Racism in the United States

An African-American drinks out of a water cooler designated for use by "colored" patrons in 1939 at a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City.

Racism in the United States has been a major issue in the country since before its founding. Founded as a settler society of religiously and somewhat ethnically diverse whites, race in the United States as a concept became significant in relation to other groups. Traditionally, racist attitudes in the country have been most significantly applied to Native Americans, African Americans and some "foreign-seeming" immigrant groups and their descendants.

History

In colonial America, before colonial slavery became completely based on racial lines, thousands of African slaves served whites, alongside other whites serving a term of indentured servitude. In some cases for African slaves, a term of service meant freedom and a land grant afterward, but these were rarely awarded, and few black Africans became landowners this way. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the Governor of Virginia and the system of exploitation he represented: exploitation of poorer colonists by the increasingly wealthy landowners. However, Bacon died, probably of dysentery, and the revolt lost steam.

The central cause of concern to landowners was the unity of Bacon's populist movement. It raised the question to the landowners of how to divide the population politically in ways that would keep the poorer colonists divided enough to rule. To the Governor, the most threatening, and unexpected, aspect of Bacon's rebellion was its multi-racial aspect. So from that time on, the wealthy landowners determined that only Africans would be used as slaves - and white colonists were promised whatever benefits would have gone to Africans had they continued to be indentured servants. This change began the infamously long period of the American slave society, in which slaves were primarily used for agricultural labor, notably in the production of cotton and tobacco. Black slavery in the Northeast was less common, usually confined to involuntary domestic servitude. The social rift along color lines soon became engrained in every aspect of colonial American culture.

Slavery in the Confederate states of America officially ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. Slavery ended in the whole country with the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 18, 1865. Despite this, remnants of racism continued in the United States with the existence of Jim Crow laws, educational disparities and widespread criminal acts.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the catalyst for many nonviolent protests in the 1960's which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This signified a change in the social acceptance of racism in America.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" - Martin Luther King, Jr, "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. (28 August, 1963).

Institutional Racism

Institutional racism is the idea that despite the outlawing of formal racial discrimination, racial minorities are still effectively disadvantaged by the structures of American society. This is because non-native English speakers, or speakers where they were raised on broken English have problems in certain English areas. These include word association and finding roots of words.(e.g. relating institution to Institutional). This has been combated by adding Spanish friendly questions to tests. For example, the 2005 California state test featured the question Patio comes from the Spanish word meaning what?.

Racist fringe groups

Only a few groups still openly advocate white supremacism in the United States. Among these are the Ku Klux Klan, the National Alliance, Aryan Nations and several smaller groups like the White Order of Thule.

See also

• Racism in Russia