Race Relations in United States - Essay Sample

Race relations refers to the relationships between groups of people belonging to different races, and how they bond and exist with each other in their environment. The United States is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world because of the inflow of immigrants from different parts of the world, and hence the relations between these groups is inevitable. Each group has brought their perspective and underlying values to the United States. The emerging patterns of the interactions of different people and cultures define race relations in the United States today and has led to discrimination, conflicts, and ethnic profiling.

Discrimination and conflict exists between the different races because whites are disconnected from African-Americans, Hispanics, and Muslims. There are also smaller minorities such as Jews, LGBT community, and other immigrant groups who have been discriminated. Even though these groups converse with each other, discrimination lies within the society. It has led to disproportion where the minority groups are looked down upon by the natives and are subjected to violent hate crimes and racist comments. For instance, blacks and whites have a variety of stereotypes towards each other. Whites and African-Americans identify each other with particular traits guided by stereotypes and are transferred into their character and personality traits. Gabbidon and Greene (2013) argue that conflict has arisen where African-Americans are subjected to racial profiling by the police, seen when they are inappropriately surveilled and stopped when driving in white areas. This unjust act has led to strains in ethnic relations.

Despite the onslaught of discrimination and conflict faced by minorities, the 2008 United States presidential election was a substantial step forward in racial relations, and was an indicator of the steps made by the United States in resolving the race problem (Hunt & Colander, 2016). Whites came together with black Americans to vote for an African-American president where Obama garnered votes in white dominated areas and majority of African-Americans voted for Obama in the primaries and the main election. Despite this relation, sections of whites have provoked outrage by insinuating that Blacks Lives Matter have propagated cases of violence and have worsened race relations in the United States (Sidner & Simon, 2015).

In conclusion, United States is a racially diverse country where interactions between the different groups occur. The relations between different groups has led to conflicts and discrimination of the minority groups such as African-Americans, Muslims, and Hispanics. Even though there are negatives associated with racial relations, the presidential election of 2008 brought some hope because the whites voted together with the minorities for an African-American president.

References

Gabbidon, S. L., & Greene, H. T. (Eds.). (2013). Race, crime, and justice: A reader. Routledge.

Hunt, E. F., & Colander, D. C. (2016). Social science: An introduction to the study of society. Taylor & Francis.

Sidner, S. & Simon, M. (2015, December 28). The rise of Black Lives Matter: Trying to break the cycle of violence and silence. Retrieved from http://www.edition.cnn.com