"Racism Will Always Be With US"

This is my summary and opinion that I wrote today...It is for my sociology class and the paper that I read has the title "Racism Will Always Be With Us," written by Derrick Bell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Bell

I am attaching it in pdf format (edited to add that the pdf might not be working so, i'm going to try to find it somehow, you really have to read the paper to understand him and his point) 

Will Racism Always Be With Us?

            While reading “Racism Will Always Be With Us,” one gets the distinct desire to deny all that it says and shows, to write it off as false and outrageous theories and ideas, but sadly this would be unjustified.

The case, presented by Derrick Bell, is backed through historical political events and policies that he uses to his full advantage to get the point across of the eternal and vital part racism played, plays and will always play in American society.

The idea is to show how racism has our minds and control of our world. It is something that we will never be able to rid ourselves of. Bell starts from the very beginning, the formation of the United States and brings us to present day showing how and why actions have been made to always protect the Majority, whites, interest at the expense of the minority, blacks. It is always interesting to look at the events, the policies and decisions of the past taken by those that govern, in hind sight.

            In essence, from the creation of this nation, the blacks-the eternal minority in the US-has been treated inhumanly, as a second class human and citizen so that the rights of the Majority and their privileges can be preserved. According to Bell, there is an idea of “moral relativity.” The forefathers had to compromise the place and rights of blacks in American society and culture to placate the South, which would not allow for slavery to be abolished.

The “majoritarian” form of government was never something the framers of our constitution wanted America to become. Bell shows us that the idea that a majority would have the power to decide for everyone was feared by James Madison and many others. Even back then, observers such as Alexis de Tocqueville knew that racial tension and conflict would always plague this nation.

            Even Brown v. Board of Education, Bell contends, is not an actual effort to greatly alter the situation and status of blacks in this country. This is applied to the “Principle of Interest Convergence.” As long as the interests and well being of the Majority are not compromised, then and only then will the demands and needs of the minority might be met.

Bell says, “no law is passed that benefits blacks unless that law benefits or at least does no harm to the interests of whites.” He even talks about how this decision only came about as a result of the political and social need to show the world a nice, beautiful and equal America for everyone regardless of race. He talks about communism; communism and the political landscape of that time required for the US to portray the country as the most freedom loving, equal and accepting nation of the world.

He goes on to criticize this Brown v Board of Education decision. He says it was basically a way to please the minority but not really change the status and situation of the black minority. It did not uncover or find out what caused the years of the unequal treatment of blacks and what should have been right away was actually delayed until the Civil Rights movement started.

            His conclusions are something that any educated mind has to accept as reasonable and logical. Racism is a metaphor to explain, justify and somehow help us accept that the world we live in is always going to marginalize a certain group of people. In the US, this has been, and will always be, the blacks or a minority.

The people of the minority are always placed second and the price they pay for this is losing out the significant opportunities to further themself because whites will always fear “loss-job, position, prestige, safety,” to blacks. This has been the political and social structure of this country for the last 150 years. The majority is appealed to by those of power and the minority is compromised and this cycle is eternal and timeless.

            Bell is accurate in his analysis of the past and the present day status this country gives to one race over the other.

I don’t understand him completely when he says there are perks to racism but I can definitely support his decision that there is a need for us to accept this racism and marginalization as part of our society. People have always been attracted to the “who” that caused this; let us try to discuss the why and what needs to change.

I hope there is a way we can all learn to overcome these limitations to our thinking and start to think in the perspective that we need to change and always oppose racism.

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