Jasim 1

Faisal Jasim

Professor Laura Sheridan

Political Science 0001

06 August 2022

Final Exam

Racism

Racism is a belief of people that individuals are superior and inferior to other people

based on their races & ethnicities. It segregated humanity into different directions and in fact,

countries have very bad outcomes in resultant of racial segregation. If we went back to history,

we will find a number of examples of racism i.e. the Holocaust and enslavement of Black people

in America where thousands of people having Jewish faith were slaughtered. (Denise

DeCooman, 2022)

It may present covert or overt & could be shown to others by their behavior, actions and

words regarding the race of the individual. (Denise DeCooman, 2022)

Racist behavior may include

 Harassment and Physical assault

 Verbal abuse, bad language & threats based on the individual race

 Behave to others in a racist manner

 Refusal to work and cooperate with other people based on their race
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If we talk about racism in America, we cannot accurately say when it started but surely it

started a few centuries back when black people started facing racism based on their color. They

struggled hard all the time in terms of equal rights, white people wanted white supremacy and

used black people for slavery. During the great depression, black Americans and Latinos faced

more unemployment compared to white people due to racial segregation, since they are already

working on low wages and which leads to critical survival. Almost half of black Americans were

unemployed in 1932 & in some cities, white Americans demanded to the government and private

owners fire the black people from their job and higher white people only. Besides all of this, they

faced racial violence from the Americans who are unemployed. (Adam Richards)

Even though the Blacks got succeeded in the passing of the thirteenth, fourteenth and

fifteenth amendments during the reconstruction, the rights of black people were negated again

through voting restrictions, lynching and the Jim Crow legislation that separated the races. In

1933s lynching increased to 33% from 28%. (Adam Richards)

According to the book of Ida. Bells “A Red Record” during 1864~1894 10,000 Blacks had been

killed by lynching. There were many laws and acts passed that leads to racial segregation, Black

code is one of them.

Black Codes (1865~1866)

Under the Black Codes, African Americans were treated with little respect, to no respect.

As a result of these codes, African Americans were unable to participate in many of the activities

that other citizens were allowed to be a part of. Such as owning land and conducting businesses.

These codes were used to restrict the lives of African Americans and to establish that even

though they were "free" they were still not equal. Segregation was still prevalent and strictly
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enforced with punishments of 10 days in jail for an African American and 6 months in jail for a

White American for just associating with each other.

Under the Penal Code, it is stated that African Americans that were "not in the military

service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his

or her county, shall [not] keep or carry firearms of any kind," it also states that any White

American that helps an African American obtain such items will be fined and there is a

possibility that they could be imprisoned. This law shows that African Americans were not only

seen as unequal in the eyes of the citizens but also in the eyes of the law.

With laws such as these clearly going against previous amendments, such as the 2nd

Amendment, and the right to bear arms, it is clear that African Americans are not seen as full

Americans. But the most interesting thing about all this is the fact that not only does the

government see African Americans as sub-American in this case, but they also constantly go out

of their way to make sure that white Americans think the same way by putting restrictions on

what White Americans are legally able to do when interfering with the Average African

American. They do this by fining for association with an African American, as previously stated

and also punishments that include jail time.

The civil war was also a result of the inequalities black people suffered. It is fought between the

American citizens and the government over the issue of slavery mainly. White people believe

that to maintain the economy and strengthen the social and political areas black people should

push for slavery and this way white supremacy remains. The civil war started in 1861 and ended

in 1865, although black people got many rights afterwards all were negotiated. There were many

reasons behind the civil war but the below 3 are major ones.
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1. Secession

2. Sectionalism

3. Slavery

There are a number of rulings which American supreme court made in light of racism

 Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856)

When a slave person put a request in the supreme court for his freedom but court announced

a decision against him & also declared that the bill of rights didn’t apply to the Black people.

 Pace v. Alabama (1883)

In 1883 in Alabama, marriage across the different races are banned & 2~7 jail was the

punishment who breaks the law. Black women challenge this law in the supreme court but the

court upheld it.

 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The judicial branch seems to target women, and racial and ethnic minorities especially

throughout its early history because there were mainly white men in power. There are many

ways that the government oppresses said, groups. One way was through the most obvious court

case in Please v. Ferguson. Here we saw that the clear intention was to leave black communities

disproportionately at a disadvantage. To this day we see the backlash of that court case where

there are black communities who have the same things as predominantly white ones but yet

black communities are far behind! (Sheridan, Week 6 Lecture Chapter 9)

 Cumming v. Richmond (1899)

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Three black families of Richmond county were restricted from public high school due to

their race. They put their case to the supreme court and the court dragged that case for 3 years &

after ruling that if there was no school for black people in that specific region that the black

people have to do without the education.

 Ozawa v. United States (1922)

A Japanese immigrant, Takeo Ozawa, put a request to the supreme court for the

naturalization of whites and black people but the court rejected the case without any hearing and

ruled that this was logic less.

 United States v. Thind (1923)

As Takeo Ozawa, an Indian American also attempted the same strategy the court rejected

their appeal to rule that Indian Americans are also not white so they cannot get equal rights.

From all of the history and the examples we found are just the violation of equal rights. In

all these decisions one thing “Separate but equal” which the supreme declared their elf has been

violated. In different times different acts and laws were passed in the favor of Black Americans

but most of them were negated by the white people as they were not ready to accept black people

as equal to them, they were the prey of inferiority complex and wanted the white supremacy.

It could be solved by just giving the same rights to all people regardless of race, Black

people should have the same bill of rights as white Americans. They should have equal rights in

terms of employment, education, social status, voting, laws etc.

The results of racism were not in the favor of anyone neither for the government/white

Americans nor for the black people. It hit the economic, social and political balance as the black
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people never get equal rights so they never fully contributed to the economic growth and social

and political stability by their will.

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Cited Works:

 Head, Tom. "10 Racist Supreme Court Rulings in US History." ThoughtCo, Mar. 11,

2021, thoughtco.com/racist-supreme-court-rulings-721615.

 Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s: Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945:

U.S. History Primary Source Timeline: Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress:

Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/

great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/race-relations-in-1930s-and-1940s/

 Stanchi, Kathryn. "The Rhetoric of Racism in the United States Supreme Court." BCL

Rev. 62 (2021): 1251.

 Paula Denice McClain; Steven C Tauber “American government in black and white:

diversity and democracy” Oxford University Press, [2022]