Racism Unfortunately, Racism Is a Pervasive Element

Racism Unfortunately, racism is a pervasive element in American society. As the reaction to the 2008 Presidential election at the University of Mississippi shows, many Americans cannot tolerate a person of color in a position of power. The right-wing rhetoric that continually denounces Obama in the media stems in part from covert racism, rather than being just attributable to different political beliefs. The causes of racism are complex and multifaceted, and extend to the core of American history.

It is impossible to study American history without studying the history of white power, and yet, as the author of Lies My Teacher Told Me points out, most textbooks whitewash American history to create a climate tacitly tolerant of racism. Before the emancipation of the slaves, the American economy depended on the free labor pool that slaves provided. It was necessary to have a marked and visible class of human beings, in this case persons of African ancestry, that could be readily subjugated via use of force.

Even after the emancipation of the slaves, racism endured as African-Americans made a convenient underclass easy to exploit via institutionalized racism and denial of access to political and cultural capital. Many Americans still view persons of color as the underclass, which is why the election of Barack Obama caused the violent reactions at Ole Miss described by Johnson in the Washington Post article.

Racism in America is perpetuated by both personal and structural elements in the society, creating a vicious cycle that prevents the United States from living up to its promise to be a great nation. The personal elements that cause and perpetuate racism include biased beliefs, stereotypes, and socialization into a racist community. Racist beliefs have a psychological and sociological dimension to them. They allow for the creation of in-group/out-group statuses, and enable a stratified society.

Racism and stereotyping simplify social encounters, making it easier for the feeble-minded to contend with complexity and diversity. It is easier to group all persons of a single group under the same umbrella than it is to treat each person as an individual, without any preconceived notions or prejudices. There are also direct benefits to being a bigot. When racism is perpetuated, it allows for the creation of a white dominant culture. Those who control the dominant culture control how blacks and whites are portrayed in the media.

For a long time, African-Americans had no control over how black people were portrayed in movies or on television, because these types of media barred African-Americans from active participation other than to be caricatures. Thus, the housemaid in Gone with the Wind fulfills the "mammy" stereotype that helps to uphold the dominant culture's beliefs about the role and status of African-Americans in society. In situations like the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama blasted many people's stereotypes about African-Americans.

The violent reaction at Ole Miss reflects the cognitive dissonance that many of the students felt when their stereotypes and deeply held beliefs were shattered right before their eyes. Structural elements in the society that cause and perpetuate racism are commonly referred to as institutionalized racism. Institutionalized racism are the structural elements that practically prevent upward social mobility or self-improvement among the underclass, such as the situation in which many African-American communities remain impoverished and have underfunded schools.

Institutionalized racism is not as apparent as it was in the days of Jim Crow, when institutions like banks were able to openly discriminate against African-American loan requests. Yet even today, there are many examples of institutionalized racism. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me is essentially about institutionalized racism, because it reveals the hidden curricula in public schools. Textbooks have the power to construct reality, or at least to construct history. In this way, racist beliefs and attitudes become institutionalized.

They become part of the public consciousness, influencing the malleable attitudes and beliefs of young people. The effects of personal and institutionalized racism are tremendous and debilitating. Obama's opponents have compared him with Hitler, and have made other comments that are similarly outlandish. These over-reactions, which have no basis at all in fact, reveal what Loewen talks about in Lies My Teacher Told Me, that "race is the sharpest.