Racism in the united states

Racism in the United States
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Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally
sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans,
and Latin Americans. European Americans(particularly Anglo Americans) were privileged by law in matters
of literacy, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure over periods of time
extending from the 17th century to the 1960s. Many non-Protestant European immigrant groups,
particularly American Jews, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, as well as other immigrants from elsewhere,
suffered xenophobic exclusion and other forms of discrimination in American society.
Major racially structured institutions included slavery, Indian Wars, Native American reservations, segregation,
residential schools (for Native Americans), and internment camps.[1]
Formal racial discrimination was largely
banned in the mid-20th century, and came to be perceived as socially unacceptable and/or morally repugnant
as well, yet racial politics remain a major phenomenon. Historical racism continues to be reflected in socio-
economic inequality,[2]
and has taken on more modern, indirect forms of expression, most prevalently symbolic
racism.[3]
Racial stratification continues to occur in employment, housing, education, lending, and government.
Many people in the U.S. continue to have some prejudices against other races.[4][5][6]
In the view of the US
Human Rights Network, a network of scores of US civil rights and human rights organizations,
"Discrimination permeates all aspects of life in the United States, and extends to all communities of
color."[7]
Discrimination against African Americans, Latin Americans, and Muslims is widely
acknowledged.[8]
Members of every major American ethnic minority have perceived racism in their dealings
with other minority groups.[9][10]

Contents
[hide]
1 History by targeted racial group
o 1.1 Racism against Native Americans
 1.1.1 Discrimination, marginalization
 1.1.2 Assimilation efforts into American society
o 1.2 Racism against African Americans
 1.2.1 Slavery and emancipation
 1.2.2 Nadir of American race relations
 1.2.3 African Americans in recent decades
 1.2.4 Taking a nonviolent stand
o 1.3 Discrimination and racism against Asian Americans
o 1.4 Discrimination against Latin Americans
o 1.5 Antisemitism
o 1.6 Racism against Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans
 1.6.1 Racism against Iranian Americans
o 1.7 Anti-European immigrant racism
o 1.8 Racism against European Americans
 1.8.1 White subgroups
 1.8.2 Anti-White crimes
2 History by region
o 2.1 West Coast racism
3 Racism as a factor in U.S. foreign policy
o 3.1 War on Drugs and Racism
4 Conflicts between racial and ethnic minorities
o 4.1 Argument against minority-minority racism
o 4.2 African and Mexican American gang violence
o 4.3 New Immigrant Africans and African Americans
o 4.4 Strife, conflict and reconciliation
5 Stereotypes and prejudice
o 5.1 Stereotypical images in the entertainment media
o 5.2 Contemporary images and protests

o 5.3 Congressional hearing
6 Segregation and integration
o 6.1 History
o 6.2 Contemporary issues
o 6.3 Laws regarding race
o 6.4 Court cases regarding race
7 Institutional racism
o 7.1 Immigration
o 7.2 Wealth creation
o 7.3 Slavery by non-whites
o 7.4 Impact on health
o 7.5 Health care inequality
8 Political issues
o 8.1 Affirmative action
o 8.2 Hate crimes
9 Current hate groups
10 Anti-racism
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
[edit]History by targeted racial group
[edit]Racism against Native Americans

Members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma around 1877. Notice the members with European and African ancestry. The
Creek were originally from the Alabama region.
Native Americans, who have lived on the North American continent for at least 20,000 years,[11]
had an
enormously complex impact on American history and racial relations. During the colonial and independent
periods, a long series of conflicts were waged, with the primary objective of obtaining resources of Native
Americans. Through wars, massacres, forced displacement(such as in the Trail of Tears), and the imposition of
treaties, land was taken and numerous hardships imposed. In 1540, the first racial strife was with
Spaniard Hernando de Soto's expedition who enslaved and murdered in many New World communities. In the
early 18th century, the English had enslaved nearly 800 Choctaws.[12]
After the creation of the United States,
the idea of Indian removal gained momentum. However, some Native Americans chose or were allowed to
remain and avoided removal whereafter they were subjected to racist institutions in their ancestral homeland.
The Choctaws in Mississippi described their situation in 1849, "we have had our habitations torn down and
burned, our fences destroyed, cattle turned into our fields and we ourselves have been scourged, manacled,
fettered and otherwise personally abused, until by such treatment some of our best men have died."[13]
Joseph
B. Cobb, who moved to Mississippi from Georgia, described Choctaws as having "no nobility or virtue at all,"
and in some respect he found blacks, especially native Africans, more interesting and admirable, the red man's
superior in every way. The Choctaw and Chickasaw, the tribes he knew best, were beneath contempt, that is,
even worse than black slaves.[14]
Ideological expansionist justification (Manifest Destiny) included stereotyped perceptions of all Native
Americans as "merciless Indian savages" (as described in the United States Declaration of Independence)
despite successful American efforts at civilization as proven with the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek,
and Choctaw. An egregious attempt occurred with the California gold rush, the first two years of which saw the
deaths of thousands of Native Americans. Under Mexican rule in California, Indians were subjected to de
facto enslavement under a system ofpeonage by the white elite. While in 1850, California formally entered
the Union as a free state, with respect to the issue of slavery, the practice of Indian indentured servitudewas
not outlawed by the California Legislature until 1863.[15]
Military and civil resistance by Native Americans has been a constant feature of American history. So too have
a variety of debates around issues of sovereignty, the upholding of treaty provisions, and the civil rights of
Native Americans under U.S. law.
[edit]Discrimination, marginalization
Once their territories were incorporated into the United States, surviving Native Americans were denied equality
before the law and often treated as wards of the state.[16]
See also: Native American reservations

Many Native Americans were relegated to reservations—constituting just 4% of U.S. territory—and the treaties
signed with them violated. Tens of thousands of American Indians and Alaska Natives were forced to attend
a residential school system which sought to reeducate them in white settler American values, culture and
economy, to "kill the Indian, save the man."[17][18]
Further dispossession of various kinds continues into the present, although these current dispossessions,
especially in terms of land, rarely make major news headlines in the country (e.g., the Lenape people's recent
fiscal troubles and subsequent land grab by the State of New Jersey), and sometimes even fail to make it to
headlines in the localities in which they occur. Through concessions for industries such as oil, mining and
timber and through division of land from the Allotment Act forward, these concessions have raised problems of
consent, exploitation of low royalty rates, environmental injustice, and gross mismanagement of funds held in
trust, resulting in the loss of $10–40 billion.[19]
The Worldwatch Institute notes that 317 reservations are threatened by environmental hazards, while Western
Shoshone land has been subjected to more than 1,000 nuclear explosions.[20]
[edit]Assimilation efforts into American society
Benjamin Hawkins, seen here on his plantation, teaches Creek Native Americans how to use European technology. Painted in
1805.
George Washington and Henry Knox believed that Native Americans were equals but that their society was
inferior.[citation needed]
The government appointed agents, like Benjamin Hawkins, to live among the Native
Americans and to teach them, through example and instruction, how to live like whites.[21]
Washington
formulated a policy to encourage the "civilizing" process.[22]
Washington had a six-point plan for civilization
which included:
1. impartial justice toward Native Americans
2. regulated buying of Native American lands
3. promotion of commerce
4. promotion of experiments to civilize or improve Native American society

5. presidential authority to give presents
6. punishing those who violated Native American rights.[23]
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans. Prior to the passage of the
act, nearly two-thirds of Native Americans were already U.S. citizens.[24]
The earliest recorded date of Native
Americans becoming U.S. citizens was in 1831 when the Mississippi Choctaw became citizens after the United
States Legislature ratified the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. Under article XIV of that treaty, any Choctaw
who elected not to move to Native American Territory could become an American citizen when he registered
and if he stayed on designated lands for five years after treaty ratification. Citizenship could also be obtained
by:
1. Treaty Provision (as with the Mississippi Choctaw)
2. Allotment under the Act of February 8, 1887
3. Issuance of Patent in Fee Simple
4. Adopting Habits of Civilized Life
5. Minor Children
6. Citizenship by Birth
7. Becoming Soldiers and Sailors in the U.S. Armed Forces
8. Marriage
9. Special Act of Congress.
“
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That all noncitizen Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States be,
and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided, That the granting of such
citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Native American to tribal or
other property. ”
—-Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
While formal equality has been legally granted, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians,
and Pacific Islanders remain among the most economically disadvantaged groups in the country, and
according to National mental health studies, American Indians as a group tend to suffer from high levels of
alcoholism, depression and suicide.[25]
[edit]Racism against African Americans
Main article: African American history
Perhaps the most prominent and notable form of American racism (other than imperialism against Native
Americans) began with the institution of slavery, during which Africanswere enslaved and treated as property.
Prior to the institution of slavery, early African and non-white immigrants to the Colonies had been regarded
with equal status, serving as sharecroppers alongside whites. After the institution of slavery the status of

Africans was stigmatized, and this stigma was the basis for the more virulent anti-African racism that persisted
until the present.[26]
African Americans were treated like second-class citizens. They were denied defense-
industry jobs, and when the US entered World War II, they could only serve in segregated units.[27]
[edit]Slavery and emancipation
This section needs
additionalcitations for verification.(November
2009)
In colonial America, before slavery became completely based on racial lines, thousands of African slaves
served European colonists, alongside other Europeans serving a term of indentured servitude.[28]
In some
cases for African slaves, a term of service meant freedom and a land grant afterward, but these were rarely
awarded, and few former slaves became landowners this way.[citation needed]
In a precursor to the American
Revolution, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt in 1676 against the Governor of Virginia and the system of exploitation
he represented: exploitation of poorer colonists by the increasingly wealthy landowners where poorer people,
regardless of skin color, fought side by side. However, Bacon died, probably of dysentery; hundreds of
participants in the revolt were lured to disarm by a promised amnesty; and the revolt lost steam.[29]
Slaves were primarily used for agricultural labor, notably in the production of cotton and tobacco. Black slavery
in the Northeast was common until the early 19th century, when many Northeastern states abolished slavery.
Slaves were used as a labor force in agricultural production, shipyards, docks, and as domestic servants. In
both regions, only the wealthiest Americans owned slaves.[citation needed]
In contrast, poor whites recognized that
slavery devalued their own labor. The social rift along color lines soon became ingrained in every aspect of
colonial American culture.[citation needed]
Approximately one Southern family in four held slaves prior to war.
According to the 1860 U.S. census, there were about 385,000 slaveowners out of approximately 1.5 million
white families.[30]
In the early part of the 19th century, a variety of organizations were established advocating the movement of
black people from the United States to locations where they would enjoy greater freedom; some
endorsed colonization, while others advocated emigration. During the 1820s and 1830s the American
Colonization Society (A.C.S.) was the primary vehicle for proposals to return black Americans to greater
freedom and equality in Africa,[31]
and in 1821 the A.C.S. established the colony of Liberia, assisting thousands
of former African-American slaves and free black people (with legislated limits) to move there from the United
States. The colonization effort resulted from a mixture of motives with its founder Henry Clay stating;
"unconquerable prejudice resulting from their color, they never could amalgamate with the free whites of this
country. It was desirable, therefore, as it respected them, and the residue of the population of the country, to
drain them off".[32]

Although the Constitution had banned the importation of new African slaves in 1808, and in 1820 slave trade
was equated with piracy, punishable by death,[33]
the practice of chattel slavery still existed for the next half
century. All slaves in only the areas of the Confederate States of America that were not under direct control of
the United States government were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on
January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.[34]
It should be noted that theEmancipation Proclamation did
not apply to areas loyal to, or controlled by, the Union, thus the document only freed slaves where the Union
still had not regained the legitimacy to do so. Slavery was not actually abolished in the United States until the
passage of the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 6, 1865.[35]
About 4 million black slaves were freed in 1865. Ninety-five percent of blacks lived in the South, comprising one
third of the population there as opposed to one percent of the population of the North. Consequently, fears of
eventual emancipation were much greater in the South than in the North.[36]
Based on 1860 census figures, 8%
of all whitemales aged 13 to 43 died in the civil war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the
South.[37]
Despite this, post-emancipation America was not free from racism; discriminatory practices continued
in the United States with the existence of Jim Crow laws, educational disparities and widespread criminal acts
against people of color.[citation needed]
[edit]Nadir of American race relations
Main articles: Nadir of American race relations and Mass racial violence in the United States
The mob-style lynching of Will James, Cairo, Illinois, 1909.
The new century saw a hardening of institutionalized racism and legal discrimination against citizens of African
descent in the United States. Although technically able to vote, poll taxes, acts of terror (often perpetuated by
groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, founded in the Reconstruction South), and discriminatory laws such
as grandfather clauseskept black Americans disenfranchised particularly in the South but also nationwide
following the Hayes election at the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877. In response to de jure racism, protest
and lobbyist groups emerged, most notably, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People) in 1909.

This time period is sometimes referred to as the nadir of American race relations because racism in the United
States was worse during this time than at any period before or since. Segregation, racial discrimination, and
expressions of white supremacy all increased. So did anti-black violence, including lynchings and race riots.
In addition, racism which had been viewed primarily as a problem in the Southern states, burst onto the
national consciousness following the Great Migration, the relocation of millions of African Americans from their
roots in the Southern states to the industrial centers of the North after World War I, particularly in cities such
as Boston, Chicago, and New York (Harlem). In northern cities, racial tensions exploded, most violently in
Chicago, and lynchings--mob-directed hangings, usually racially motivated—increased dramatically in the
1920s. As a member of the Princeton chapter of the NAACP, Albert Einstein corresponded with W. E. B. Du
Bois, and in 1946 Einstein called racism America's "worst disease".[38][39]
[edit]African Americans in recent decades
While substantial gains were made in the succeeding decades through middle class advancement and public
employment, black poverty and lack of education[40]
deepened in the context of de-
industrialization.[41]
Prejudice, discrimination, and institutional racism (see below) continued to affect African
Americans.
From 1981 to 1997, the United States Department of Agriculture discriminated against tens of thousands of
African American farmers, denying loans provided to white farmers in similar circumstances. The discrimination
was the subject of the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit brought by members of the National Black Farmers
Association, which resulted in two settlement agreements of $1.25 billion in 1999 and of $1.15 billion in 2009.[42]
Many cite the 2008 United States presidential election as a step forward in race relations: White Americans
played a role in electing Barack Obama, the country's first black president.[43]
In fact, Obama received a greater
percentage of the white vote (43%),[44]
than did the previous Democratic candidate, John Kerry (41%).[45]
Racial
divisions persisted throughout the election; wide margins of Black voters gave Obama an edge during the
presidential primary, where 8 out of 10 African-Americans voted for him in the primaries, and an MSNBC poll
showed that race was a key factor in whether a candidate was perceived as being ready for office. In South
Carolina, for instance,"Whites were far likelier to name Clinton than Obama as being most qualified to be
commander in chief, likeliest to unite the country and most apt to capture the White House in November. Blacks
named Obama over Clinton by even stronger margins — two- and three-to one — in all three areas.".[46]
[edit]Taking a nonviolent stand
In February 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, four young African-American college students entered a
Woolworth store and sat down at the counter but were refused service. The men had learned about non-violent
protest in college, and continued to sit peacefully as whites tormented them at the counter, pouring ketchup on
their heads and burning them with cigarettes. After this, many sit-ins took place to non-violently protest against

racism and inequality. Sit-ins continued throughout the South and spread to other areas. Eventually, after many
sit-ins and other non-violent protests, including marches and boycotts, places began to agree to
desegregate.[47][broken citation]
[edit]Discrimination and racism against Asian Americans
A Sinophobic cartoon called "Yellow terror" appearing in the United States in 1899
See also: Sinophobia, Chinese American history, and Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States, Anti-
Japanese sentiment in the United States, and Yellow Peril
In the Pacific States, racism was primarily directed against the resident Asian immigrants. Several immigration
laws discriminated against the Asians, and at different points the ethnic Chinese or other groups were banned
from entering the United States.[48]
Nonwhites were prohibited from testifying against whites, a prohibition
extended to the Chinese by People v. Hall.[49]
The Chinese were often subject to harder labor on the First
Transcontinental Railroad and often performed the more dangerous tasks such as using dynamite to make
pathways through the mountains.[50]
The San Francisco Vigilance Movement, although ostensibly a response to
crime and corruption, also systematically victimized Irish immigrants, and later this was transformed into mob
violence against Chinese immigrants.[citation needed]
. Anti-Chinese sentiment was also rife in early Los Angeles,
culminating in a notorious 1871 riot in which a mob attacked Chinese residents.[51]
In the ensuing inquests and trials, all the perpetrators either were acquitted, or received only light punishments
for lesser offenses,[citation needed]
because the testimony of Chinese witnesses was either completely inadmissible,
or else considered less credible than that of others. Legal discrimination of Asian minorities was furthered with
the passages of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the entrance of virtually all ethnic Chinese
immigrants into the United States until 1943.

During World War II, the United States created internment camps for Japanese American citizens in fear that
they would be used as spies for the Japanese.[52]
Currently implemented immigration laws are still largely
plagued with national origin-based quotas that are unfavorable to Asian countries due to large populations and
historically low U.S. immigration rates.[3]
[edit]Discrimination against Latin Americans
Americans of Latin American ancestry (often categorized as "Hispanic") come from a wide variety of racial and
ethnic backgrounds. Latinos are not all distinguishable as a racial minority.
After the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the U.S. annexed much of the current Southwestern region
from Mexico. Mexicans residing in that territory found themselves subject to discrimination. It is estimated that
at least 597 Mexicans were lynched between 1848 and 1928 (this is a conservative estimate due to lack of
records in many reported lynchings). Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population
between 1880 and 1930. This statistic is second only to that of the African American community during that
period, which suffered an average of 37.1 per 100,000 population.[53]
Between 1848 to 1879, Mexicans were
lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per 100,000 of population.[54]
During The Great Depression, the U.S. government sponsored a Mexican Repatriation program which was
intended to encourage Mexican immigrants to voluntarily return to Mexico, however, many were forcibly
removed against their will. In total, up to one million persons of Mexican ancestry were deported, approximately
60 percent of those individuals were actually U.S. citizens.[55]
The Zoot Suit Riots were vivid incidents of racial violence against Latinos (e.g. Mexican-Americans) in Los
Angeles in 1943. Naval servicemen stationed in a Latino neighborhood conflicted with youth in the dense
neighborhood. Frequent confrontations between small groups and individuals had intensified into several days
of non-stop rioting. Large mobs of servicemen would enter civilian quarters looking to attack Mexican American
youths, some of whom were wearing zoot suits, a distinctive exaggerated fashion popular among that
group.[56]
The disturbances continued unchecked, and even assisted, by the local police for several days before
base commanders declared downtown Los Angeles and Mexican American neighborhoods off-limits to
servicemen.[57]
Many public institutions, businesses, and homeowners associations had official policies to exclude Mexican
Americans. School children of Mexican American descent were subject to racial segregation in the public
school system. In many counties, Mexican Americans were excluded from serving as jurors in court cases,
especially in those that involved a Mexican American defendant. In many areas across the Southwest, they
lived in separate residential areas, due to laws and real estate company policies.[58][59][60][61]
During the 1960s, Mexican American youth rallied behind civil rights causes and launched the Chicano
Movement.

[edit]Antisemitism
Main article: Antisemitism in the United States
Antisemitism has also played a role in America. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of
thousands of Ashkenazi Jews were escaping the pogroms of Russiaand Eastern Europe. They boarded boats
from ports on the Baltic Sea and in Northern Germany, and largely arrived at Ellis Island, New York.[62]
It is thought by Leo Rosten, in his book, 'The Joys of Yiddish', that as soon as they left the boat, they were
subject to racism from the port immigration authorities. The derogatory term 'kike' was adopted when referring
to Jews (because they often could not write so they may have signed their immigration papers with circles - or
kikel inYiddish).[63]
From the 1910s, the Southern Jewish communities were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, who objected to Jewish
immigration, and often used 'The Jewish Banker' in their propaganda. In 1915, Texas-born, New York Jew Leo
Frank was lynched by the newly re-formed Klan, after being convicted of rape and sentenced to death (his
punishment was commuted to life imprisonment).[64]
The events in Nazi Germany also attracted attention from America. Jewish lobbying for intervention in Europe
drew opposition from the isolationists, amongst whom was FatherCharles Coughlin, a well known radio priest,
who was known to be critical of Jews, believing that they were leading America into the war.[65]
He preached in
weekly, overtly anti-Semitic sermons and, from 1936, began publication of a newspaper, Social Justice, in
which he printed anti-Semitic accusations such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[65]
A number of Jewish organizations, Christian organizations, Muslim organizations, and academics consider
the Nation of Islam to be anti-Semitic. Specifically, they claim that the Nation of Islam has engaged in
revisionist and antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave
trade.[66]
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) alleges that NOI Health Minister, Abdul Alim Muhammad,
has accused Jewish doctors of injecting blacks with the AIDS virus,[67]
an allegation that Dr. Abdul Alim
Muhammad has denied.
[edit]Racism against Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans
See also: Anti-Arabism and Islamophobia

An Assyrian church vandalized in Detroit (2007). Assyrians, although not Arabs and mostly Christians, often face backlash in the US
for their Middle Eastern background.[68]
People of Middle East and South Asian descent historically occupied an ambiguous racial status in the United
States. Middle East, and South Asian immigrants were among those who sued in the late 19th and early 20th
century to determine whether they were "white" immigrants as required by naturalization law. By 1923, courts
had vindicated a "common-knowledge" standard, concluding that "scientific evidence", including the notion of a
"Caucasian race" including Arabs and many South Asians, was incoherent. Legal scholar John Tehranian
argues that in reality this was a "performance-based" standard, relating to religious practices, education,
intermarriage and a community's role in the United States.[69]
Recent studies have found that while official
parameters encompass Arabs as part of the White American racial category, many Arab Americans from
places other than the Levant feel they are not white and are not perceived as white by American society."[70]
Racism against Arab Americans[71]
and racialized Islamophobia against Muslims has risen concomitantly with
tensions between the American government and the Islamic world.[72]
Following the September 11, 2001
attacks in the United States, discrimination and racialized violence has markedly increased against Arab
Americans and many other religious and cultural groups.[73]
Scholars, including Sunaina Maira and Evelyn
Alsultany, argue that in the post-September 11climate, Muslim Americans have been racialized within
American society, although the markers of this racialization are cultural, political, and religious rather
than phenotypic.[74][75]
Middle Easterners in particular were demonized which led to hatred towards Arabs and Iranians living in the
United States and elsewhere in the western world.[76][77]
There have been attacks against Arabs not only on the
basis of their religion (Islam), but also on the basis of their ethnicity; numerous Christian Arabs have been

attacked based on their appearances.[78]
In addition, non-Arab peoples (Iranians, Assyrians, Yezidis, Kurds)
who are mistaken for Arabs because of perceived "similarities in appearance" have been collateral victims of
anti-Arabism.
Iranian people (who constitute a different ethnicity than Arabs), as well as South Asians of different
ethnic/religious backgrounds (Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs) have been stereotyped as "Arabs". The case
of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh who was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist for "looking
like an Arab terrorist" (because of the turban that is a requirement of Sikhism), as well as that of Hindus being
attacked for "being Muslims" have achieved prominence and criticism following the September 11 attacks.[79][80]
Those of Middle Eastern descent who are in the United States military face racism from fellow soldiers. Army
Spc Zachari Klawonn endured numerous instances of racism during his enlistment at Fort Hood, Texas. During
his basic training he was made to put cloth around his head and play the role a terrorist. His fellow soldiers had
to take him down to the ground and draw guns on him. He was also called things such as "raghead", "sand
monkey", and "Zachari bin Laden"."[81]
[edit]Racism against Iranian Americans
See also: Anti-Iranian sentiment
A man holding a sign that reads "deport allIranians" and "get the hell out of my country" during a protest of the Iran hostage
crisis inWashington, D.C. in 1979.
The November 1979 Iranian hostage crisis of the U.S. embassy in Tehran precipitated a wave of anti-Iranian
sentiment in the United States, directed both against the new Islamic regime and Iranian nationals and
immigrants. Even though such sentiments gradually declined after the release of the hostages at the start of
1981, they sometimes flare up. In response, some Iranian immigrants to the U.S. have distanced themselves
from their nationality and instead identify primarily on the basis of their ethnic or religious affiliations.[82]
Ann Coulter called Iranians "ragheads."[83]
Brent Scowcroft called the Iranian people "rug merchants."[84]
Since the 1980s and especially since the 1990s Hollywood's depiction of Iranians has gradually shown signs of
vilifying Iranians.[85]
Hollywood network productions such as 24,[86]
John Doe, On Wings of

Eagles (1986),[87]
Escape From Iran: The Canadian Caper (1981),[88]
and JAG almost regularly host Persian
speaking villains in their storylines. On May 9, 1997, CBSaired an episode of JAG in which
several Hamas terrorists take a Washington hospital under siege. According to the film, they spoke in fluent
"Persian", not "Arabic".[citation needed]
[edit]Anti-European immigrant racism
Main article: Anti-Irish racism
Various non-Jewish European-American immigrant groups have been subject to discrimination either on the
basis of their immigrant status (known as "Nativism") or on the basis of their ethnicities (country of origin).
Philadelphia Nativist Riots.
New York Times, 1854 ad, reading "No Irish need apply."
In the 19th century, this was particularly true of anti-Irish prejudice, which was partly anti-Catholic sentiment,
partly anti-Irish as an ethnicity. This was especially true for Irish Catholics who immigrated to the U.S. in the
mid-19th century; the large number of Irish (both Catholic and Protestant) who settled in America in the 18th
century had largely (but not entirely) escaped such discimination and eventually blended into the American
white population.
The 20th century saw racism against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe (notably Italian-
Americans and Polish Americans), partly from anti-Catholic sentiment (as against Irish-Americans), and partly
from Nordicism, which considered Southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans inferior – see Nordicism in the
USA.

“
Biological laws tell us that certain divergent
people will not mix or blend. The Nordics
propagate themselves successfully. With other
races, the outcome shows deterioration on both
sides. ”
—Future US president Calvin Coolidge, 1921.[89]
Nordicism led to the reduction in Southern European and Eastern European immigrants in the National Origins
Formula of theEmergency Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924, whose goal was to maintain the
status quo distribution of ethnicity by limiting immigration in proportion to existing populations. This reduced the
inflow from the average prior to 1921 of 176,983 from Northern and Western Europe, and 685,531 for other
countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe, to a 1924 level of 140,999 for Northern and Western
Europe, and 21,847 for other countries, principally Southern and Eastern Europe (from a 1:3.9 ratio to a 6.4:1
ratio).
There was also racism against German-Americans and Italian-Americans due to these being enemy countries
in World War I(Germany) and World War II (Germany and Italy). This resulted in a sharp decrease in German-
American ethnic identity and a sharp decrease in the use of German in the United States following WWI, which
had hitherto been significant, and to German American internment and Italian American internment during
WWII; see also World War I anti-German sentiment.
Specific European-American ethnicities significantly diminished as a political issue in the 1930s, being replaced
by a bi-racialism of Black/White, as described and predicted by Lothrop Stoddard, due to numerous causes.
The National Origins Formula significantly reduced inflows of non-Nordic ethnicities; the Great Migration (of
African-Americans out of the South) displaced anti-White immigrant racism with anti-Black racism; and
the Great Depression brought economic concerns to the fore.
Anti-Catholic sentiment remained evident in the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, who nevertheless
went on to become the US's first Catholic (and indeed non-Protestant) president.
In the 1960s and 1970s, ethnic jokes most notably Jew Jokes and Polish Jokes were popular, but are
considered offensive to people of Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish and otherWhite ethnic descent.[citation needed]
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s early 1990s many immigrants
came to the United States from Eastern Europe. A new type of racism which is based on the former Cold War
stereotypes began to target white people from the former Soviet states. There are many jokes refer to a
communist past, corruption, alcohol consumption, prostitution, and unemployment. Some people began to use
words like Eurotrash, mafia, cracker, commie, Borat, and Russki when refer to Russians, Ukranians,
Belarusians, or Balcans: Serbs, Albanians and others. During the Olympic Games in Vancouver NBC's
commenter Mike Milbury used the term 'Eurotrash' to describe Russian hockey team. A ska band from Boston

called Dropkicks Murphy's wrote a song called "Eurotrash" which promotes violence against Europeans and
European culture. Jokes about Russian mail brides, Eastern European prostitutes, and fashion models became
popular among young people in the United States.
[edit]Racism against European Americans
This section needs
additionalcitations for verification.(January
2010)
This article or section appears to contradict itself. Please see the talk page for more
information. (May 2011)
In addition to racism against European immigrants on the basis of their immigrant status or country of origin,
there has also been racism against European Americans on the basis of their ethnicity, regardless of country of
origin. A general anti-white slur is "cracker".
Some policies adopted as affirmative action, such as racial quotas or gender quotas for collegiate admission,
have been criticized as a form of "reverse discrimination".[90]
Affirmative action is sometimes called "reverse
racism" by its opponents;[91]
some sociologists argue that the term "racism" can only be applied to structured
systems of racial supremacy, and that opponents would more correctly call affirmative action
"reverse discrimination."[92]
In Hawai‗i, there is an alleged tradition dating at least to the 1950s of the last day of school called "Kill Haole
Day", "Haole" originally referring to foreigners, and more generally to white people. There is a custom, reported
in Cleveland, Ohio in 2003, of May Day (May 1) being "Beat Up a White Kid Day."
[edit]White subgroups
Certain subgroups of White Americans, while not identifying as separate races (often identifying as having
"American ethnicity"), have distinct heritages and experience discrimination and low socio-economic status as
an ethnicity.
The status of poor rural whites has often been compared to that of blacks, being also seen as suffering from
slavery (because unable to compete with the free labor of slaves). Such descriptions date to the 19th century,
as is Uncle Tom's Cabin, and poor rural whites continue to lag on numerous socio-economic indicators (health,
income, and the like) – see social and economic stratification in Appalachia.
Other white subgroups who are sometimes subject of offensive humor, jokes, and stereotypes
are Mormons (due to their religion) and French-Canadians (because their mother language is French).
[edit]Anti-White crimes
Main article: Hate crimes against white people

One series of unprovoked crimes that specifically targeted White Americans is the Zebra murders that occurred
in San Francisco between 1973 and 1974. The Zebra murders were carried out by a group known as Death
Angels (a radical splinter group of the Nation of Islam) that intended to kill whites to spread terror and earn
favor and status within their sect.
Another series of crimes that specifically targeted whites is the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks which planned to
kill six whites a day for 30 days,[93]
and resulted in 10 deaths and 3 critical injuries. One of the snipers Lee Boyd
Malvo testified that John Allen Muhammad was driven by hatred of America because of its "slavery, hypocrisy
and foreign policy" and his belief that "the white man is the devil."
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, national anti-white hate groups that are currently active
include Nation of Islam and New Black Panther Party.
According to FBI statistics from 1995–2002, whites are the second most targeted group for racially motivated
hate crime in New York City.[94]
[edit]History by region
In the popular imagination, racism is particularly associated with the American South, with its legacy of slavery
and Jim Crow. However, all regions of the United States have exhibited racism in various forms and at various
times. For example, the Great Migration of African Americans (1910–1930) from the South to the Northeast,
Midwest, and West, led to increased Black/White contact, racism, and segregation in the destinations.
[edit]West Coast racism
The Pacific and Western states were often portrayed to those on the East Coast as more liberal in terms of
race relations in the 1960s and 1970s, but California legally allowed racial segregation of public facilities until
the 1950s and other forms of racism were felt there as well.
Over the winter spanning 1929 and 1930, anti-Filipino racism exploded in the Central Coast area
surrounding Watsonville over labor tensions and general xenophobia. Filipinofarm workers were terrorized for
"taking jobs from whites," and for mixing with white women; in California, and many states, Filipinos were
barred from marrying White Americans(a group which included Hispanic Americans). Violence was done
against Filipinos, some resulting in deaths, and a Filipino establishment was even dynamited. A race war broke
out in the Bay Area, with roving gangs of whites pulling Filipinos from their homes and dwellings, until the
violence subsided. As a result of the riots, California's attitude changed towards importing cheaper Asian labor,
ironically moving towards utilizing cheaper Mexican labor instead.[95]
See also: History of Oregon Racial Discrimination
A variety of laws were enacted to prevent African American migration to the Pacific Northwest. While slavery
was criminalized in the Oregon Territory in 1844, a so-called "lash law" subjected blacks found guilty of

violating the law to whippings—no less than 20 and no more than 39 strokes of the lash—every six months
"until he or she shall quit the territory." An exclusion law, barring African Americans from entering the territory
was passed in 1847, repealed in 1854, and added to the new Oregon state constitution in 1857. While African
Americans have been present at some level since 1805, the demographic reverberations of these laws remain
today.[96]
[edit]Racism as a factor in U.S. foreign policy
The earliest decades of expansionist United States foreign policy making was often accompanied by racialist
ideological justifications. While pursuing a series of expansionist wars (see "Racism against Native Americans"
above), American leaders embraced an ideology of white racial supremacy. George Washington predicted at
the end of the U.S. Revolutionary War, ―The gradual extension of our settlements will as certainly cause the
savage, as the wolf, to retire; both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."[97]
The successful slave
revolution in Haiti alarmed the United States leadership, and the country refused diplomatic recognition for
decades. The United States conquest ofFlorida and the Seminole Wars were fought in part to confront the
danger of "mingled hordes of lawless Indians and negroes," in the words of President John Quincy Adams.[98]
Early 20th-century President Theodore Roosevelt declared, "The most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war
with savages" and openly spoke of cementing the rule of "dominant world races."[98]
In line with the concepts of
the "Manifest Destiny" of white Anglo-Americans to conquer lands inhabited by "inferior" races of Native
Americans and Mexicans, and the "White Man's Burden" of Europeans' obligation to introduce civilization to the
"primitive" people of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, American foreign policy in the early 20th century had racial
overtones of a "superior" race destined to rule the world.
Critics such as Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky have suggested that racism has played a significant role in U.S.
foreign policy in the Middle East and its treatment of the Arabs. Various critics have suggested that racism
along with strategic and financial interests motivated the Bush Administration to attack Iraq even though
the Baathist regime ofSaddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction nor had any ties to Al
Qaida.[99][100][101]
On the other hand, some scholars believe that the United States has softened racial
restrictions based on foreign policy concerns. For example, Congress eliminated racial bars on Asian
immigration during World War II and the Vietnam War to recognize American allies.[102]
When the Supreme
Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, the government argued that the Supreme Court should rule
against racial segregation to counter Communist propaganda and improve America's image overseas.[103]
[edit]War on Drugs and Racism
Main article: Race and the War on Drugs
The "War on Drugs", a term coined by President Nixon, was a law enforcement effort by US presidents starting
from Nixon to oppose the sale, distribution and usage of illegal drugs. This term as well as the effects of this

war, has become controversial for the way it has hurt Black people, racial minorities and poor people in the US.
A big part of this effort has involved in the arresting of Americans (over 13 million) mostly of color.
One of every nine black families has a close relative in prison over aggressive arrests done by US law
enforcement.[104]
Even though usage of illegal drugs are roughly the same along racial lines, the Drug Policy
Alliance Network shows that blacks constitute 13 percent of drug users, but are 38 percent of people arrested
for drug offenses, and 59 percent of those convicted.[105]
The Human Rights Watch supported this claim as well,
stating that of blacks convicted of drug crimes 71% are incarcerated, compared with 63% of convicted
whites.[106]
US laws have a much higher penalty for possession and distribution of crack cocaine, a frequently
used drug among African Americans and this affects the Black community as well.
[edit]Conflicts between racial and ethnic minorities
[edit]Argument against minority-minority racism
Minority racism is sometimes considered controversial because of theories of power in society. Some theories
of racism insist that racism can only exist in the context of social power to impose it upon others.[107]
[edit]African and Mexican American gang violence
There has been ongoing violence between African American and Mexican American gangs, particularly
in Southern California.[108][109][110][111]
There have been reports of racially motivated attacks against Mexican
Americans who have moved into neighborhoods occupied mostly by African Americans, and vice
versa.[112][113]
According to gang experts and law enforcement agents, a longstanding race war between
the Mexican Mafia and the Black Guerilla Family, a rival African American prison gang, has generated such
intense racial hatred among Mexican Mafia leaders, or shot callers, that they have issued a "green light" on all
blacks. This amounts to a standing authorization for Latino gang members to prove their mettle by terrorizing or
even murdering any blacks sighted in a neighborhood claimed by a gang loyal to the Mexican Mafia.[dead
link][114]
There have been several significant riots in California prisons where Mexican American inmates and
African Americans have targeted each other particularly, based on racial reasons.[115][116]
[edit]New Immigrant Africans and African Americans
The rapid growth in African immigrants has come into conflict with American blacks. Interaction and
cooperation between African immigrants and black Americans are, ironically, debatable. One can argue that
racial discrimination and cooperation is not ordinarily based on color of skin but more on shared common,
cultural experiences, and beliefs.[117][118]
[edit]Strife, conflict and reconciliation
This section needs
additionalcitations for verification.(November

2009)
This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made
and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be
removed. (November 2009)
The U.S. has long had experienced conflict and reconciliation between ethnic minority groups.
Historians point out after a period of conflict, ethnic and racial groups can band together in solidarity. For
example, the competing Irish-American and Italian-American groups once held animosity against each other in
the early 20th century, would later merge and also with Polish-Americans, German-Americans and French-
Canadians in the U.S. because of the commonality as "ethnics" and Roman Catholics in a primarily Protestant
Anglo America by the 1940s and '50s. The modern American consciousness on race will consider descendants
of European ethnic groups assimilated to become part of the larger "White American" group.
In the 1960s & '70s, African-American and Puerto Rican political activism banded together to battle the
common problems of racial discrimination, poverty and underpresentation in many urban areas across the US
like in New York City. Also to note there was substantial intermarriage between the newly-arrived Indian
American, later came the Filipino and Hispanic communities in California under similar working conditions and
shared cultural values in the 1920s (see Punjabi Mexican American).
The current-day social melange of "minorities" and "people of color" echoes the previous experience of
European ethnic groups' sense of "otherness" about 2 or 3 generations ago.
[edit]Stereotypes and prejudice
This section requires expansion.(October
2007)

This racist postcard from the 1900s shows the casual denigration of black women. It states "I know you're not particular to a fault /
Though I'm not sure you'll never be sued for assault / You're so fond of women that even a wench / Attracts your gross fancy despite
her strong stench"
[edit]Stereotypical images in the entertainment media
See also: Stereotypes of African Americans, Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world, and Stereotypes
of Native Americans
Popular culture (songs, theater) for European American audiences in the 19th century created and perpetuated
negative stereotypes of African Americans. One key symbol of racism against African Americans was the use
of blackface. Directly related to this was the institution of minstrelsy. Other stereotypes of African Americans
included the fat, dark-skinned "mammy" and the irrational, hypersexual male "buck".
Other stereotypes include the portrayal of East Asians as very small people with huge front teeth; the portrayal
of Native Americans as dangerous savages; the portrayal of Australians as blonde rednecks who do nothing
but ride kangaroos and cook food on the barbie; and the portrayal of Frenchmen who wear berets and striped
shirts, smoke, love watching Jerry Lewis and give up too easily.
[edit]Contemporary images and protests
Increasing numbers of African-American activists have asserted that rap music videos utilize African-American
performers commonly enacting tropes of scantily clothed women and men as thugs or pimps. Church
organized groups have protested outside the residence of Phillipe Dauman (Upper East Side (New York, NY))
(president and chief executive officer of Viacom) and the residence of Debra L. Lee (Northwest Washington
DC) (chairman and chief executive of Black Entertainment Television, a unit of Viacom). Rev. Donald Coates,
leader of a protest organization formed around the issue of the videos, "Enough is Enough!" said, ―In the wake
of the Imusaffair, I began to think that the African-American community must be consistent in its outrage.‖ The
Clifton, Maryland minister has also said, ―Why are these corporations making these images normative and
mainstream?‖ ... ―I can talk about this in the church until I am blue in the face, but we need to take it outside.‖
The NAACP and the National Congress of Black Women also have called for the reform of images on videos
and on television. Julian Bond said that in a segregated society, people get their impressions of other groups
from what they see in videos and what they hear in music.[119][120][121][122]
In a similar vein, activists protested against the BET show, Hot Ghetto Mess, which satirizes the culture
of working-class African-Americans. The protests resulted in the change of the television show name to We Got
to Do Better.[119]
[edit]Congressional hearing
In September, 2007 Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois initiated a Congressional hearing on African-American images
in the media, ―From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images.‖[119]

[edit]Segregation and integration
Main article: Racial segregation in the United States
[edit]History
The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United
States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for black Americans.
In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white
Americans. The most important laws required that public schools, public places and public transportation, like
trains and buses, have separate facilities for whites and blacks. (These Jim Crow Laws were separate from the
1800-66 Black Codes, which had restricted the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans.) State-
sponsored school segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in
1954 in Brown v. Board of Education. Generally, the remaining Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act; none were in effect at the end of the 1960s.
Segregation continued even after the demise of the Jim Crow laws. Data on house prices and attitudes toward
integration from suggest that in the mid-20th century, segregation was a product of collective actions taken by
whites to exclude blacks from their neighborhoods.[123]
Segregation also took the form of redlining, the practice
of denying or increasing the cost of services, such as banking, insurance, access to jobs,[124]
access to health
care,[125]
or even supermarkets[126]
to residents in certain, often racially determined,[127]
areas. Although in
the United States informal discrimination and segregation have always existed, the practice called "redlining"
began with theNational Housing Act of 1934, which established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The
practice was fought first through passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968(which prevents redlining when the
criteria for redlining are based on race, religion, gender, familial status, disability, or ethnic origin), and later
through the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which requires banks to apply the same lending criteria in
all communities.[128]
Although redlining is illegal some argue that it continues to exist in other forms.
[edit]Contemporary issues
Black-White segregation is declining fairly consistently for most metropolitan areas and cities. Despite these
pervasive patterns, many changes for individual areas are small.[129]
Thirty years after the civil rights era, the
United States remains a residentially segregated society in which Blacks and Whites inhabit different
neighborhoods of vastly different quality.[130][131]
Some researchers suggest that racial segregation may lead to disparities in health and mortality. Thomas
LaVeist (1989; 1993) tested the hypothesis that segregation would aid in explaining race differences in infant
mortality rates across cities. Analyzing 176 large and midsized cities, LaVeist found support for the hypothesis.
Since LaVeist's studies, segregation has received increased attention as a determinant of race disparities in
mortality.[132]
Studies have shown that mortality rates for male and female African Americans are lower in areas

with lower levels of residential segregation. Mortality for male and female Whites was not associated in either
direction with residential segregation.[133]
Researchers Sharon A. Jackson, Roger T. Anderson, Norman J. Johnson and Paul D. Sorlie found that, after
adjustment for family income, mortality risk increased with increasing minority residential segregation among
Blacks aged 25 to 44 years and non-Blacks aged 45 to 64 years. In most age/race/gender groups, the highest
and lowest mortality risks occurred in the highest and lowest categories of residential segregation, respectively.
These results suggest that minority residential segregation may influence mortality risk and underscore the
traditional emphasis on the social underpinnings of disease and death.[134]
Rates of heart disease among
African Americans are associated with the segregation patterns in the neighborhoods where they live (Fang et
al. 1998). Stephanie A. Bond Huie writes that neighborhoods affect health and mortality outcomes primarily in
an indirect fashion through environmental factors such as smoking, diet, exercise, stress, and access to health
insurance and medical providers.[135]
Moreover, segregation strongly influences premature mortality in the
US.[136]
[edit]Laws regarding race
Main article: Race legislation in the United States
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byadding to it. (April 2012)
[edit]Court cases regarding race
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byadding to it. (April 2012)
[edit]Institutional racism
Institutional racism is the theory that aspects of the structure, pervasive attitudes, and established institutions of
society disadvantage some racial groups, although not by an overtly discriminatory mechanism.[137]
There are
several factors that play into institutional racism, including but not limited to: accumulated wealth/benefits from
racial groups that have benefited from past discrimination, educational and occupational disadvantages faced
by non-native English speakers in the United States, ingrained stereotypical images that still remain in the
society (e.g. black men are likely to be criminals).[138]
[edit]Immigration
Access to United States citizenship was restricted by race, beginning with the Naturalization Act of 1790 which
refused naturalization to "non-whites." Many in the modern United States forget the institutionalized prejudice
against white followers of Roman Catholicism who immigrated from countries such
as Ireland, Germany, Italy and France.[139]
Other efforts include the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the

1924 National Origins Act.[140][141]
The Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at further restricting
the Southern andEastern Europeans who had begun to enter the country in large numbers beginning in the
1890s. While officially prohibited, U.S. officials continue to differentially apply laws on illegal immigration
depending on national origin (essentially declining to enforce immigration laws against citizens of rich countries
who overstay their visas) and personal economy (differentially awarding visas to foreign nationals based on
bank accounts, properties and so on).
[edit]Wealth creation
Massive racial differentials in account of wealth remain in the United States: between whites and African
Americans, the gap is a factor of twenty.[142]
An analyst of the phenomenon, Thomas Shapiro, professor of law
and social policy at Brandeis University argues, ―The wealth gap is not just a story of merit and achievement,
it‘s also a story of the historical legacy of race in the United States.‖[143]
Differentials applied to the Social
Security Act (which excluded agricultural workers, a sector that then included most black workers), rewards to
military officers, and the educational benefits offered returning soldiers after World War II. Pre-existing
disparities in wealth are exacerbated by tax policies that reward investment over waged income, subsidize
mortgages, and subsidize private sector developers.[144]
However, according to the US Census, the highest
percentage of citizens in America living below the poverty line are white Americans, and not African
Americans.[145]
[edit]Slavery by non-whites
See also: Slavery in the United States
Before removal and "under white influence", some Southern Native American tribes owned African American
slaves. The Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw were known to have had slaves. However, unlike white
slaveholders, they encouraged the young black slaves to attend the schools opened for the Indian children.
The children they had with black women and men were raised in practical equality with their full blooded
offspring." [146]
Unlike the United States before Emancipation, African Americans (and European Americans)
were allowed to become citizens of their respective Native American nations; however, it was rare for African
Americans to become citizens of Native American nations. For example, a small number of "Free People of
Color" lived in many Native American nations as Cherokee, Choctaw, or Creek citizens.[147]
There were also
African-American slave owners.
[edit]Impact on health
See also: Race and health
In the US racial differences in health and quality of life often persist even at equivalent socioeconomics levels.
Individual and institutional discrimination, along with the stigma of inferiority, can adversely affect health.
Residence in poor neighborhoods, racial bias in medical care, the stress of experiences of discrimination and

the acceptance of the societal stigma of inferiority can have deleterious consequences for health.[148]
Using The
Schedule of Racist Events (SRE), an 18-item self-report inventory that assesses the frequency of racist
discrimination. Hope Landrine and Elizabeth A. Klonoff found that racist discrimination is rampant in the lives of
African Americans and is strongly related to psychiatric symptoms.[149]
A study on racist events in the lives of
African American women found that lifetime experiences of racism were positively related to lifetime history of
both physical disease and frequency of recent common colds. These relationships were largely unaccounted
for by other variables. Demographic variables such as income and education were not related to experiences of
racism. The results suggest that racism can be detrimental to African American's well being.[150]
The
physiological stress caused by racism has been documented in studies by Claude Steele, Joshua Aronson,
and Steven Spencer on what they term "stereotype threat."[151]
Kennedy et al. found that both measures of
collective disrespect were strongly correlated with black mortality (r = 0.53 to 0.56), as well as with white
mortality (r = 0.48 to 0.54). These data suggest that racism, measured as an ecologic characteristic, is
associated with higher mortality in both blacks and whites.[152]
[edit]Health care inequality
See also: Race and health
They are major racial differences in access to health care and in the quality of health care provided. A study
published in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that: "over 886,000 deaths could have been
prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African Americans had received the same care as whites." The key differences
they cited were lack of insurance, inadequate insurance, poor service, and reluctance to seek care.[153]
A
history of government-sponsored experimentation, such as the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study has left a
legacy of African American distrust of the medical system.[154]
Inequalities in health care may also reflect a systemic bias in the way medical procedures and treatments are
prescribed for different ethnic groups. Raj Bhopal writes that the history of racism in science and medicine
shows that people and institutions behave according to the ethos of their times and warns of dangers to avoid
in the future.[155]
Nancy Krieger contended that much modern research supported the assumptions needed to
justify racism. Racism she writes underlies unexplained inequities in health care, including treatment for heart
disease,[156]
renal failure,[157]
bladder cancer,[158]
and pneumonia.[159]
Raj Bhopal writes that these inequalities
have been documented in numerous studies. The consistent and repeated findings that black Americans
receive less health care than white Americans—particularly where this involves expensive new technology.[160]
[edit]Political issues
[edit]Affirmative action
Main article: Affirmative action in the United States

Affirmative action is a policy or program intended to promote access to education or employment for minority
groups and women. Motivation for affirmative action policies is to redress the effects of past discrimination and
to encourage public institutions such as universities, hospitals, and police forces to be more representative of
the population.
Affirmative action programs may include targeted recruitment efforts, preferential treatment given to applicants
from historically disadvantaged groups, and in some cases the use of quotas. Most American universities and
some employers practice affirmative action.[citation needed]
Some opponents of affirmative action view the greater access by women and minority groups to be at the
expense of groups considered dominant (typically white men). This view is typically associated with symbolic
racism, a modern, indirect form of racism that values equality of opportunity but sees these minority groups as
receiving more than they deserve and violating traditional White merit norms. [161]
In their view, these policies
demonstrate an overt preference for applicants from particular backgrounds over better-qualified (or equally-
qualified) candidates from other backgrounds. Some opponents of affirmative action believe the only
consideration in choosing between applicants should be merit. Some also criticize affirmative action because
they believe it perpetuates racial division instead of minimizing the importance of race in American society.[162]
Supporters of affirmative action believe that the perceived injustice to the dominant group is not supported by
facts. They point to statistics that suggest that affirmative action has not resulted in fewer opportunities for
white people. For example, white enrollment in universities has increased along with minority enrollment. In
1973, 30% of white high school graduates attended universities; in 1993, after widespread implementation of
affirmative action policies, that number had risen to 42%.[163]
Some supporters of affirmative action point out
that, even in the absence of affirmative action, college admissions rarely are purely merit-based: athletes,
musicians, and legacy students (children of alumni) have always been given preferential treatment. For
example, Harvard University admits 35-40% of legacy applicants, and a rejected white applicant is more likely
to have been displaced by a legacy student than by one who benefited from affirmative action.[citation needed]
[edit]Hate crimes
Main article: Hate crime
Most hate crimes in the United States target victims on the basis of race or ethnicity (for Federal purposes,
crimes targeting Hispanics based on that identity are considered based on ethnicity). Leading forms of bias
cited in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, based on law enforcement agency filings are: anti-
black, anti-Jewish, anti-white, anti-homosexual, and anti-Hispanic bias in that order in both 2004 and
2005.[164]
There are more hate crimes against whites than against Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and
multiracial groups - a statistically expected trend given that there far more whites than other ethnic groups put
together. By contrast, the National Criminal Victimization Survey, finds that per capita rates of hate crime
victimization varied little by race or ethnicity, and the differences are not statistically significant.[165]

The New Century Foundation, a white nationalist organization founded by Jared Taylor, argues that blacks are
more likely than whites to commit hate crimes, and that FBI figures inflate the number of hate crimes committed
by whites by counting Hispanics as "white".[166]
Other analysts are sharply critical of the NCF's findings,
referring to the criminological mainstream view that "Racial and ethnic data must be treated with caution.
Existing research on crime has generally shown that racial or ethnic identity is not predictive of criminal
behavior with data which has been controlled for social and economic factors."[167]
NCF's methodology and
statistics are further sharply criticized as flawed and deceptive by anti-racist activists Tim Wise and the
Southern Poverty Law Center.[168][169]
The first post-Jim Crow era hate crime to make sensational media attention was the beating death of Vincent
Chin, an Asian American of Chinese descent in 1982. He was attacked by a mob of white assailants who were
recently laid off from a Detroit area auto factory job and blamed the Japanese for their individual
unemployment. Chin was not of Japanese descent, but the assailants testified at the criminal court case that he
"looked like a Jap", an ethnic slur used to describe Japanese and other Asians, and that they were angry
enough to beat him to death. They served no jail time and were acquitted of all charges.[citation needed]
[edit]Current hate groups
Main article: Hate groups
Supremacist, separatist, racist, and hate groups still operate in the United States. The Ku Klux Klan,
the National Alliance, National Socialist Movement (United States), New Black Panther Party, Nation of
Islam, United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, Aryan Nations, League of the South, Voz de Aztlán, Nation of
Yahweh, the Jewish Defense League, and the White Order of Thule are among the institutions most commonly
identified in this way.
[edit]Anti-racism
Main article: Anti-racism
Organizations known for anti-racist and civil rights activism are the NAACP (National Association of the
Advancement of Colored People), the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), the ADL (Anti-Defamation
League), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Council of La
Raza representing Latinos, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the National Italian American
Foundation, the Japan Society of America, and the National Congress of American Indians among others.[citation
needed]
. There are also many individual and grassroots websites and movements that are against racism, such
as: Islamophobia-watch.com, AgainstRacism.Info and numerous others across the World Wide Web. They aim
to expose the racism and discrimination in its many forms in order to combat them.

Racism in the united states

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