Anti-Racism in America

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the nature of anti-racism and traces its roots as far back as literature will allow. The paper attempts to understand the nature of racism today and why the anti-racism movement seems to have had less influence than is believed on the historical standard of racism and exclusivity of power. The paper answers the question: Why was the influence of racism greater than that of anti-racism, and is racism still the dominant sociological thought or, is the culture finally seeking a more egalitarian standard and structure?

From the Paper:

"Though racist acts can also be derived from beliefs built in true racism, as many would argue, saying something is different is not the same as saying something is less than, even though the resulting laws and regulations give the distinct impression at varying times that this is true. To many, and especially to those who have been separated and subjugated, based on race the concepts are one in the same as many argue the idea that "separate is not necessarily equal." In many ways this is very true as the dominant culture will allocate resources and opportunities for its own race above another and the resulting situation, as is seen in early reformation and even reactionary "Jim Crow laws" the nature of separate creating a sense of inferiority and subsequent superiority as a result of the fact that most municipalities have a difficult time allocating resources to one infrastructure, let alone two separate ones. It can be argued that those in power when given a fixed set of resources will always allocate more for its own than for others."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aptheker, Herbert. Anti-Racism in U. S. History: The First Two Hundred Years. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.
• Barnes, Catherine A. Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transit. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
• Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Gillette, Howard. ""The Most Segregated City in America": City Planning and Civil Rights in Birmingham, 1920-1980." Journal of Southern History 72.4 (2006): 975.
• Hames-Garcia, Michael. Fugitive Thought: Prison Movements, Race, and the Meaning of Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

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• Book Review # 95681 : "Racism's New Disguise"

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