“Mississippi Masala” review Racism has been a hindering problem in virtually every society ever since there has been variation in the human genome. Most people tend to prefer the company of people who are more similar to them, whether they consciously realize it or not. Problems begin when that preference is applied only to superficial traits, such as skin color. This can stifle progress, because prejudice limits resources that a society can use, lowers their versatility, and creates hostility. Mississippi Masala, directed by Mira Nair, explores the problem of racial oppression of Indian people by blacks in African Uganda and the racial segregation and prejudice against blacks in Mississippi, of the United States.
For the most part, the white race is typically the culprit for being racist towards minority groups, although, blacks can be racist towards Hispanics and vise versa. Secondly, “a social problem is a social condition that harms some or all people in a society and a sufficient numbers of those people are concerned and see a need for change” (Kendall 4). Now that we have clear definitions of the aspects we are dealing with we can now apply them to the “society,” which in this paper, will refer to college campuses. In the US, there are over 4,000 college campuses where the student population is comprised of a variety of races, ethnic backgrounds, and cultures (Silver Smith). However, typically speaking most college campuses have a predominately-white student body and minorities make up a smaller percentage of said population.
Du Bois asks questions of race, racial domination, as well as racial exploitation. His well-known thought shared is that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the Color Line. His goal was to define the nature of the problem, asking why race even mattered. Why was it so that people of color were shunned in the areas of freedom, politics, and overall advancement? Even as the Civil War ended, a much greater war began.
Compare, contrast and asses the ideas of Booker T, du bois, Randall and Marcus Garvey to overcome the challenges faced by African Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centauries, African Americans were suffering greatly, due to the apparent effects of segregation. In this notion legal segregation was developing in the south while natural segregation seemed clear in the north. This was down to the realisation of the indifference of wealth between the ‘Blacks’ and the ‘whites’. Inevitably this discrimination also involved much more than just indifference of colour, blacks experienced poor working conditions violent retaliation and even lynching if the status quo of white supremacy was to be challenged.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is set in 1885 America, roughly twenty years before the Civil War. Although slavery had been abolished by the time the novel had been published, racism was still a major issue in the country. The black Americans were belittled and termed as “niggers”. According to Grogan the derogatory term nigger or negro is believed by etymologists to have derived from “… a Northern English word neger that was itself derived from Negro, the Spanish word for black. Despite stemming from fairly neutral root words, they were manipulated specifically to provoke and hurt.” (1) This label was also given as a way to dehumanise black Americans as it places them in an inferior category within society and establishes the superiority of white Americans over them.
Racial Ideology, American Politics, and the Peculiar Role of the Social Sciences”; where he explains his research on the intersection of poverty, crime and race. Bobo contends the United States is faced with a sophisticated, elusive and enduring race problem. His use of two separate focus groups one being all white and the other being all black uncovered evidence to support just how complex the race problem in America is. Bobo contends the just saying that the race problem still endures is not to say that it remains fundamentally the same and essentially the same. Bobo asks how we can have milestone decisions like Brown V. Board, pass a civil rights act, a voting act, fair housing acts, and numerous acts of enforcement and amendments, including the pursuit of affirmative action policies and still continue to face a significant racial divide in America.
Discrimination The existence of discrimination has and always will be a prevalent topic in our society. The protagonists in the stories “The Handicapped” by Randolph Bourne, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” by Richard Wright and “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston are all victims of some form of discrimination. There are many reasons that an individual might experience bias. Discrimination can be based on one’s race, religious affiliation, appearance or sexual orientation. In the essays “Ethics of Living Jim Crow” and “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” both of the main characters are discriminated against because of their race.
People tend to assume the existence of race as an inferior fact yet it exists as a major problem within the community. As evident from the history of many nations, the ethics of race continues to increase coldly as generation passes. This, supremely, interferes with the development of various projects (Appiah and Gutmann
Jerome Henson HIST 157 6984 7 July, 2009 Race relations in America, Between 1897 and 1945 The United States has had long deep rooted history of racial inequality. Some will argue that this country was established on racist sentiments, such as “manifest destiny”. This term was interpreted to mean that the United States was destined to take over North America. America’s expansionist goals, would lead to the suffering and disenfranchisement of a number of races, in America, and abroad. Ideas such as expansionism, nationalism, and racial superiority, will prove to have a lasting effect on race relations in this country, for many years to come.
iii. Racism The believe that a particular race, your own (Lemmer, Meier & van Wyk 2012:31), is superior to others and / or treating someone or a group differently because of their race (Your dictionary). An example of racism would be if an Indian student is refused admission in a Jewish school. iv. Discrimination Discrimination is when treating someone inferior because of their race, sex, national origin, age or other characteristics (Your dictionary).