Social Psychology of Systemic Racism
- Vladislav Poda
- Nov 20, 2020
- 7 min read
When it comes to the topic of racism , most of us will readily state that “I am not racist.” Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of why and how racism continues to live to this day. Through a lot of research, studies and observations it can be shown that racism is still a relevant problem that is entertained by the actions made way back after the civil war in 1865, our authorities beliefs, and limited resources for the people of color. This paper further analyzes the actions our society has taken and continues taking to moreover sway our beliefs towards people of color.
In the novel Stereotypes: The Incidence and Impacts of Bias by Elora C. Voyles and Joel T. Nadler supplies information and data collective from studies and experiments on environmental and societal prejudices and biases. This book goes into great depths of the stereotypes people of color have to face, where they come from, and in what ways they emerge. Voyles and Nadler explain how our schemas and shortcuts can form racial prejudice against some communities or groups that can cause unequal treatment. How it connects to Social Psychology is based on facts such as the analysis of explicit and implicit bias, study of micro aggression behavior, and cognitive and motivational aspects of stereotypes. The thorough analysis of explicit and implicit stereotypes explains that many can carry their racist and classist beliefs either subconsciously or consciously. Implicit bias plays a part in micro aggression behavior. Micro aggression is the word classified for a statement of action pointing out indirect or subtle discrimination towards a race, sex, sexual orientation or other community. This book all in all connects the four arguments given together, as the stereotypes an average American holds internally or externally affect the way all factors of our system work. The stereotypes listed for both men and women will be stated later on in this paper as we unfold the different supporting points of the long life of racism.
“ ‘BBQ Becky’ called 911 on two African American men barbequing in a designated grilling zone; ‘Permit Patty’ called the police on an eight-year-old African American girl for for selling water on a sidewalk;” (109) a set up to the common norm for Africans Americans as a daily encounter stated by Voyles and Nadler in Chapter 6: Stereotypes of African Americans. Being seen as a threat or a criminal is a sad reality many generations have had to face. This can date all the way back to 1865 after the Civil War. As slavery becomes ebolished with the 13th Amendment the American economy faces a dead end. They profited off free labor from slavery which benefitted everyone financially, after that luxury for caucasians was taken away many discovered a loop hole to keep using African Americans for labor in the 13th amendment.
“ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The wording of the thirteenth amendment implies the possibility of the continuation of using free labor, just in limited circumstances. The African Americans who have finally left their slave owners and were formerly known as property and were the integral part of the economic production system in the South, began to live their own lives. As a person of color it was certainly hard to find a stable job and home, so petty crimes such as loitering or vagrancy, caused the first prison boom in the United States with most of the prison population being African Americans. So the only reason why the government pays anything at all to the prisoners is to mislead and mis-represent. In fact this payment could be called as a frogelent scam created by the people in power in order to leverage the imperfectness of the wording in the 13th amendment. This exploitation of African Americans in prison created a stereotype that all people of color show violence and have a criminal background or tendency, kicking off a chain of events. This chain begins from mass incarceration, causing split families in African American homes, leading to low economic stability, pushes people of color to live in poorer neighborhoods, making African Americans need to survive economically through stealing or selling drugs, swaying police to patrol more poor neighborhoods, allowing more african americans to get arrested, which generates more prejudice.
James P Lynch goes into further detail in his study called “Assessing the effects of mass incarceration on informal social control in communities” on the topic of how our society still lives off either free or low income labor. “The purpose of this paper is to review and evaluate the existing evidence that recent increases in incarceration have affected the ability of residential neighborhoods to perform the traditional social control functions…. unless incarceration of problem or highly close Street in residential neighborhoods and it is likely to affect residential communities in any substantial way.”(269) The author makes it clear that for the communities to be affected by meson course ration their house to be a spike open percent of people being in prison in some neighborhoods more than others. This can be explained because if all neighborhoods had approximately the same amount of residents who were imprisoned, then there could not be any control groups or any contrast in these communities to detect any change in a social aspect. Interestingly enough, Lynch mentions negative and positive models in societies after mass incarceration.We’re looking for a song all positive aspects in the communities because of mass incarceration the topic of safety is presented in this article. Since there was a phase in the US where the topic of safety and drug-free communities was very important please next prison boobs arose because of those concerns the government had. The negative aspects of course included the discrimination and prejudice against people of color, since there was and is a bigger percentage of prisoners in American prisons because of the actions taken after the Civil War in 1865 discussed in the last paragraph.
This all connects to the power the government and our authorities like in the law-enforcement hold. They are the ones who hold influence towards the citizens and they are the ones who can sway their citizens beliefs and the actions taken in the country. When discussing racism in the US, sadly, the mention of our president Donald Trump is required. In the news article called Donald Trump’s racism the definite native list updated the author David Leonhardt Ian Prasad Philbricklists a number of events when Trump showed his unquestionable racism towards African-Americans, Native Americans and even Mexicans and Asians. “ Trump treated black employees and his casinos differently from whites, according to multiple sources. The former hotel executive said Trump criticized a black accountant: ‘Black guys counting my money! I hate it… I think that the guy’s lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a tree and blacks.’ ” This is taken out of the article that was listed in the New York Times which had shown one of the many situations described in the article about Trump's open racism. He is such an influence on citizens and people that follow him and it is disheartening to see such a man leading the United States of America. But Donald J. Trump is not the only influence on America to continue racism to this day. Today's law-enforcement fails us greatly in the perspective of protecting our citizens against crime. Instead of doing so, police officers stop and search without cause and sometimes even violently act on innocent people just because of their race and the prejudice they hold. What officers fail to remember is that when taking on this job they take on a responsibility to put citizens' lives before theirs. The article Law Enforcement by Stereotypes and Serendipity: Racial Pro-ling and Stops and Searches Without Cause is written by David Rudovsky to state cases of stops and searches without cause targetting people of color by police officers blatantly showing racism on duty. This article can be used as a piece of evidence to back up the statements made earlier in this essay And will be linked on the work cited page.
With such prejudices being held towards people of color and any race other than white it is harder for African-Americans to find low paid jobs to get better education and to even receive loans. African-Americans are twice as likely to experience non-fatal threat or use of force by the police compared to whites. African-American woman stereotyped as “sexually immoral, golddiggers, promiscuous freaks, and baby mamas” because of the prejudice project presented during slavery and still growing to this day. Traditional African hair such as dreads and box braids are seen as unprofessional in the workplace which caused African-American women and men to reject their culture just to make sure they have a secure job. People of color are presented as less clean in their homes compared to caucasians, from racist beliefs, which prevents them from renting or buying a good home and living in a good neighborhood. There are many other situations and difficulties that African-Americans have to face just because of their skin color that caucasians can not begin to understand.
Recent discussions of the oppression of people of color face a controversial issue as to whether what causes make it harder for African-Americans and so forth. Some States are uninformed about the history African-Americans in our country and continue to spread the racist beliefs onto the children and their children onto other children and so forth. My own view is that so many other social studies prove that racial injustice is still existent for no reason other than the impression given off by law-enforcement and or political governors, and the mass incarceration that was targeted towards African Americans.
Works Mentioned:
Stereotypes: The Incidence and Impacts of Bias, Joel T. Nadler, Elora C. Voyles
Law Enforcement by Stereotypes and Serendipity: Racial Pro ling and Stops and Searches Without Cause, David Rudovsky - University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, 2001
Assessing the effects of mass incarceration on informal social control communities, James P. Lynch - American university,
Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List, Updated, By DAVID LEONHARDT IAN PRASAD PHILBRICK, JAN. 15, 2018
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