While many feel that racism is a thing of the past this is far from the truth. Racism not only is just as present in our society as it was 60 to 70 years ago, but even worse it is masked by our economic structure. A current article I found was based out of Acton Ma where a mother was suing the Raymond school district for negating to protect her son again racial harassment. What struck me about the article that I found online was the outlandishly nature of this case merely based on the fact that a 16 year old would have so much hatred towards a black fellow student to lash out on him in school. Now it must be the case that the parents have plaid some role as well as the community around this young child as he/she has not experienced much of life to develop these hatreds of his own. Therefore we come to question why a community or society as a whole has racism to the extent that it is effecting its youth population to act out on this hatred, and how is this racism a social problem.
First off we must establish in essence what racism really it. Racism is known as the “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Racism). What is apparent here is that racism is as we understand it involves the belief that our ethnicity determines whether we will be a millionaire or living in the slums. What is quite strange about this definition is the popular belief that whether someone is a black or white it will thus effect what they do in their lives. While we live in a nation that claims all men are free and equal. Equal to achieve and become whatever we want this racist belief contradicts everything we portray our society to be. One might question how this is and why it is.
We can see racism as it is something that dominates our society but what we need to understand how it has become a social problem. A social problem is defined as “is a condition that at least some people in a community view as being undesirable” (What Is). Undesirable is an interesting aspect of what we claim a social problem to be. Herbert J. Gans a sociologist well rounded in racism. He claims that racism is a “Judgments of the poor as undeserving are not based on evidence, but derive from a stereotype, even if, like most others, it is a stereotype with a ‘kernel of truth’” (Gans, 217). What we can see here is that the understanding of racism as a social problem is that it is a stereotype, created by the majority, that deems the poor (black, immigrants, and so on) as undeserving. The nature of racism as a social problem is the idea of racism being a stereotype for the unworthy or undeserving. Therefore we can see that the understanding of racism is the idea of worthiness, worthiness in a since of wealth.
We can recognize how racism cost or in some cases a benefit to the society. For those who are not amongst the poor Gans states that racism is beneficial, “Poor is good for you” (217). In a since having racism that promotes the idea of the poor being undeserving is not necessarily a cost to those who are not amongst the poor it is a benefit in which allows the wealthy to blame the poor for any short comings of the society. Thus we are creating a situation in which those who are not amongst the poor benefit from their short comings as they become the scapegoats of society. On the other hand as we look at this cost from the undeserving we unveil a very different truth. A truth that depicts a very upsetting reality reality worthlessness, struggle and exploitation set upon the poor. It is a strange truth for those amongst the undeserving class as they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. As they seek to move out of the ghetto to become a part of the worthy class they meet yet another problem. A problem such as the boy in the Acton school meet and this is the problem of overcoming the ideology of their stereotype of undeserving. At this point we can begin to understand the causes of this problem.
Racism is cause due to the understanding of this stereotype that we established earlier, a stereotype that creates a since of fear and aggravation for both the worthy and unworthy. Racism in itself creates a self promoting feature. Where it allows the poor to be put into a situation in which they must beak the norm to survive thus the worthy then become fearful and angered by their behavior due to their shortcomings. It is an unruly truth in which persists in our society Gans also states that “The undeservingness of the poor is an ancient stereotype and like all stereotypes, it vastly exaggerated the actual dangers that stem from the poor….” (230). Gans here establishes the idea the racism evolves from the creation of the poor. As the poor persists in our society so will the racism. Whether or not people generally agree with this assumption is yet to be distinguished seeing that for much of the society racism does not exist. This is due to the facade of our economic structures.
We can thusly conclude that as long as we have wealth and an upper class we can count on racism to persist whether it is acknowledged or not. For with wealth comes the ideology of the undeserving class (poor). So we can comprehend that if a society is to eradicate its poverty it consequently will eliminate its racism. Thusly it would create a classless system with no class conflict or racism.
Works Cited
Gans, Herbert J. "Uses of the Under Class Pages 217-230." Scribd. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/21224236/Uses-of-the-Under-Class-Pages-217-230>.
"Lawsuit Filed Over Racial Harassment At Massachusetts High School | Racism Daily." Racism Daily | News On Racism | Racism News | Race News | News On Race. 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://racismdaily.com/2011/10/12/lawsuit-filed-over-racial-harassment-at-massachusetts-high-school/#more-7545>.
"Racism - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism>.
"What Is a Social Problem." Project LEGAL. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www2.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/sp.html>.
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