American History

Racism Alive and Well in Another Form
Abraham Lincoln once said, With malice toward none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in,
to bind up the nations wounds (cited in Franklin 1993).   This sentiment has been expressed
many times since the absolution of slavery in 1870.  Yet with every step we take towards
eradicating racism, we fail to see it encroach in an insidious and malicious manner.  We have
been led to think that this epidemic is about the color of a mans skin.  In the Illusive Race
Question and class it states,   Racism resembles bacteria.  It has the uncanny ability to resist
Cures (Acua, p.4) .

First Steps
Our first biggest step toward eradicating racism in this country was President Lincolns signing
of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.   Although the document had very little
power to free slaves, it was considered an Act of Justice.  It was a cry for America to wake up
and understand that All men are created Equal.  One hundred years later, Vice President Lyndon
B. Johnson said, Until justice is blind, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is
unconcerned with the color of mens skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact
(cited in Franklin, 1993).   Mr. Johnson understood that racism came not just in the form of
color, but of education, location, and social status.

Earliest Forms of Indoctrination
Parents are recognized as the earliest source of children being indoctrinated with racists views ,
classmates are second.  This study states that during our early gradeschool years each child has learned to do some stereotyping.  They also recognize that cultural and institutional prejudices are more subtle, the roots being passed down through many generations.

Reverse Racism
Annuit Coeptis takes racism one step further by suggesting that in all of our attempts to restore
balance and remove racism we have created reverse racism again the white man.  He says it is
not uncommon on a college campus to see Asian Students Associations, or Latin American
Students Associations, but you will not see a White Students Association.  The article states,
Questions of race on college applications can mean only one thing for college admissions
officers, race does matter. That race helps to determine an individuals acceptance to a college is
not affirmative action, it is discrimination in action.

Racism in another form
Although the Illusive Race Question  Class is based primarily on how racism affects Latinos
and their history of racism, I have found through the research of this paper, that every ethnicity
can claim racism in some form or another.  We have all at one time or another been type casted
whether it was because of our ethnicity, the area in which we grew up, our familys history or
financial circumstances.   I close with this,  My point is that we once believed that racism had
been defined and that we were on our way to eradicate this ugly social disease only to find it
active and well, but in another form.