Chapter 03 Chapter Summary & Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

By the end of the chapter, the student will be able to do the following:

  • Define terminology such as hegemony, prejudice, discrimination, racial ideology, stereotypes, colorblind racism, cultural racism, and new racism
  • Describe examples of open and overt racism that impacted racial groups on a community level
  • Apply the term “racial ideologies” in meaningful ways to observations and descriptions of racism
  • Discuss ways that racism takes on new forms while old forms of racism and racial inequality continue
  • Know the significance of court cases that influenced racial ideologies in the United States

 

Chapter Summary

This chapter takes the readers from analysis of overt racism to more subtle racism. The Civil Rights Movement changed the climate of racism but did not eradicate racism. Racial ideologies of today including color-blind racism and hidden racism take several forms as well as including forms of the past, biological racism, and cultural racism.

Race developed out of a folk concept into a pseudoscientific concept. Thinkers of the time attempted to make race into a scientific concept. Presently colorblind racism and new racism are reigning ideas. The George Zimmerman case and the Trump-era show us examples of how new racism and older forms of racism both continue today. We must understand the Emmitt Till murder and the non-convictions of his murderers in order to understand the dynamics behind the killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman. 

Overt racism in the past included segregation of African Americans and their victimization in the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments, mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, and internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans. From 1896 to 1954 it was legal to bar African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans from public schools and other public facilities. From 1876 to 1965, the Jim Crow Laws in specific states contributed to discriminatory practices. Racial inequalities also continue in the present day through colorblind racism. Abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and minimization of acknowledging racism’s existence feeds racism today. Certain attitudes and rhetorical strategies about people of color and racism are not conducive to addressing racial inequalities.

Comparing the racial ideologies enacted by Obama and Trump shows the different forms of racial ideologies as questionable strategies in leadership for ending racial inequalities. Obama tried colorblind universalism. Trump’ strategies have included biological racism and cultural racism.

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