Racial Discrimination in America: History, Policy, and Impact
This paper examines racial discrimination in the United States as a systemic social problem rooted in the historical tension between White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elites and disenfranchised minority communities, particularly African Americans. The paper traces the problem from slavery through Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights movement, and into contemporary manifestations such as racial profiling, unequal law enforcement, and institutionalized discrimination. Drawing on FBI hate crime data, scholarly sources, and the narratives of figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the paper argues that current political correctness policies fail to address the structural foundations of racial inequality and that meaningful change requires a transformation in both social institutions and individual moral outlook.
- Introduction: Defining Racial Discrimination: Defines racial discrimination and assesses its scope
- Historical Roots of Racial Oppression in America: Traces WASP elite oppression from slavery to eugenics
- America's Attempts to Address Racial Discrimination: Reviews Civil War, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights responses
- Contemporary Manifestations and Policy Failures: Critiques political correctness as hollow policy response
- Police, Racial Profiling, and Community Relations: Examines policing disparities and racial profiling harms
- Toward a Solution: Brotherhood Over Division: Calls for moral and spiritual transformation over politics
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in both quantitative evidence (FBI hate crime statistics) and qualitative historical narrative, giving it a dual analytical foundation.
- It moves logically from definition and historical cause through policy critique to a proposed moral solution, creating a coherent argumentative arc.
- The use of prominent historical figures—Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X—as rhetorical anchors effectively humanizes the abstract structural analysis.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of structural critique: rather than treating racial discrimination as a series of isolated incidents, it identifies an entrenched power structure (WASP elites) as the root cause and evaluates policies against that structural backdrop. This approach allows the author to argue that surface-level reforms like political correctness are insufficient without addressing underlying power dynamics.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a definition and magnitude assessment, followed by a causal historical analysis. It then surveys America's legislative attempts at remediation, critiques current policy as inadequate, examines the specific problem of policing, and closes with a normative argument for moral and spiritual transformation. Each section builds on the prior one, moving from diagnosis to prescription.
Introduction: Defining Racial Discrimination
The social problem examined in this paper is racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is any discriminatory act against a person based on race; a subtype of this broader category is racial harassment. The magnitude of racial discrimination is very high: according to the FBI's Hate Crime Statistics, 51% of reported hate crimes are based on race (Hate Crimes in America, 2015). However, as Blank, Dabady, and Citro (2004) point out, "simply identifying an association with race is not equivalent to measuring the magnitude of racial discrimination or its contribution to differential outcomes by race" (p. 72). In other words, it is not easy to define the precise magnitude of racial discrimination because distilling the cause-and-effect relationship requires careful testing, and in complex socio-economic environments, experiments are difficult to conduct with adequate controls. Nonetheless, a qualitative sense of the problem's magnitude can be discerned in the narratives of men like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose legacies depict a kind of racial discrimination in America that has broad historical associations and deep origins.
Historical Roots of Racial Oppression in America
The problem can best be understood, in causal terms, by identifying the tension in American history between White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) elites and the disenfranchised, formerly enslaved black population. The history of WASP-based oppression of blacks and other minorities in America can be seen in the American eugenics movement, led by figures like Margaret Sanger, who promoted birth control as a means to control and eventually eliminate the black population (Jones, 2000). Essentially, WASP elites have discriminated against minorities in America based on race — though culture is also a motivating factor, as ethnicity, culture, and race are bound together in the discriminatory outlook of this establishment. The key groups affected by this problem are primarily black Americans, who make up the majority of the incarcerated population. Key figures have risen in the past to lead black movements — men like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. — both of whom were assassinated.
References
Blank, R., Dabady, M., & Citro, C. (2004). Measuring Racial Discrimination. NY: NAP.
Hate Crimes in America. (2015). Civil Rights. Retrieved from
Jones, E. M. (2000). Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press.
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