Speech about Racism

The issue of race in the 21st century is a touchy subject, but one that needs to be talked about. Racism is a cultural creation that continues to wreak havoc on multiple countries, one of which includes the United States, which has a long history of racism. The issue of race has not gone away but has rather taken another form. Racism looks different today than it did 100 years ago, but it is still an issue that needs to be addressed. As a white college-age woman living in Utah, I noticed subtle forms of racism almost every day. I recently watched a movie with my mom that was produced by BYUTV. The movie was played by almost all white actors, except for three construction workers who were black and only shown in two scenes; for BYU I expected this as they are a 98% white school. I did not expect a cop in Salt Lake City to pull me over and proceed to question the black female passenger who I was with. I did not expect to get “looks” from multiple people in the store as I walked with two Mexican children. I did not expect to have an hour-long conversation with my grandfather trying to explain to him why he could not call my Asian friend sushi.

Racism continues to plague businesses, education systems, healthcare services, and our government. When Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States it was considered a huge step towards eradicating racism in this country. Since Donald Trump has been president race relations between Americans have continually gotten worse. Trump’s outrageous racist remarks have welcomed similar behavior among the American people. Trump’s behavior has encouraged a “White America”, and the term “Let’s take our country back”, used by white Americans has become increasingly popular. It has created hatred towards anyone in America who is not white.

I did not expect to encounter racism this often and I couldn't even begin to imagine what people of color deal with on a daily basis. Those who do not recognize racism as a problem often choose to ignore it and those who deal with it every day get angry that nothing is being done. This only makes matters worse and the divide between people grows. Many experts agree that racism is a problem that is almost impossible to solve, but there are small things that can be done to help the situation in a significant way. The goal is to argue against racism by providing facts and examples to make people aware of the issue. Also to provide small solutions to help the problem get better and be able to talk about racism in a productive way. If people recognize racism and understand the issue, they will slowly be able to change their attitudes toward people which is one small step in a potentially big change.

The first step to solving a problem is admitting that there is a problem. From 1995 until the present around half of Americans thought that racism was a big problem. According to the Pew Research Center, during Obama's first 3 years as president the thought of racism being a problem lowered 33% and the numbers have continually risen as high as 58%. The other half of Americans either think it’s not a problem, a small problem, or somewhat of a problem. Racism is undoubtedly a problem in America that needs to be addressed urgently. One does not simply have the ability to cure racism, but recognizing the issue will help to resolve it. We need to be able to recognize that we do not understand every side of every story. A quote by Mary Church Terrell says, “A white woman has only one handicap to overcome - that of sex. I have two - both sex and race… Colored men have only one - that of race.” As a white woman, I do not understand what it is like to have two handicaps and I need to recognize that my race has somewhat allowed me to get ahead in life

It is important to recognize that everyone carries some sort of bias. It is crucial to use critical thinking skills, unbiased sources, and get a variety of opinions to understand any information. The recent information that we have received from mainstream media sources has inaccurately portrayed statistics about colored people. Colored people have been portrayed negatively by multiple people in the news or government. A popular subject that has been misinformed to us is the healthcare system and how people are taking advantage of it. Yes, people do take advantage of our welfare system by lying on forms to receive a greater amount of money, and no it is not only colored people doing this. It is assumed that only colored people do this even though there is a significantly higher percentage of white people in the system. In 2016, welfare statistics have shown that 43% of recipients were White, 18% were African-American, and 30% were Hispanic. Yes, people do take advantage of the system, but it is not subject to a specific race, yet many white Americans believe that it is colored people who are ruining this country. So many people are misinformed about America and they are separating people into groups and accusing them of things when in reality it’s not one single race, but multiple races. Race-specific beliefs and the ”in-grouping” of races is an issue and we have to look into unconscious racism which is a debatable topic as to whether it exists or not.

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Unconscious racism is the unacknowledged belief that your race is better than another race. This includes dirty looks, unfriendly interactions, avoiding eye contact, or choosing to cross the street when a person of color is walking your way. Unconscious racism is created from our daily interactions with people and society. The media, as we have seen, tends to not hold true when portraying people of color. They are often placed in impoverished positions or portrayed as lower than White Americans. The media has linked colored people to negative characteristics and it definitely gives us an unconscious bias. We have to be careful with this unconscious racism that has been ingrained in our minds and be able to recognize that no race is superior.

I don't want to get caught up in the negative aspects of racism by saying that we have accomplished nothing because we have accomplished a lot in the past hundreds of years. It is a long process that takes time and patience, although many people may be running out of patience, we still have made huge strides in eradicating the race problem. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865 and segregation was outlawed in 1964. Even though the government denounced racism there was still an issue of implementing it because not every American follows the law completely. Even though huge steps were taken to help eradicate racism people still let their prejudices get in the way of that; as this continues it is clearly seen in our education system. The legal abolishment of segregation did not happen that long ago, so our country is still in the process of desegregating. A Civil Rights Project was done by Harvard in 2004 and they found that schools were more segregated in 2000 than they were in 1970. There has been little to no change in our schools in regard to race. Whites have continued to stay isolated from other races and colored people have continued to attend minority-majority schools.

Schools are not the only thing where segregation continues to happen, but it is also an issue in our communities. Multiple communities are still segregated into different ethnic groups. According to the 2010 census, Detroit is the most segregated city in America. It is almost completely divided between White people and African Americans by the 8 Mile Road. Even though we have made great strides in eliminating racism, it is still an issue that could easily get worse before it gets better. It would be nice to think that things continually get better, but that’s not always the case. The continued prejudice of people involved in education, healthcare, housing, and businesses undoubtedly has not helped the problem of racism but some protesting has also caused more strife among different races.

Modern-day protests have shown to be little to non-effective because of the lack of organization and purpose. Protests in the past have been really effective such as The March on Washington in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. This protest is credited as being one of the most successful protests as it is partly responsible for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The reason why this protest was successful was because there was organization and purpose. Organizers met with the president and members of Congress prior to the event to discuss how effective the protest would be. The concern was that it would cause more violence rather than induce change, but King pushed for the protest as he argued that there is never an appropriate time to engage in direct action. This peaceful protest had structure, goals, purpose, and organization which is what many modern-day protests lack. Protesting today has turned into a hobby where people of similar beliefs can get together and hang out. There are groups that have more structure and purpose, but the majority of protests in America today are not productive and often prompt violence. There is more power when fixed groups work directly together over a longer period of time, but protests today are under the weak structure of media. This has allowed random people to participate in protests which disrupts the unity and purpose thus also disrupting the cause.

Not all protests involving race are violent and unproductive, but it is important to recognize that racial protests have a violent history that continues into today. With America's history of racism and violence, the problem seems to be getting worse without a solution in sight.