'Race in America since the 1960s Essay\r'

'the States has come a long dash since the dark days when slavery marred the continent. The journey to equality was non perpetually a smooth one, and totally in the last half-century en sexual practice African-Americans been granted their know rights and libertys. Now that they moderate these equal rights, they are taking their place to take advantage of their equal opportunities, but on that point salve seems to be a glass capital preventing their further progress.\r\nWhite Americans lock in evoke racial progress in more areas, while the reality remains that ofttimes of this progress is illusion. With the election of Barack Obama as the professorship of the United States, it seems safe to say that racial relations in the country have certainly improved in the one-time(prenominal) fifty years. In the 1950s, galore(postnominal) African-Americans could not even vote in umpteen parts of the country, with racist leaders and citizens doing everything in their creat or to deny this most canonic of rights.\r\nOnce desegregation took effect and was compel by the federal government, it seemed that African-Americans had finally wind equality. However, this was mostly a myth based on the horrible conditions they once faced, and the flow rate conditions shut away often view them as a marginalized race. Couple this with the massive influx of Latin Americans into the U. S. , and race relations are that as explosive as they were in the 1960s.\r\nOne program designed to embolden racial equality is approving action, which has been some(prenominal) a b slighting and a accurse for minorities. Originally conceived as a meat to redress discrimination, favourable action has created racial preferences that have instead promoted discrimination. And rather than further accord and integration, these preferences have divided many businesses and college campuses across the country.\r\nIn no opposite area of public life is there a greater disparity b etwixt the rhetoric of preferences and the reality than with affirmative action. many an(prenominal) have cited lesser qualified applicants chartered or accepted to colleges based on race, not qualifications or need. If preferences were sincerely meant to improve disadvantage, they would be given on the can of disadvantage, not on the basis of race, so that a poor, qualified innocence pupil would stand a better discover of being admitted than the under-qualified son of a ghastly doctor.\r\nThis illustrates a problem with the idealism of affirmative action and how remedying some racial issues have merely created unfairness in otherwise areas. Instead of a remedy for disadvantage, many supporters now claim that preferences promote â€Å"diversity. ” This like push for â€Å"diversity” also has conduct colleges like Stanford University to create racially nonintegrated dormitories, racially segregated freshman orientation programs, racially segregated graduati on ceremonies and curricular requirements in race theory and gender studies (Sacks & Thiel, 1996).\r\nBut if â€Å"diversity” was very the goal, then preferences would be given on the basis of unusual characteristics, not on the basis of race. The underlying assumptionâ€that only minorities can add certain ideas or perspectivesâ€is offensive not merely because it is fictive but also because it implies that all minorities designate a certain way. While affirmative action is a noble effort, it is perhaps antiquated. Today, while African-Americans enjoy greater freedom and equality, Latinos have come to represent the current racial crisis.\r\nMany conservative Americans adopt that they learn English, adopt American culture, and plunge or leave. Additionally, Middle Eastern Americans are finding life equally backbreaking and face often violent retributions for crimes that they did not commit. This xenophobic behavior whitethorn be largely from the scares encoura ged by world(a) terrorism, but may also be representative of the fact that not ofttimes has really changed except the language employ to discuss race.\r\nThe only way to truly understand the state of race in America and wee a balance assessment is to measure the equality of severally race. The sad state is that many of the minorities in America are still marginalized, make less money, and have far less influence politically than the dominant white culture. Progressive and liberal legislation may continue to chip away at long held racial prejudices, but Americans cannot achieve complete equality unless it is an endeavor equally valued by all.\r\nUnfortunately, as storey has shown, those in power will be reticent to relinquish that power, and those in power in America are still largely male, largely white, and largely though subtly fearful of difference. With a chairman with parent that are black and white, very much of the racial future of America rests with a man that represe nts better than anyone the progress make in the past fifty years, as well as the distance left field to travel until true racial harmony is achieved.\r\n'