalism

According to functionalism, ethnic and racial disproportion should have performed a crucial outcome just in order to have existence as long as they are having. This concept is very problematic. How is that possible that discrimination and racism   can contribute positively to a society? So as a functionalist he might see at “functions” and “dysfunctions” that are actually caused by racial disproportion. Nash (1964) based his argument that how racism is beneficial for the supreme group, for example, proposing that racism simply provide a rationale for unequal society. Just take example of how slave owners give grounds for slavery in the South, by believing that black people were literally inferior to white and literally preferred black people for slavery. There is one more way to apply this functionalist view to racism just to discuss that how racism can actually contribute in a positive way to the overall functioning of  the society by making stronger the bonds between group members through the banish of the out-group members. Just focus on how a community can increase agreement by rejecting to allow the access of outsiders. On the other way, Rose (1951) gave his suggestion that dysfunctions kindred with racism that includes the nonsuccess to take benefit of expertise in the defeated group.so that a society must turn aside from other objectives and the effort and time needed to keep false built racial limitations. Consider that how much time effort, money just went towards keeping unequal and separate educational systems preceding the civil rights movement (Lumen, 2018).

Conflict Theory

Conflict theories are applicable for the inequalities in social class, gender, race, ethnicity and education. The perspective of the conflict theory is exist in the world history and examination is done in numerous ways covering the past and present struggles among white, who are the ruling class, ethnic minorities and racial groups, observing the particular conflict, which have risen at the time when a dominant group started to perceive the minority group as a threat. In 19th century, black Americans were rising their power after Civil War, which resulted in the Jim Crow Laws’ draconian, which strictly restricted the black social and political power. For instance, Vivien Thomas (1910–1985), was the black surgical-technician, and he helped in development of groundbreaking techniques in surgeries, which saves many lives of the “blue babies”, despite a fact of his surgical experiments implications were complicated at that time. It has been suggested that effects of the class, race, sexual orientation, gender, and others cannot be separated. Race bring both negative and positive impact on the society. It is necessary to consider both, depends on the situation and on the society (Murji, and Solomos, 2015).

Interactionism

For the interactionist, race and ethnicity provides the impressive symbols of spring identity. Primarily, some interactionist show the symbols of racism not by themselves, but as the guide. There is a famous interactionist named Herbert Blumer (1958) suggested that that preconception of race is formulates by proper interactions among leading members of the groups. So without these proper interactions, individuals that are in the leading group would not hold their racist views .And these interactions bestowed to an abstract image of the inferior group that allows the leading group to reinforce its view of the inferior group, and maintains the status quo. Example of this may be some individual whose views about some particular group are actually based on pictures transferred in popular social media, and those are actually unquestionably approved because the individual has never ever personally met the member of that particular group. One more way to register the interactionist view is to see that how people describe the race of others and their own races .Here discussed in relation to the social structure of race, since few people claim that a white identity have greater skin pigmentation than other people who themselves claim a black identity, how did they actually define themselves as white or black? (Forster, Hitchcock, and Lyimo, 2000).

Culture of Prejudice

Culture of prejudice actually refers to the concept that prejudice is inserted in our own culture. We all grow up neighboring by pictures of stereotypes and natural expressions of prejudice and racism. Focus on the casually racist pictures on shopping store shelves or the casual stereotypes that in actually filling the famous movies and tv commercials. Nowadays, it is so easy to see that how someone lives in the Northeastern States, who might know no Mexican personally, might also get a stereotyped intuition from such type of sources as Taco Bell’s talking Chihuahua.  As we are all being exposed to such images and feelings, it is totally impossible to understand to what length they have actually influenced our own thought processes (Back, and Solomos, 2013).

Some views of racial study the dominant role and inferior groups play its role to create a sturdy social composition. Conflict concepts consider power disparities and clash between different ethnic and racial groups. Interactionists also see ethnicity and race as very important spring of personal identity and social symbolism. The theory of culture of prejudice analyzes that every individual is subject to stereotypes that are imbedded in their culture.

References

Back, L. and Solomos, J., 2013. Theories of race and racism: A reader. Routledge.
Forster, P.G., Hitchcock, M. and Lyimo, F.F., 2000. Theories of Race and Ethnicity. In Race and Ethnicity in East Africa (pp. 16-34). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lumen, 2018. Theories of Race and Ethnicity. [Online], Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/theories-of-race-and-ethnicity/, [Accessed on: 30th April, 2018].
Murji, K. and Solomos, J. eds., 2015. Theories of Race and Ethnicity. Cambridge University Press.

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In the world, where societies are usually driven by individual’s faults, families could be a relative term, which bring all of it back on earth. As societies are extremely divided among sub-categories, it is necessary to have strong backbone and community, which understand the values, practices and customs of individuals. It has been believed that minority groups, are considered anyone who do not belong to any famous culture, less stable in terms of function and form as compare to families who are belong to majority of the societal group. From the racial, ethnical and cultural differences, people are relying on each other and expanding as one unit, and is quite evident that minorities have stronger relationship as compare to majorities.

First of all, individuals need to decide what exactly minority group is. In Arabs or the Muslims, African Americans, Sikhs, Hindus and Indians, even Asians too are few of the minority groups. On the basis of ethnic minorities, it has been found that the study examined the effects and influence of the income status (non-low income vs low income), on functioning of family, quality of the life, and social support in the community. The researches has shown that there are around 17% of African or Black Americans, 4% Asian, 66% white and 7% Latino (Song, 2004).

It seems like such minorities groups are very uncommon, and become the norms due to the fact of migration, repopulation or immigrants in other countries rather than their own country. Such minority groups are misunderstood and usually uncommon, which require from them to be open and must understand cultural and racial differences of each other. When minorities are very small, it is necessary to work altogether and be a stable unit, which makes them stronger and powerful and give the view of not considering them less stable (Ponterotto, and Casas, 1991).

As the characteristics of school are relatable with the acceptance of the ethnic minority neighborhood and class-mates characteristics, are often linked with acceptance of the minority neighbors. It is more likely that in the context of family, acceptance of the minority neighbors irrespective of their ethnicity and race is necessary. This reflects on the difficulty for ethnic minorities for being acceptable in society. Different practices and cultures need acceptance from every single dominating ethnic or majority groups and this goal is very difficult to accomplish. Growing in 90s or little earlier, it was really difficult in finding classmates, or friends or fellows who share same customs and values as one do. But with the passage of time, society started to practice different activities and accept other cultures and the major fact that “everyone is not same”. This has led to confiding and relying on those who are part of minorities. However, it is difficult to find people of the same ethnic minority, but still it forms the sense and bond of reliance upon one another. These families believe that they have no one, except each other (Healey, Stepnick, and O’Brien, 2018).

References

Healey, J.F., Stepnick, A. and O’Brien, E., 2018. Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change. Sage Publications.
Karlsen, S. and Nazroo, J.Y., 2002. Relation between racial discrimination, social class, and health among ethnic minority groups. American journal of public health, 92(4), pp.624-631.
Ponterotto, J.G. and Casas, J.M., 1991. Handbook of racial/ethnic minority counseling research. Charles C Thomas, Publisher.
Song, M., 2004. Choosing ethnic identity. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 39(4), p.478.

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