Racial America

"Post-Racial" America

Today most people would like to believe that we currently live in a "post-racial" America. "Post-racial" means that America doesn't abide with the racism and dehumanizing acts that separated it by race. It implies that America can now accept everyone's race in unity. Unfortunately, there has yet to be a "post-racial" America. In "Professor Gates and the Criminalization of Black men in America", Kristin J. Anderson goes into depth on how racism still exists. How it still lurks among society; it is not as easy to see as in the past but is present. Soya Jung reminds how the fight for black humanity is still centuries long, still raging and unfinished in "Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans". America is yet to be a "post-racial" country based on the social discrimination and racial profiling present in today's society.

In this day and age, it can be easy to overlook racism because people do not commit such foul acts as in the past. But racism doesn't work that way. Anderson states, "If racism is understood only in terms of slavery and lynchings, then we might live in a post-racial era. But this is not an accurate view of how racism and discrimination work," (Par. 3). Racism occurs in little ways. A common stereotype about African Americans is that they are angry, hostile, and aggressive. Anderson states, "One study found that white Americans interpreted anger in the faces of African American men whose faces were actually neutral. This did not happen when white men or African American women's faces were viewed," (par. 4). This proves how easy racial profiling can happen.

In today's Television, there is controversy over what seems to be unintentional racial profiling. "Television over represents African Americans as criminal suspects and underrepresented as victims of crime in comparison to actual crime statistics," (Anderson par. 5). Television plays a huge role in present day racism, depicting African Americans as criminals. The media doesn't help this image either. "African American suspects are also more likely to be portrayed in the media as threatening and menacing than white suspects," (Anderson par. 5). This projects the image of criminal behavior with African Americans for the average American T.V. viewer.

Most people act on racism unintentionally. This meaning people, without thinking, commit acts of racism not intending to do so. Anderson says, "In video simulation studies people fire at an armed target more quickly if he is African American than if he is white, and they decide not to shoot an unarmed white target more quickly than an unarmed African American target," (par. 6). This study shows how racism can be triggered without even a thought. It shows how racism can come to people as a second