Joshua Weg
Professor Guevara
POLS 197 (FRI 8-10:45AM)
3 March 2016
Why Does Race Still Matter?
2016 is going to make history again regardless of whoever is elected into office. This election, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will not be fully enforced for the first time (Goodman). This leaves many people concerned about the possible disenfranchisement that can occur, especially for minorities. My thesis is that race is still matters because whites are interested in maintaining their power over non-whites. You can see this process of maintaining power all the way back to the establishment of America. There are instances of race relations that lead to political inequality. First we are going to address the distinctions between race and ethnicity. …show more content…
Due to the fact that whites have normalized themselves, it is very difficult for them to see their “whiteness” or their pronounced superiority (Pinder 67). That is that since the whole process was considered the norm, for example having a slave or having a lynching posse people could not see it as racist. Which is why the problem is not that all white people are racists, but rather it is the laws and policies that government has passed that are highly racist (Pinder 19). It is these laws and policies that provide white people with white …show more content…
During the 2000 election, in the state of Florida, many black residents found themselves disenfranchised, unable to vote in the election (Unprecedented). Their Disenfranchisement was caused by Database Technologies, Inc., a database company, they were charged with compiling a list of felons that resided within the state of Florida (Unprecedented). One criteria that was emphasized by the state was to use the classification black (Unprecedented). Also they were a set of lose parameters, like they only need to match the first 4 letters of a known felon, no suffixes should be considered, and age was irrelevant (Unprecedented). Also it is important to add that the governor of Florida at the time was Jabidah Bush, the younger brother of the republican candidate and president of the United States, George W. Bush, and he pushed getting this list created (Unprecedented). The reasoning was simple, blacks mostly voted democrat, so using provisions in the Florida constitution for the disenfranchisement of felons, If there was reason to consider a black to be a felon, they were disenfranchised (Unprecedented). Of course, this does not reflect great race relations. Considering how most of the disenfranchised were not actually felons (Unprecedented). I reflects on a deep level how race is still playing a deep role in politics. Of course, the democrats did not do any better. Instead of worrying about the
Professor Guevara
POLS 197 (FRI 8-10:45AM)
3 March 2016
Why Does Race Still Matter?
2016 is going to make history again regardless of whoever is elected into office. This election, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will not be fully enforced for the first time (Goodman). This leaves many people concerned about the possible disenfranchisement that can occur, especially for minorities. My thesis is that race is still matters because whites are interested in maintaining their power over non-whites. You can see this process of maintaining power all the way back to the establishment of America. There are instances of race relations that lead to political inequality. First we are going to address the distinctions between race and ethnicity. …show more content…
Due to the fact that whites have normalized themselves, it is very difficult for them to see their “whiteness” or their pronounced superiority (Pinder 67). That is that since the whole process was considered the norm, for example having a slave or having a lynching posse people could not see it as racist. Which is why the problem is not that all white people are racists, but rather it is the laws and policies that government has passed that are highly racist (Pinder 19). It is these laws and policies that provide white people with white …show more content…
During the 2000 election, in the state of Florida, many black residents found themselves disenfranchised, unable to vote in the election (Unprecedented). Their Disenfranchisement was caused by Database Technologies, Inc., a database company, they were charged with compiling a list of felons that resided within the state of Florida (Unprecedented). One criteria that was emphasized by the state was to use the classification black (Unprecedented). Also they were a set of lose parameters, like they only need to match the first 4 letters of a known felon, no suffixes should be considered, and age was irrelevant (Unprecedented). Also it is important to add that the governor of Florida at the time was Jabidah Bush, the younger brother of the republican candidate and president of the United States, George W. Bush, and he pushed getting this list created (Unprecedented). The reasoning was simple, blacks mostly voted democrat, so using provisions in the Florida constitution for the disenfranchisement of felons, If there was reason to consider a black to be a felon, they were disenfranchised (Unprecedented). Of course, this does not reflect great race relations. Considering how most of the disenfranchised were not actually felons (Unprecedented). I reflects on a deep level how race is still playing a deep role in politics. Of course, the democrats did not do any better. Instead of worrying about the