Uncovering the Reality of Systemic and Interpersonal Racism in America

Abstract

Race and Ethnicity Introduction One can argue racism as a systematic strategy that categorizes people according to their color, ethnicity, color, or race to enhance differentiation during the allocation of societal goods and resources in a manner that favors some and disadvantages others. According to (Seagull 11e: Introduction to Sociology), institutional racism serves as a type of discrimination that remains protected through laws and regulations governing society or an organization. The systematic characteristic of institutional racism remains felt in areas like political representation, employment, healthcare, housing, criminal justice, and any other area that defines a fundamental privilege entitled for all humans without discrimination. On the other hand, individual-level interpersonal racism happens between individuals whereby one party acts discriminatory towards the other person. The essay aims at providing a thorough analysis of systematic and individual-level interpersonal racism to offer an understanding of their application and effects from the American perspective. Is racism real or a myth amongst Americans? Facts from various scholars like Desmond and Emirbayer, among others, will best respond to the state of racism amongst Americans. According to Desmond and Emirbayer (2009), unlike body parts known as natural creation that humans are born with, race is a social fabrication that proves a potential identifier that comes into a person after birth. The authors further describe the race as a symbolic category coined around ancestry, phenotype, historical and social contexts always assumed as natural category differentiating people according to color, origin, and others (Desmond and Emirbayer 2009). Institutional/systematic racism refers to a type of power coined around symbolic power that categorizes one group of people as superior and others inferior, enhancing white domination of the people of color (Desmond and Emirbayer 2009). The institutionalism of this type of racism enables American systems to enforce political, social, and economic powers to set rules and laws that enforce inequality and segregation of the people of color. In short, Institutional racism remains coined around a system of laws and regulations directed to ensure white supremacy over the people of color in all odds of life attributed to their race, color, and ethnicity. The Whites always enjoy the basic privileges entitled to them in terms of employment, healthcare, education, criminal system justice, and any other privilege, unlike the people of color who suffers the consequences of institutional racism that withholds such opportunities, privileges, and many rights that the whites enjoy (Desmond and Emirbayer 2009). Unlike institutional racism that proves systematic as follows set laws; interpersonal racism is a habitual development that remains expressed unconsciously in most instances. One may embrace a particular attitude toward another person based on color....