Race Relations In The United States

Race Relations As reported by The Collins English Dictionary, the denotation of race relations is “relations between members or communities of different races within one country”, and relations meaning “the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected”. Therefore, by combining these two definitions, it can be determined that race relations can loosely be translated to “the way in which members of a community of different races are connected.” Although race relations in the United States of America have seemingly improved in the past fifty years, there is still a tremendous amount of room for improvement. As envisioned by one of the most iconic civil Rights Activists, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Unites Stated should …show more content…
Juxtaposed to white Americans, African Americans are often subject to live in poverty, receive substandard education, and serve prison time. Although, race relations in the United States pertains to far more than just Black and White citizens. The United States is composed of various races and nationalities. Asian Americans, Latin Americans and Muslim Americans are also amongst those who are treated poorly. Due to recent, tragic events, for instance, Muslim Americans have been a large target for discrimination. For example, according to author Abdul Mujahid, after 9/11 and even more so now with “ISIL/ISIS”, “islamophobia” has become a real fear amongst U.S citizens (Mujahid, 2011). Instead of holding one person accountable for their cruel doings, a community often shuns the entire race of that person, which contributes to the nation’s failing raced relations as a whole. In a recent poll conducted by PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll (2015), “58% of Americans, including 60% of whites and 56% of African Americans, say race relations in the United States have worsened in the last year.” This study shows that it is evident that race relations are very poor however, due to society’s inability to hold a single person/small group accountable for their ghastly wrongdoings and instead, penalizing an entire race for the actions of some, …show more content…
Some may argue that the past often times repeats itself. In order to yield the fast paced decline of race relations in the U.S, the youth must be educated on the topic. As suggested by author Victor Luckerson, millennials describe themselves as post-racial and use “not seeing race as a badge of honor” (Luckerson, 2015, p. 25-26). However, this is not a positive aspect. By turning a blind eye to racial tensions, the young adults of the U.S will be at risk for enduring the same negative race relations that have been faced in the past and that are also being faced in today’s society. Instead of embracing and discussing the racial issues that occur in the U.S, 80% of citizens between the ages of 14-24 revealed to MTV that they felt uncomfortable “talking about biases against specific groups” (Luckerson, 2015, p. 26). If race relations are ignored, it can be projected that they will continue to rapidly decline. However, according to the United States Census Bureau, white children will account for less than half of the nation’s minors by the year 2020 (p. 9). Due to recent “white supremacy” related racial issues, this observation indicates that there may be a turn in race relations, seeing that white citizens have historically been higher in the hierarchy of racial issues in the United States. Although, the USCB did not report which race is expected to be the majority, it can be inferred that racial relations