Race Relations In 21st Century America

From many perspectives, people in America tend to think that race relations have grown considerably worse in the past decade. Within the past century there have many changes to how races in American interact with each other, however, there is still much to be done. Rights’ activists fight for the total equality of the American public, which many Americans like to believe already exists, but is this true? How can I form my opinion on whether or not there is equality and how can I determine the state of race relations now? If I were a sociologist, there would be specific steps I will take in order to investigate whether or not race relations have grown or worsened. I would identify the factors that lead to my findings, and use my knowledge of …show more content…
The first idea that comes to mind for this study is to just observe everyday life among the public and specifically follow the interactions between people of different races. Although it sounds ideal, this method is impractical. Unfortunately, it would take far too much time to wait for these interactions specifically. I must also consider that often time’s people do not act as they truly feel and since I cannot read minds, I don’t think this is a good approach. After debunking this method, I came up with the idea of an anonymous survey. Asking people of many races and background to fill out this survey containing questions related to race relations. I feel that this is a much better method because I am saving time by producing an objective test for others to take and for myself to review. The fact that this survey would be taken privately and anonymously also increases the chances that I will receive honest …show more content…
In the past there were considerable tensions between those who were commonly seen as the higher and lower parts of society. Racism plays an immense role in how these parts of society were determined. To this day we can still see evidence of this pattern of whites being, on average, more likely to be a part of the top and minorities being toward the bottom. Despite racism playing such a large role in society, “much of the scientific community now adheres to the notion that race is a social construction” (Morris 2007: 410). As people we naturally want to identify who we are like and who we are not. Unfortunately, through the course of history, colonization has taken its toll on how we perceive each other. In the past decade, an extensive amount of focus has been brought to the mistreatment of minorities by institutional forces such as schooling systems, the justice system, and the media. As a result, many people see this as a factor in the worsening of race relations. I do not agree with this notion. I believe that the concentration on these problems is a good thing, as it will support change in the future. Bringing light to subjects that many people consider normal, and pointing out why they are oppressive will kick start the adjustment of ideals in America. Cultural appropriation, stereotyping, and lack of representation should not be deemed normal, they are forms of racism and need to be treated as such. When whites