January 21, 2015

Racism in America: The Resurgence since Obama’s Election

By Writer Redmon  
Friday Jan 09, 2015 10:42 PM EST

A phrase thrown around a lot in regards to race and racism is "post-racial society". Many people falsely believe that we live in a post-racial America, devoid and free from the oppressive ignorance associated with racism. Perhaps the biggest contribution to this belief is that United States President Barrack Obama comes from a bi-racial family, and since he is the leader of the United States racism is non-existent.

This is completely ignoring the struggles that everyday minorities go through on a daily basis; things that people who are not considered minorities can take for granted. In an AP poll taken about racial perspectives since 2008, 51 percent of Americans denoted anti-black attitudes since 2008, compared to 48 percent prior to 2008 (Ponds, 2013). Racism is not dead in America and actually thrives due to fear, misconception, and learned hatred conveyed by popular media trends that uphold outdated racial stereotypes.

Perhaps the biggest aspect of racism in America is the fear associated with race and racial differences. It is the catalyst to many of the stereotypes that persist in American culture, and play a huge factor in how American people interact with one another. The racism that was experienced by the Arab Americans since the attacks on September 11th, 2001 is deeply rooted in the fear that terrorism had a face that looked different than a white person’s.

Like many fears that are based on racial stereotypes, the fear that any Arab American could be a sleeper agent for a terrorist organization is without a basis in reality. The fear ignores that a majority of the Arab Americans in the United States today are natural born citizens, the sons and daughters of Americans whose ancestors arrived here anywhere from 1875 to the end of the Second World War (“Caught in the…”, 2014).

Click on Link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/1/9/1356766/-Racism-in-America-The-Resurgence-since-Obama-s-Election