Argumentative Essay on Racism

In America, racism has been evident throughout the years in many different ways. We all see race differently, it all depends on social class, skin color, location, and gender. One of the earliest signs of racism in America would be slavery in the 1600s. Africans came to America against their will to be used as a source of cheap labor for white farmers and plantation owners. Enslaved blacks were forced to work in dreadful conditions. Blacks lived to serve the white man and had no rights. In this…

Little Big Man challenges typical American narratives of history through the inclusion of numerous Natives American characters with multidimensional roles in order to help promote the idea that they were merely the victims by European settlers during the colonial days, the real “savages.” The film’s main character, a white man who plays plays the role of both a European settler and a disguised Native, helps expose the brutal realities of the frontier, by his own people against the Natives who…

injustices herself, and had a purpose that was more supportive of an emotional appeal. Melnick, on the other hand, did not have a purpose that required the reader to feel sympathy for African Americans and does not have the personal experience with racism directed at her as Hurston did. Despite the fundamental similarities in topic, the two works have very different effects on the…

The movie Remember the Titans is an excellent example for sociological theories. Many topics can be observed within this movie, but two of the most prominent topics that we covered this semester are social structure, more specifically race and prejudices, and group processes, focusing on status construction. This movie takes place in a small town in North Carolina that has to deal with the shifting racial makeup of their football team, therefore high school, and therefore community. There is a…

In her article titled Slavery, Race, and Ideology in America, Barbara Fields asserts that race is a social construction rather than a physical attribute of individuals. In accordance with Fields, injustices have historically arisen when society tries to assign meaning to race. She asserts that dominant groups often use race to assert a presumed biological superiority in order perpetuate social hierarchy and justify oppression. Subsequently, racial meaning is consistently “verified” in social…

The American criminal justice system is the epicenter that deals with cases portraying racism. People’s attitude towards this topic is divided into two points of view: discrimination is present when convicting a person from a minority or racism is no longer part of the criminal justice system. The first point of view, in “Criminal Justice,” Jesselyn McCurdy argues that racial profiling by law enforcements agents is based on purely racial stereotypes (45). She stresses the fact that the…

societal system. A nation that is supposed to based on the standards of equality and equity has delineated to standards that reflect selfish and egocentric beliefs. Black Lives Matter has and the recent election Donald Trump have both exposed the hidden racism that is present in our…

of light-skinned African Americans. This introspective song addresses many issues of inequality, racism, ethnicity, and identity in the African American community. Wale begins his song by declaring that he still has a chip on his shoulder due to the quotas of many major labels that doubted him and only look for someone to boost their profits with pop singles. This is a case of institutional racism, in which minority groups are at a severe disadvantage. “There’s not a lot of ethnicity in the…

Slavery Experiences Experiences make one’s story. Whether this experience is good or bad depends on the person. Slavery is a touchy subject that has caused controversies for decades. It has caused wars, amendments to be passed and segregation. Slavery was never a good thing, but the harshness shapes the experience. In this essay, I will explore various literary works on slavery and the different experiences involved. First, I will discuss the life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was…

The American civil war was a time of severe devastation. Pinning “brother vs brother”, this war destroyed not only the country’s landscape but also the relationships amongst many. However, from the ashes of this destruction rose heroes willing to fight for what they believed in; freedom. One of these heroes was a man named Newt Knight. Newt was a man who defended his beliefs till the very end, this being said he did not support the beliefs of those for whom he had been forced to fight. With his…