Racial Issues

More often than none, it is said that people move to America for equal opportunity, freedom, and independence, but yet upon arrival, these concepts are thrown out the door and no longer stand as a reality. It almost seems as if racism is openly embraced just in more subtle ways than years ago. Many people carefully avoid overt expressions of prejudicial attitudes, but covertly continue to harbor a negative view of racial minorities. "Today, overt racism in this country has decreased to some extent because our cultural belief in equality encourages us to evaluate people, in Dr. Martin Luther King's words, 'not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Even so, racism remains a serious social problem" (Marcionis, 2006). Opinions are forced onto people in ways that sometimes go undetected by an individual, but sub-consciously cause the individual to form biased views and racist beliefs. Who or what forces these opinions onto others causing them to conform to societies negative attitudes? The internal longing for acceptance compounded with various external sources such as the manipulative media may eventually cause one to break down and conform.

Prejudice is a major social problem in America. It harms victims' self-concept, suppresses human potential, and generates tension and strife between people. Those who have been confronted with hatred and suffered the effects of racist attitudes are expected to either reproduce this hate or make sure that they will never be the cause of these feelings in another being. Why are certain habits of American racism adopted by those who have suffered the aftermath of prejudice beliefs? Prejudice, "a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people" (Macionis, 2006), may lead to discrimination, which involves behaving differently and usually unfairly towards the members of a certain group. "Prejudice may target people of a particular social class, sex, sexual orientation, age, political affiliation, race, or ethnicity" (Macionis, 2006). Majority groups tend to discriminate against minority groups. Those within the majority group view themselves as the "norm" and everyone else as being strange, different, and maybe frightening.

When people join together in groups, they sometimes divide the social world into us versus them or in-groups versus out-groups. People tend to evaluate out-group members less favorably than in-group members leading them to devalue out-group members, making themselves feel superior. This feeling of superiority instantaneously affirms their self worth, something a scared, shy, immigrant is looking for. "The scapegoat theory holds that prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged. A scapegoat, then, is a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom people unfairly blame for their own troubles. Because they are usually 'safe targets,' minorities often are used as scapegoats" (Macionis, 2006). In contemporary societies that support egalitarian attitudes, the prejudices that most people harbor tend to be unconscious, automatic, covert biases that result in in-group favoritism. Even subtle prejudices can harbor a stressful environment for out-group members; only making sense that one would try to become part of the in-group for fear of being discriminated against. This thought offers a very broad, surface level solution to the proposed question, but one has to really probe at the mind to understand the deep seeded roots of why some choose to conform and embrace prejudice views.

Who rules America and who or what molds the minds of people living in America? Many believe that there is no greater power in the world today than that welded by the manipulators of public opinion in America. Essentially everything we know, or think we know about events outside of our own neighborhood comes to us via newspaper, radio, or television. "Their power is not distant and impersonal; it reaches into every home in America, and it works its will during nearly every waking hour. It is the power which shapes and molds the mind of virtually every citizen, young or old, rich or poor, simple or sophisticated," completely American or not (Who Rules America?). The media forms an image of the world and tells us what to think about that image. News stories are suppressed, newspapers are full of propaganda, and certain television shows characterize the opinion-manipulating methods of the media masters. Within the news, the way in which certain items are emphasized while others are played down, the way in which the reporter chooses his/her words; the wording of headlines; the choice of illustrations, all subliminally