Race and Ethnicity

Chapter 15, titled “Race and Ethnicity” is a very interesting chapter. The chapter discusses many different topics including ethnicity, race, minority/dominant groups, racism, prejudice, discrimination, etc. I found this chapter very intriguing to me because living in North Idaho, I see a good amount of racism. The demographics show that the area is predominately Caucasian, so when someone of a minority group is around one could see them being treated differently. Also, the Aryan Nations group once had their headquarters in the Hayden area. I’m not saying everybody in the area is racist, but there are some people that will show that there is at least some racism in the area. Some racism is too much racism. This chapter showed me a lot different types of racism that I didn’t previously know about (such as aversive racism, laissez-faire racism, color-blinded racism, institutional racism and racial profiling)I had previously believed that there was just one type of racism, and that it was discriminating against somebody just simply based on the color of their skin. 

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11161

The article that I have linked you to is one from America Magazine (America, 2011). The article discusses how bishops within the Catholic Church (America Magazine is a Catholic magazine) declared racism a “sin” in 1979 and how they knew that racism was a plague that they thought needed to be dealt with. I used this article to represent the “race” concept that is discussed in the chapter 10. The article is laced with the topic of how Catholic leaders didn’t like racism. 

The photograph provided is a picture of a girl who was a part of the "Little Rock Nine". The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African-American students who enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The picture helps show the hatred of the time of people of separate races that existed only 54 years ago, and that still exists in part today.

 The video clip I provided is one that gives a brief overview on the civil rights movement. The video,  titled "Civil Rights Movement" (2008) helps explain a specific concept from the text. The specific concept being racism; the civil rights movement was completely based on the racism being held over African-American’s of the time. The video goes over the biggest events of the civil rights movement (Montgomery Bus Boycott, Little Rock Nine, etc.). The text also discusses the civil rights movement (pg. 256) as a concept itself.

Link to two Internet sites that provide useful information about concepts from the chapter:

1. http://articles.cnn.com/2006-12-12/us/racism.poll_1_whites-blacks-racism?_s=PM:US

This article is about how Americans still think they see racism today, not in themselves, but in others.  This article helps show the concept of racism that is discussed in the chapter. Only 13% of whites and 12% of blacks consider themselves racially biased, but 49% of blacks said racism is a “very serious problem” but only 18% of whites thought that racism was a “very serious problem”. This shows that people think of racism as a problem in others but not as much in themselves. (CNN, 2006)

2. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/racial-stereotypes.html

This site provides a list of common racial stereotypes. Stereotypes are a concept that is discussed in Chapter 10 of the text. The site lists 14 common racial stereotypes that are persistent today. Sometimes I have to wonder how some of these stereotypes even started. The site helps provide information on stereotypes, a concept discussed in the text. (Buzzle, 2011)

One quote that represents the feelings I had while reading the chapter:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”-Martin Luther King Jr. (1963, August 28)

While reading the chapter, the section on race really stuck out to me. While reading through the racism that is discussed I thought of Martin Luther King Jr. and his “I Have a Dream” speech from Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. The speech he gave completely changed the world and many people were touched by the speech. Every time I think or hear about Civil Rights or racism, my mind immediately jumps to Martin Luther King Jr. giving this great speech.