Racism In America :: essays research papers

There is surely no nation in the world that holds "racism" in greater horror than does the United States. Comp ared to opposite kinds of offenses, it is thought to be somehow more reprehensible. The press and public have become so used to tales of murder, rape, robbery, and arson, that any but the most spectacular crimes are shrugged off as part of the inevitable texture of the Statesn life. "Racism" is never shrugged off. For example, when a White Georgetown Law School assimilator reported introductory this year that black students are not as qualified as White students, it set off a booming, national controversy about "racism." If the student had merely murdered someone he would have attracted far less attention and criticism.Racism is, indeed, the national obsession. Universities are on full alert for it, newspapers and politicians frequent it, churches preach against it, America is said to be racked with it, but just what is racism?Dictionaries are no t much help in understanding what is meant by the word. They commonly define it as the belief that ones own ethnic stock is superior to others, or as the belief that culture and behavior are rooted in race. When Americans speak of racism they mean a great deal more than this. Nevertheless, the dictionary definition of racism is a clue to understanding what Americans do mean. A peculiarly American meaning derives from the current dogma that all ethnic stocks are liken. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, all races have been declared to be equally talented and hard- working, and anyone who questions the dogma is thought to be not merely wrong but evil.The dogma has logical consequences that are profoundly important. If blacks, for example, are equal to Whites in every way, what accounts for their poverty, criminality, and dissipation? Since any theory of racial differences has been outlawed, the only possible explanation for black failure is White racism. And since blacks are ma rkedly poor, crime-prone, and dissipated, America must be racked with pervasive racism. Nothing else could be keeping them in such an abject state.All public discourse on race directly is locked into this rigid logic. Any explanation for black failure that does not depend on White wickedness threatens to veer off into the forbidden territory of racial differences. Thus, even if todays Whites can find in their hearts no desire to oppress blacks, yesterdays Whites must have oppressed them.