Racial Inequality

The legacy of racial discrimination and oppression towards people of black descent in America, is one of inequality and mistreatment. In “Being Poor, Black, and American,” William Wilson writes about three types of forces that hinder the progress of blacks in society: political, economic, and cultural. Society’s dialogue on the current socio-economic status of most African Americans leans towards blaming blacks for their own lack of effort and judgment; however, these situations are deeply rooted in factors beyond the control of most ordinary black folk: the government’s deliberate initiatives to create of internal ghettos with project standards of living, the lack of circulation into minority communities, the transition away from a physical labor based economy, and an scrutinized sub-set of culture challenging the status quo. Governmental structures and policies, racist in both design and application, continue to cripple the socio-economic progress of most African Americans in modern day American society. In the early twentieth century, both the American federal and state governments started the systematic segregation of minority communities through the implementation of series of policies designed to target said minorities (mainly black Americans) without obvious out forwardly basing their decisions off of the factor of race. After World War II and until the1960’s, the “red-lining” or the refusal of guaranteeing housing mortgages of certain districts by the federal government’s housing agencies contributed to the degeneration of several poor minority majority neighborhoods in cities. To make matters worst, the federal government continued to promote the racist treatment of colored people by promoting the suburbanization of those belonging to the majority white middle class and built various complicated highway structures/projects through impoverished minority communities engineered to further segregate these neighborhoods and essentially create barriers between places of economic opportunity and minority communities. When criticized for being too inclusive, suburban communities chose to diversify by race over class, resulting in the further concentration of poverty in inner city communities. Michelle Alexander, in her literary work "The New Jim Crow", highlights the political forces behind the current oppression of blacks through the War on Drugs in America. Although at first glance, Federal drug policies may seem justifiable in nature, they unfairly target communities of color. As a result of their supposed criminality, convicted felons (especially black felons) legally face “employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal” (Alexander, 2011, p.8). Shamed and shunned in their own respective communities, these felons often live in isolation and despair. The cycle of crime, poverty, and hardship remains prevalent and ingrained in black communities across the …show more content…
Wilson (2011) identifies an emerging form of racism known to social scholar as “laissez faire racism”, as the belief that blacks are responsible for their own socio-economic circumstances and therefore are undeserving of any outside aid. This school of thought and those sharing a distasteful views towards black people result in “devastating effects of oppression is that it dehumanizes the oppressed people” (Osajima, 1998, p.153). These views ultimately believe that blacks are culturally inferior. With the media constantly portraying black males as the one-dimensional aggressors of crime and predators, it is difficult for certain offensive stereotypes to not develop. Racial tensions between blacks and mainstream American society forming from an inadequate understanding of the reality and causes of ghetto culture continue to set back black people’s progress in the nation. Culture results from the interaction with the environment and the people within it, and the variation between the realities of mainstream American society and impoverished minority neighborhood could not be any more drastic in nature. In many cases the sheer differences in culture between mainstream America and inner city ghettos have adverse effects on the economic viability of people of color. The article “Stealing a Bag of Potato Chips and Other Crimes of Resistance” starts with a young black teen named Ronny, who was called in for a job interview at a local steakhouse. After the interview, Ronny left the interviewer without giving a handshake and is asked why he did so. Ronny said, “‘Because it was a white lady. You not supposed to shake a white lady’s hand. They be scared of a nigga. They think I’ma try to take their shit or fuck ’em. I just said thanks