Race and Politics Most people might not recognize it yet but one of our major problems is racism. The United States of America is a strong nation, which so many people from other nations immigrate into, yet some races feel superior to others and this also is reflected in America’s political system today. Yet, the once unthinkable has already manifested itself in the country. A black man being the president of the U.S could not be considered as a possible alternative in the past. Nevertheless, Martin Luther King Jr. once proclaimed; “I have a dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” (Rose 241). There is a deep meaning to this quote in relation to our beloved country America. This nation is the land of diverse ethnicities and there should be room for everyone as a citizen to take part in social and economic issues, most especially in politics. The major question is; “Does skin color influence presidential elections?” Basically, it will because America is a country made up of different races and in most cases, favoritism of race tends to overshadow the importance of leadership and democracy. Exactly forty five years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s proclamation, a black man, Senator Barack Obama was scheduled to accept the Democratic Party nomination for president. A freshman U.S senator who hailed from Illinois and had served eight years in the Illinois legislature and three years community organizing. He ran against the Republican candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a white 71 year-old war hero. Obama’s supporters and the candidate himself were predicting what the Republicans might possibly say or think, based on the fact that Obama was young, inexperienced and he’s also black. This was the first time a black candidate was running for the seat of president so it was taken as a really big deal. (Bohan) On the other hand, Republicans predicted that Obama would treat legitimate political challenges as racial attacks. Still considering the fact that he was black, both parties were contradicting each other’s opinions about race. In 2008, a national poll in early July found that Americans disagree on some but not all race related issues. Twenty-nine percent of blacks thought race relations in the U.S. were generally good compared to 55 percent of whites and vice versa (Nagourney and Thee A1). It kept on interchanging figures as the polling results came in. Most people voted in favor of their race either black or white. Fact has proven that there are more racist individuals than racist states in the U.S. This is categorized in such a way that the amount of racist people is equated with racist states in general. Obama himself also argues that the country is indeed ready to rise above America’s centuries-old racial divide. (Williams A23). This statement also confirms to the statement made by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial. As the elections in 2008 progressed, more polls were coming in to determine the states won or lost by each candidate. Obama was said to have lost Pennsylvania. But a Washington Post reporter travelling through this small town found voters who agreed with Obama’s basic assessment and political ideology. “People are sort of bitter but they’re not carrying around guns causing crimes like he specified” (MacGillis A6). Though people are not happy about the economic state of the country, they don’t see the situation as an avenue to commit crimes. Rather, they make use of opportunities in life to succeed. These are people of the middle class, who are striving hard to make a living, but the economy wasn’t in their favor and Obama’s plan had the features of fixing this issue of the economy. White and black Democrats have diverged politically in the past, though not consistently. Since the
Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics (1989) a) A starting point: all the women are white and all the blacks are men. This is the rationale for Kimberle Crenshaw (1989) to develop her feminist criticism because black women are unfortunately marginalized from both gender inequality issue and antiracism fight. She mainly discusses how black women are marginalized in feminist theory and antiracist politics, and the most…
Sanchez Chicano Politics Mon. and Wed. 10:35-12:00 pm Chicano Politics Ch.1 Latino is such a common word used by many, but what really defines someone to be called a Latino? To be defined as a Latino simply means to have some sort of Spanish origin. Most Latinos think of themselves in terms of their own national-origin group (Honduran, Cuban, Argentine etc.), and this subgroup identification is an important component of the core definition of community (Garcia, John A., Latino Politics in America pg…
During the 1790’s, the United States varied it’s perspective which molded the way the way the United States were forming. Domestic and Foreign affairs were taking a toll on politics significantly. This impacted the Bill of Rights and Constitution being written. Domestic and foreign affairs in the United States were influenced by immigration, employment, and poverty. To begin with, domestic and foreign affairs had an influence on immigration. On March 36, 1790 congress puts the Naturalization Act…
Jarrod Brown 11/17/10 Nevada Gubernatorial Race: 2010 Nevada, the home of the infamous adult playground Las Vegas was admitted into the United States of America under Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Admission into the union was rushed to help ensure Lincoln's reelection for his second term. The state held strong ties to big business and helped lead to Lincoln winning…
assimilated into European culture. The African slave trade also helped contribute to the environment of a racist culture in America by debasing the African races and teaching Caucasian Americans that they are better than the African races. Through the U.S. history, the meaning of the label “white” has changed over time, from a “superior race” to only a different color, but the discussion of racism has never ended. Instead, it has been discussed more and more. In addition to that, Stacy Pratt McDermott…
Hales, Elizabeth Hernandez, Frederick Stokes, Jonathan Brown and Sarah Shillingford MGT/311 - Organizational Development December 8, 2014 Sonny Bowman Learning Team Reflection During Week Four, Team B learned the various influences of power, politics, organizational structure and culture behaviors comprised within an organization. The team gain insight to a variety of conflicts, problem solving techniques, and how best employees should communicate with managers especially during difficult times…
Reflective Journal Entry – Chapters 9 and 10 and Race, Racism, and Empire: Reflections on Canada. After doing the readings for chapters 9 and 10 of our Politics book as well as the article assigned for this week I came to the realization that race and ethnicity are not only an important issue but an ongoing issue that seems to have no end point. In chapters 9 and 10 of our Politics book it was interesting to learn of the capitalist nature of the immigration process as well as the differences between…
Race is an ambiguous concept possessed by individuals, and according to sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant, it is socially constructed; it also signifies differences and structure inequalities. Race divides people through categories which led to cultural and social tensions. It also determined inclusion, exclusion, and segregation in U.S society. Both inclusion and exclusion tie together to create the overall process of segregation — one notion cannot occur without resulting in the others…
over and over again and expecting a different result each time.” The history of mankind is plagued with conflicts of politics, race, and religion; these vital organs of civilization has been the bane of human existence. The same conflicts occur time and time again throughout history. Surely mankind is insane and incapable of learning if repetition is insanity. The conflict of politics has been around since the time of emperors and kings, as old as mankind itself; a struggle between two opposing men…
community Affects politics Asian Americans lean left IDs—how are these terms RELATED TO CLASS? 1.Hindu Principle religion of India practiced by the majority of Indian Americans. 10% of all Asian Americans Nonwestern relgion Hard to quantify when studying correlation between religion 8 politics Could be considered as important and important as national origin. Do these people look different because of national origin or religion? Hindu was a racial category on the census at one time Race changes over…