By victoria schofield Sociology 2630 Racism in 2015 By victoria schofield Sociology 2630

Table of contents 1. What is racism?........................................................3 Stereotypes…………………………………………….. 4 Stereotypes continued………………………………..5 2. Effects on Americans…………………………………6 Today in media………………………………………....7 Examples in the media……………………………..…8 3. Racial Profiling………………………………………….9 Racism in the workplace………………………….....10 4. White privilege and denial……………………….…11 5.“The new threat: ‘Racism without racists”………...12

What is racism? Racism is something that goes back in American history, and still today, remains alive. Racism is defined as a belief that one’s own ethnic group is superior to others. “Racism is power based, and flows from power to lack of power.”-(Diversityinc.com)

stereotypes Stereotypes allow people to categorize new things into spaces that are comfortable for them within their own experiences. Walter Lippmann, came up with the term stereotyping in 1922, saying: “The attempt to see all things freshly and in detail, rather than as types and generalities, is exhausting, and … practically out of the question.” Stereotyping in our society was sorted out by different races and genetic traits (hair color, facial features etc.)

Stereotypes continued.. We as a society are conditioned to believe that people are defined only by their race. This causes negative stereotyping, where one group of people from a certain race and group would think they are more of a dominant group over everyone else. Negative stereotyping still affects people of different races and ethnicities today, people prejudge and assign negative qualities to that specific group, without even knowing much about them.

Effects on Americans Racial stereotyping resulted in hatred being spread all over America. Some negative effects it has on people are harm, health problems and poor performance in various activities. It causes hate crimes and violence to take place when people of our society don’t release these negative racial stereotypes. Michael Inzlcht, led a research study that shows the effects of racial stereotyping saying; “People are more likely to be aggressive after they’ve faced prejudice in a given situation. They are more likely to exhibit a lack of self-control. They have trouble making good, rational decisions. And they are more likely to over-indulge on unhealthy foods.”

Today in media The main culprit of the use of stereotypes is the media, this was the case in American history and in todays society. The media uses stereotypes as a “shorthand method of defining characters in ways that are easy for people to identity and categorize.” Mass media is a public way for people to gain knowledge and information in our world today. The media portrays racial bias and is selective on reporting issues and distort the things we view, for various political emetics and reasons.

Examples in the media The media portrays young African-American males as gangsters, drug dealers, lazy and/or have a high sex drive. In games we play such as “Resident Evil,” the video game trailer depicts racist images of Blacks in Africa, with White gunman. Not only are there hateful images and misinterpret ideas of African Americans in the media, like movies, shows and games. But we also see racism in News. The news only reports certain news about African Americans, and a majority of the news is about white people. The news picks and chooses what it wants its viewers (America) to see. Its far from the truth.

Racial Profiling Racial profiling is when law enforcement officials target individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individuals race, ethnicity or religion. Law enforcement may see someone as “guilty” in their own eyes, and act accordingly, For example: using someone's race to determine which driver to stop for small minor traffic violations. In America, a great example of racial profiling has been ongoing since the attack of 9-11. Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians are being profiled as being in some type of connection with the attack. Since then, there have been numerous cases of racial profiling all over the U.S. It affects our society as a whole today, this is connected to our country and racism.

Racism in the workplace “Employers’ Replies to Racial Names” is an article that studies that effects of racism in the workplace. ”Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback. “ The jobless rate for blacks has doubled that of whites for decades now. According to the article 50 percent more job applications have to be sent out with “black-sounding names,” vs. those with “white-sounding” names, just to get a call back. Every $10,000 increase in pay, “blacks’ percentages of holding that job falls by 7 percent compared to whites.” However, because racial discrimination in work can be and take place virtually undetected, it makes “whites” believe that this type of racism doesn't’t exist.

White privilege and denial White privilege is defined as: societal privileges that benefit white people White privilege is very important to understand because most “white” people do not, they are in denial that it exists, “white privilege is leveraged against ignorant white people to do the bidding of more powerful white people who have an economic agenda.” (diversityin.com) White privilege in America is a core limiting factor in potential success for our society. Denial: A majority of whites believe that blacks earn as much money as whites, however according to Janelle Bouie, “the median income among black Americans is roughly half that of white Americans.” They also believe that “40 percent of violent crimes are committed by blacks,” when in actuality its only around 20 percent. The denials and white privilege has caused Americans to not see that Americas' employment system isn't treating black Americans fairly. White privilege is something that needs to be taught and understood by Americans in order to erase this face of racism.

The new threat: ‘Racism without racists’ Last November, John Black reported on racism in America. His article explores this experiment done with two photographs, one of two white men fighting, one unarmed and another holding a knife. Then they showed another photograph of a white man with a knife fighting an unarmed african-american man. The study resulted in a majority of people, both white and black, identified the black man in one of the photos as having the knife, which was incorrect. This study was to show that there is a language gap, and how some white people confine racism to “intentional displays of racial hostility.” Sociologist at Duke University call this “racism without racists,” a new way of maintaining white domination in places. Bonilla-silva, an author, states “the main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits.” This article is about Americans updating their “language” on racism and focus in on what racism is today and not what it used to be. The article gives three phrases to use when talking about race, ‘I don’t see color, ”But I have black friends,” and “who you calling a racist?.” This will reduce the level of guilt, yet increase the responsibility we take when discussing race. A great quote from this article that, for me, is a great way to view racism in today’s society is; “colorblind racism in the new racial music to most people dance to.” http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/

Reflection 1 What I know about Racism in today’s society is that although we, as Americans like to think that the idea of racism is long gone, it is prevalent throughout the Country. In some places and situations racism isn’t as known from the outside perspective. However it still is everywhere we go. Race seems to be something that we as Americans cant get over or leave alone. It will always be affecting the Country in some way. Racism is something that has cumulated in history and still effects people and is used among various people. Over history and in today’s day and age, people of color are routinely and systematically treated differently than white people. I know that since history, America has put stereotypes of all different races. Especially people of color, they have stereotypes based on their race and people still act the way the stereotypes portray them, today. Racism is in the news and media; it especially affected the justice system today. Police and cops are looked at portraying racism towards people of color. This is shown in the news, TV and all over the web.