Are we doing any better? By Sheri Earl Racism In Today’s Society

Table of Content Research Articles Yes, America has Gotten Better About Racism, but it Really Doesn’t Matter by Mychal Denzel Smith It Really is Better Now for Blacks by John McWhorter Charts: Racial Profiling Book Summaries Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I’m _____! By Michael L. Birzer Reflections: Still a long way to go...

Research Article Yes, America has Gotten Better About Racism, but it Really Doesn’t Matter According to Mychal Denzel Smith, blogger for The Nation.com and a Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute, celebrating how far we’ve come with regards to racism enables us to avoid the hard work that still needs to be done. We delude ourselves into thinking that with the dying off of the older generation, things will just get better with time he says. We overlook how dependent we’ve become on the racist institutions founded by older generations. Smith says its not just a matter of changing attitudes, we have to be willing to challenge systems of power and uproot racism and white supremacy. racism-it-really-doesnt-matter# racism-it-really-doesnt-matter#

Research Article It Really Is Better Now For Blacks John McWhorter, frequent contributor to The Root, says having a perspective on how badly black people were treated 100 years ago helps us appreciate the racial progress we have made. Only 100 years ago, laws were in place that prevented black people from having business or homes in white neighborhoods. 100 years ago, Booker T. Washington was severely beaten with a cane by a white man supposedly because Washington said “Hello, Sweetheart” to the man’s wife which later turned out to be a lie. Racism, says McWhorter, came straight from the Oval Office. President Taft, was quoted as telling a black audience in Atlanta not to hang around in saloons "wasting time," after which Theodore Roosevelt warns them that getting "conceited" is "the very worst thing that could happen to you!“ McWhorter says, ”I know that racism exists, and I write about it -- while always imagining how the old-timers would see it if they talked to a black person today who was grumbling that racism is still a grinding daily burden for us.”

Racial profiling

Racial Profiling

Book summary Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I’m ———! by Michael L. Birzer This book places minority citizens who believe they have been racially profiled by police authorities at the center of the data. Using primary empirical studies and extensive, in-depth interviews, the book draws on nearly two years of field research into how minorities experience racial profiling by police authorities.

Still A Long Way to Go to Eradicate Racism Racism in the form of discrimination persists in society today and it doesn’t take much to arouse suspicion if you are black. For instance Trayvon Martin was walking home from a snack run to 7-11 and wearing a hoodie. This aroused enough suspicion for George Zimmerman to convince a jury that he shot and killed the unarmed black teenager Martin in self-defense. Michael Dunn convinced a jury he too was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Jordan Davis over listening to “thug music.” Despite how far we’ve come, we still have such a long way to go. A person should not have to worry about being shot and killed simply because someone else is afraid of the color of their skin.

about-racism-it-really-doesnt-matter# about-racism-it-really-doesnt-matter# ter_now.html ter_now.html profiling/article_820a00a0-4ce7-11e3-a a4bcf6878.html profiling/article_820a00a0-4ce7-11e3-a a4bcf6878.html Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because I’m ———! by Michael L. Birzer Sources Cited