The Article that I read is about an African-American Service member that wanted to prove America wrong about the issue of race. He served alongside Men that were part of the ‘‘Tuskegee Airmen’’ and the adversities that African-American service members faced during the time of war. The article explains the conflicts that Emmet J Rice faced as an officer in the Military, at a time when the United States was fighting for Freedom, but even the most Elite Flying force of that time was subject to racial discrimination, segregation, and inequality.
The author wrote this article to bring light to the issue of race and inequality in America . She used her Father’s experience as an African-American service member to bring up the struggles that some services members of this specific race faced in America during the time of war. He served under president Truman’s term, he worked with the ‘‘Tuskegee Airmen’’, who were the nations first black pilot fighting unit during that time. She talks about one of the events where her father was discriminated against. He was denied entry to the white officer’s club in Fort Knox KY. She points out that she saw restaurants serving German prisoners of wars but would not serve Blacks in their establishments, which just made her feel more and more disgusted about the treatment minorities, but specifically black people received in America.
She shows bias opinion about the treatment that these people were facing until she understood the deeper meaning of why her dad changed his own perspective about what America really was about in his own eyes. According to the author, her father learned how to cope with racial bias in America, by strengthening his own understanding and belief that race was more socially constructed, that you must free yourself of the Phycological and social burden in order to perform to your full potential. The author points out that her father started living life by set of rules of his own to cope with racial discrimination in America, which were, try to act, work and perform as if there were no such thing as discrimination.
The Author explains that she took on her dad’s philosophy and embraced it as her own in both race and gender inequality. She internalized her dad’s messages that she should never doubt her own abilities as a black woman in America. She also covers something very important based on her father’s experience that even after the years , the effect of discrimination, being told ‘’No’’, unequal treatment and racial bias scarred him deeply. Those times, according to the author low expectations, close doors and lack of opportunity based on race was damaging to her father over a long period of time. She was shield from this environment by her father but, she was able to understand that this social conflict can be overcame individually strengthening your abilities and understanding the bigger picture. She goes to express what the biggest lesson of her dad’s struggles and hard times were, that her dad was an exceptional patriot who recognized the nature of what America really was, its democracy, the values and institutions. He understood that only in America he could reach the potential that he was able to reach in society despite the racial differences that were ongoing during his time.
The level of analysis of this paper is Macro because race is an issue that affects the larger institutions within a society and how it views social structures within the society. The theories that could apply to this article would be Structural Functionalism and Social Conflict. Structural functionalism views the world as a well-oiled machine, a system whose parts work well together. It implies that it maintains stability and order in society, and that if it exists, it must serve a purpose in the larger scale of social structure.
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Structural Functionalism would view racial discrimination as a way of separating the groups and maintaining equality in society. It would argue that by creating such separation within, outgroups would form a stronger bond therefore wanting to grow within the society. For example, the article explains that a lot of the ‘‘Tuskegee Airmen’’ joined to prove that they could flight as good, if not better than White pilots. They created a stronger bond that ultimately led to their success within society as an outgroup. This would relate to Structural Functionalism, and how by the presence of inequality in the armed forces, outgroups were motivated to grow and excel above discrimination because of the racial separation that existed, therefore making racism necessary and purposeful to society during that time.
Conflict theory sees society as an arena for inequality that generates conflict and change. It would be defined by the unequal share of power, wealth and resources within society. Although conflict theories would agree that inequality may serve a purpose, they also state that it serves people differently therefore creating conflict within the society on larger scale. If we apply this theory to the article, Conflict theories would argue that, African-American pilots fighting for American freedom were denied freedom themselves. African-American pilots were not allowed to eat in same restaurants as White pilots, they couldn’t go into the same bars, go into the same clubs of even whole the same status as White pilots, even though they were fighting for the same cause during the war.
Both of this theory have advantages and disadvantages as well as their views of one another. Structural functionalism, as it applies to the article, would criticize Conflict theory based on their application of political views, and how shared values can lead to unity within society. They will also say that Conflict theory lacks faith in social structure and therefore making it difficult to maintain prosperity and stability.
Conflict theory on the opposite critique to Structural Functionalism would be that, it ignores the unfairness and inequalities of society to justify the view of stability and balance within the structures of society. That ignoring inequalities based on racial discrimination in this case generates tension and conflict within the structures of society, forcing the minorities to create outgroups to fight this inequality and try to gain a better position and equality in society.
I choose this article because it is a topic that still affects society today. Racial inequality and discrimination still take place today and large structures like the military, sports, legal system, government among others. I Think it is very important to understand what the author is relating to, her father’s life through her own, and how she has learned to live by the same philosophy that back then her father learned to live by. When reading this article, I gained a better understanding about how larger structures influence smaller structures in society, and how these smaller groups create outgroups to equalize those inequalities presented within their society, in this case America and the discrimination against African-American pilots. It was interesting to see from the author’s perspective that, even though her father was fighting for freedom, he himself didn’t even have his own freedom. What is more fascinating is that after years of being bitter with the treatment that he received and being scarred by social and racial discrimination, her father learned to cope with this issue. So much that he came to understand that, he would’ve never been able to accomplish what he had accomplished anywhere else than in the very same Society that he faced these adversities. When I first read the article, I had to come in with a blank mind and forget what I knew or experienced about racism, because I wanted to be able to understand how different people can react to this issue. While reading, I was able to see some aspect of society and some of the key theories that were presented in class and how the two that I picked were related to this article. Not only did I learn something about the ‘‘Tuskegee Airmen’’ and how it was the first established black pilot fighting unit. In my opinion the article did not change anything in particular about my thought process in society but more so reinforced what I already been applying to my day to day which is, never judge anyone before knowing them despite of religion, race, sexual preference, and most importantly, understand that I have to approach new situations bias free and with a beginners mind. In Addition to that, something the article did help me understand is that, we can choose to handle racism and turn it into something to better ourselves without blaming the outcomes solely on racial inequality but understand that it does exist.
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