Racism in America the American

Racism in America

The American society is famous for its cultural, racial, and national diversity. It is often argued that the American culture is in itself a culture of immigrants, taking into account the history of the 19th and 20th century in particular. However, as the diversity continues to widen as more and more people from all the corners of the world chose the U.S. As their new home, the discrimination issue is becoming more and more a problem of the U.S. society. From the perspective of the last centuries, racial discrimination is a significant factor in the development of the American way of life. The African-American problem, slaver, the Civil Rights Movement, all these were important moment in the history of the U.S. which forced the American state to deal with the issue of diversity and the respect for human and civil rights. At the moment, the U.S. is considered to be one of the most democratic countries in the world; nonetheless, there are aspects of its social manifestations which tend to point out that discrimination, and especially discrimination based on racial differences, continues to be a debated subject in the 21st century. At the same time though, taking into account the fact that the U.S. is also the original place of the entertainment business, race has often been dealt with through humor and with ease. Nonetheless, this approach is not always a positive one; it may cause the definite consideration of certain racial cliches that will be entrenched in the popular culture of the American society.

The history and culture of the U.S. was deeply marked by racism. The Revolutionary War represented one of the first moments in which Black people were used as tools for the American Loyalists and Patriots in their confrontation against the British (Jenkins, 1997). Both sides tried to exploit the African-Americans' desire for independence from the chains of slavery and promised them freedom. However, following the war, most of the slaves who were engaged in the battles were sent to areas such as Jamaica, or even Britain. Therefore, a certain culture of oppression was created from that moment on, one in which the African-Americans came to identify with in the following decades and one which to a certain extent was imposed to the general public and conscience (Loveman, 1999)

The Civil War can be considered to be a milestone in the issue of slavery and discrimination. Although the main reason for the conflict was not necessarily the matter of the "peculiar institution," slaves were often forced to fight to defend their master's land and properties, without any guarantee for freedom. Nonetheless the abolition of the practice during the Lincoln Administration was a step forward. The subsequent actions which tried to limit and give rights to African-Americans at the same time contributed only to the establishment of a racial culture that would mark the behavior of Blacks throughout the 20th century, as the Civil Rights Movement emerged, developed, and withered.

One cannot grasp the full dimension of the racial attitude in today's American society. According to some sources, "in a 2001 Gallup Poll, 66% of Blacks and 45% of Whites expressed their belief that race relations will always be a problem in the United States" (Philipsen, 2003). Despite the fact that there are efforts being made for the improvement in the treatment of minorities, it seems that racism is nowadays part of the entertainment business as well. Richard Pryor, a well-known comedian tried to address the issue of race in his humor. In this sense he made use of the term "nigger" in many of his jokes on race and black discrimination (Hansen, 2005). He often motivated his approach through the fact that he aimed at making people aware of the notion and forcing them to accept in a positive way, through laughter. (Hansen, 205)

The use of humor as a means of dealing with racism is most of the times seen as benefic approach. People tend to appeal more to a situation when this is presented in a funny manner, rather than a dramatic apocalyptic one. This argument has often been invoked to explain the way in which certain films that deal with Black people are still seen as classical comedies. More precisely, Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles," although deals with Black people and other discriminated groups of the society, it does so in a humorous manner.

The issue of the film in the end is not necessarily to address discrimination but rather to point out the possible and normal relations that are created at the level of a community, no matter its members. Although it has often been seen as a production which exploits the racial prejudices of the American society, on the other hand it tries to deal with them and point them out through laughter. The question then arises, "does the charge of prejudice come from the fact that the movie laughs and pokes fun at it instead of excoriating it? Would it have been better if it had dealt with it in the same dour, overcast manner adopted by many anti-racist activists? Would a waggling finger and pursed lips be better than a laugh at the bastards' expense?" (Tremlett, 2002). Therefore, some views consider this approach to be more useful than hard line activists.

In relation to this approach, there are studies made which argue that discussion an issue, such as racial discrimination, by using humor as a tool, is an important and most of the times useful technique. More precisely, "Humor lends itself particularly well to use as a conflict device because of its almost boundless limits in subject matter, and because its nature is such that it often contains more or less well concealed malice" (Burma, 1946). This malice tends to determine a numer of categories for jokes related to Black people. In this sense, "An obvious division of race-conscious humor into four categories immediately presents itself. That is, the joke may be by Negroes and pro-Negroes; by Negroes and anti-white; by whites and pro-white; by whites and anti-Negro" (Burma, 1946). It is considered that the second and the last categories are the most common. Indeed, from a point-of-view, they may be considered innocent, as there is only humor involved. On the other hand, depending on the language, they may be offensive and even attacking.