Are we doing any better? By Sheri Earl Racism In Todays
Society
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Table of Content Research Articles Yes, America has Gotten
Better About Racism, but it Really Doesnt Matter by Mychal Denzel
Smith It Really is Better Now for Blacks by John McWhorter Charts:
Racial Profiling Book Summaries Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me
Because Im _____! By Michael L. Birzer Reflections: Still a long
way to go...
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Research Article Yes, America has Gotten Better About Racism,
but it Really Doesnt Matter According to Mychal Denzel Smith,
blogger for The Nation.com and a Knobler Fellow at the Nation
Institute, celebrating how far weve come with regards to racism
enables us to avoid the hard work that still needs to be done. We
delude ourselves into thinking that with the dying off of the older
generation, things will just get better with time he says. We
overlook how dependent weve become on the racist institutions
founded by older generations. Smith says its not just a matter of
changing attitudes, we have to be willing to challenge systems of
power and uproot racism and white supremacy.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177330/yes-america-has-gotten-better-about-
racism-it-really-doesnt-matter#
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177330/yes-america-has-gotten-better-about-
racism-it-really-doesnt-matter#
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Research Article It Really Is Better Now For Blacks John
McWhorter, frequent contributor to The Root, says having a
perspective on how badly black people were treated 100 years ago
helps us appreciate the racial progress we have made. Only 100
years ago, laws were in place that prevented black people from
having business or homes in white neighborhoods. 100 years ago,
Booker T. Washington was severely beaten with a cane by a white man
supposedly because Washington said Hello, Sweetheart to the mans
wife which later turned out to be a lie. Racism, says McWhorter,
came straight from the Oval Office. President Taft, was quoted as
telling a black audience in Atlanta not to hang around in saloons
"wasting time," after which Theodore Roosevelt warns them that
getting "conceited" is "the very worst thing that could happen to
you! McWhorter says, I know that racism exists, and I write about
it -- while always imagining how the old-timers would see it if
they talked to a black person today who was grumbling that racism
is still a grinding daily burden for us.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2011/04/less_racism_it_really_is_better_now.html
Slide 5
Racial profiling
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Racial Profiling
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Book summary Racial Profiling: They Stopped Me Because Im ! by
Michael L. Birzer This book places minority citizens who believe
they have been racially profiled by police authorities at the
center of the data. Using primary empirical studies and extensive,
in-depth interviews, the book draws on nearly two years of field
research into how minorities experience racial profiling by police
authorities.
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Still A Long Way to Go to Eradicate Racism Racism in the form
of discrimination persists in society today and it doesnt take much
to arouse suspicion if you are black. For instance Trayvon Martin
was walking home from a snack run to 7-11 and wearing a hoodie.
This aroused enough suspicion for George Zimmerman to convince a
jury that he shot and killed the unarmed black teenager Martin in
self-defense. Michael Dunn convinced a jury he too was acting in
self-defense when he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager
named Jordan Davis over listening to thug music. Despite how far
weve come, we still have such a long way to go. A person should not
have to worry about being shot and killed simply because someone
else is afraid of the color of their skin.
Slide 9
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177330/yes-america-has-gotten-better-
about-racism-it-really-doesnt-matter#
http://www.thenation.com/blog/177330/yes-america-has-gotten-better-
about-racism-it-really-doesnt-matter#
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2011/04/less_racism_it_really_is_bet
ter_now.html
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2011/04/less_racism_it_really_is_bet
ter_now.html http://www.laloyolan.com/news/panel-debates-racial-
profiling/article_820a00a0-4ce7-11e3-a206-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.laloyolan.com/news/panel-debates-racial-
profiling/article_820a00a0-4ce7-11e3-a206-001a4bcf6878.html Racial
Profiling: They Stopped Me Because Im ! by Michael L. Birzer
Sources Cited
