Racism In America :: essays research papers

There is surely no rural argona in the world that holds "racism" in greater horror than does the coupled States. Compared to other kinds of offenses, it is thought to be somehow more(prenominal) reprehensible. The press and general confine become so used to tales of murder, rape, robbery, and arson, that any(prenominal) but the closely spectacular crimes are shrugged off as part of the inevitable caryopsis of the Statesn life. "Racism" is never shrugged off. For example, when a colour Georgetown Law direct student reported earlier this year that black students are non as qualified as White students, it set off a booming, bailiwick controversy about "racism." If the student had merely murdered someone he would have attracted far less attention and criticism.Racism is, indeed, the national obsession. Universities are on full alert for it, newspapers and politicians denounce it, churches preach against it, America is said to be racked with it, but j ust what is racism?Dictionaries are not much help in understanding what is meant by the word. They usu ally narrow down it as the belief that ones own ethnic stock is superior to others, or as the belief that culture and behavior are rooted in race. When Americans speak of racism they mean a great deal more than this. Nevertheless, the dictionary definition of racism is a clue to understanding what Americans do mean. A peculiarly American meaning derives from the current dogma that all ethnic stocks are equal. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, all races have been declared to be equally talented and hard- working, and anyone who questions the dogma is thought to be not merely wrong but evil.The dogma has logical consequences that are profoundly important. If blacks, for example, are equal to Whites in every way, what accounts for their poverty, criminality, and dissipation? Since any theory of racial differences has been outlawed, the only possible explanation for black ill i s White racism. And since blacks are markedly poor, crime-prone, and dissipated, America must be racked with distributive racism. Nothing else could be keeping them in such an abject state. completely public discourse on race today is locked into this rigid logic. each explanation for black failure that does not depend on White wickedness threatens to veer off into the forbidden territory of racial differences. Thus, raze if todays Whites can find in their hearts no desire to crush blacks, yesterdays Whites must have oppressed them.