Political Race Relations

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that race political issues, between pre-Civil War times in the US and now, have become even more exacerbated and divisive and have left the country even more splintered, with one group pitted against another. The author points out that one key difference between then and now is that the antebellum racial discordance focused mainly on "black versus white"; whereas, today there are more minority groups. The paper relates that the roots of the many lingering challenges African-Americans face today can be traced not only to the original wording of the United States Constitution but also to early, strictly enforced laws against literacy for slaves and to historical disagreements among leading black educators themselves.

From the Paper:

"In the 1850's, Justice Roger B. Taney of the United States Supreme Court, in his celebrated Dred Scott decision, argued that the foundation of the American state had not included the Negro as a participating element, or as beneficiary of its privileges . Justice Taney's argument was in essence overruled by the events of the Civil War itself; since then blacks have been considered, legally and morally at least, equal American citizens. However, educational equality for blacks, due in part, perhaps, to the subjective, often subtle, even unconscious nature of racial discrimination itself ..."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Affirmative action. (2000). Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 1-3. Retrieved December 6, 2006, from Microsoft Works Suite 2000 (CD-ROM), Disc 3.
• Constitution of the United States. (2000) Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta, 1-32.Retrieved December 7, 2006, from Microsoft Works Suite 2000 (CD-ROM), Disc 3.
• Bowen, W.G., & Bok, D. (1998). The shape of the river: Long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Dred Scott Case. (2000) Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta, 1-3. Retrieved December 7, 2006 from Microsoft Works Suite 2000 (CD-ROM), Disc 3.
• Douglass, F. (1847). Narrative of the life of an American slave. In McQuade, D., Atwan, R., Banta, M., Kaplan, J., et al. (Eds.). The Harper American Literature,1, 2, 2274-7.

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