This document discusses the social construction of race and racism in the United States. It begins by arguing that while the Pledge of Allegiance promises "liberty and justice for all," in reality most liberty and justice is reserved for white people. It then defines race as a social construct used to categorize and group people based on physical characteristics like skin color. The document explores different forms of racism, from overt racism to more subtle institutional and covert racism, and how racism is rooted in prejudice and discrimination that privileges white people and limits opportunities for minorities. It examines how racism is perpetuated through cultural forces like media stereotypes and the internalization of negative racial messages.

1. 12-8-9
Neil Gordon
Soc 250
Race/Ethnicity
Professor Santos
The American Race
The words “liberty and justice for all” come at the end of the Pledge of
Allegiance to the United States of America, but are they really true? I remember
having to stand and recite these words everyday in elementary school, everyone
had to. The only problem is that not everyone in our country has the privilege of
liberty and justice. Sadly, most of the liberty and justice in the United States is
reserved for the group in power, Caucasians. Caucasian is the politically correct
term used to categorize the race of white people in the United States. Race is used as
a means to categorize people into groups. Race is a social construction, and some
scholars argue that it does not exist. However, racial categorizing has a tremendous
effect on people, particularly those of color. Consequently, grouping by race results
in inequality and forces people of color to live in a different world than the
Caucasian majority.
In order to understand racial inequality, we must first understand race. Race
is defined as the grouping or classification of people based on genetic variations in
physical appearance; most notably skin color. When exploring the topic of race, it is
important to distinguish race from ethnicity. Ethnicity is shared by people who
posses a common historical and cultural heritage, as well as a sense of group

2. identity and belongingness. Race is the tool used to label people of different
ethnicities. Michael Omi and Howard Winant explain the social construction of race
in their book titled Racial Formation in the United States. They argue that race is
dynamic and fluid, “racial order is organized and enforced by the continuity and
reciprocity between micro-level and macro-levels of social relations.” The micro-
level relations refer to individual identity while the macro-level relations refer to
the common ideologies and collective social structures of a society. These structures
include businesses, the media, and the government. The common ideologies include
cultural and stereotypical beliefs on race, class, sexuality and gender. With the social
construction of race comes racism, which is based on discrimination and prejudice.
Racism exists on different levels in many ways. It can be individual or social.
The most outward form of racism is overt racism. Overt racism is the active and
intentional expression of hatred towards others to their face or in other public ways.
Examples of people who show overt racism are the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and
Adolf Hitler. More common forms of racism are covert racism and institutional
racism. Covert racism is a private or hidden form of racism. The racist intentions are
there, but the desire to be up front about it is not. Covert and institutional racism
are the most common forms of racism that exist in the United States today.
Institutional racism is a systemic form of racism that is structured into political and
social institutions. Institutional racism occurs when organizations, institutions, or

3. governments discriminate by race, either deliberately or indirectly, against certain
groups of people to limit their rights. The famous rap artist KanYe West alludes to
institutional racism in his breakout single entitled Through the Wire, “racisms still
alive they just be concealin’ it, but I know they don’t want me in the damn club they
even make me show i.d. to get inside of Sam’s Club.” This is the form of racism that
we see most often in the United States today. Racism is about power. It is used to
put lesser people in their place.
Racism is driven by prejudice and discrimination. Racial prejudice refers to
an irrational, inflexible attitude towards an entire group of people. Prejudice is
rooted in generalizations and implies negative feelings, apathy, hostility, or fear.
This leads to social unease. Discrimination is the unequal treatment of people on the
grounds of their group membership. Caucasians are the majority group in the
United States with the most wealth and the most power. They are the most
privileged and they make sure to hoard their privilege in housing, education, and
employment. They have the privilege of not having to think about race. Therefore,
people of minority groups receive the most racism. Racial discrimination limits
minorities’ upward mobility from class to class and minimizes economic gain. Racial
discrimination also has a psychological impact on how the oppressed people
perceive themselves within society. When someone is constantly told by the media
and by society that they are nobody they start to internalize that message, develop a

4. false conscious and racism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This happens due to
cultural determinism, the theory that everything is caused by culture in a
predictable way. This creates a sense of invisibility in the oppressed. The media
does this in different ways. Hollywood films and television seldom have people of
color on the screen, and when they do they’re often getting blown up or playing out
stereotypes. This sends the message that minorities have no place in American
society. Stereotypes are false generalizations about a group of people that are used
to belittle them. Stereotypes may seem harmless, but the effect they have in
developing a racist mentality is dangerous. The same thing happens when you name
a sports team the redskins. It is unarguably racist to belittle another group’s
differences by poking fun at them and making them seem cute and silly. This type of
racism occurs all the time with Halloween costumes like feathered out Native
Americans, or even worse this illegal alien costume found on Target.com.

5. Stanley Tookie Williams, an African-American man who grew up in Los Angeles and
founded the Crips was fed this same negative message growing up. He writes about
it in his novel, Blue Rage, Black Redemption. Williams writes about the dys-
education he had to put himself through trying to unlearn “the abnormal, impaired,
and diseased knowledge I received in life and from the public school system.”
Sending the message to minorities that they are nobody is detrimental to society.
Racism is not a new issue at all, nor does it only exist in the United States.
Turkish people living in Germany are subjected to racism. A small few white
Europeans control and exploit a much larger number of indigenous people in South
Africa. Racist population transfers have been occurring throughout the history of

6. man. In 1947 hostility between Hindus and Muslims in India resulted in the creation
of Pakistan. Today, Cypress is divided into Greek and Turkish territories. Lebanon is
divided between Christian and Muslim territories. It all goes back to western racism
and the “elite” Aryan race, coupled with European colonization.
Colonization is the formal and economic domination of one nation by a more
powerful one. Colonization and intercontinental trade has provided Europe with
labor, raw materials and new places to put strategic military bases. The new lands
provided great prosperity for European powers and their greed kept them
colonizing. Once a colony was chartered, a small group of white settlers controlled
and exploited the local inhabitants who did all the dirty work while the whites
reaped all the rewards. The Europeans used a system of rigid stratification and their
superior military technology to dominate the indigenous people. Colonists
dehumanized the indigenous people of color in order to justify what they were
doing. Things happened much differently than the happy Thanksgiving story they
teach in elementary school. Europeans misused Darwin’s theories for their benefit,
claiming that whites were more evolved than nonwhites. The dehumanization of
people of color and manifest destiny were also convenient ways for colonists to
justify slavery and the mass genocide of Native Americans. These colonialist ideals
are still the driving force behind modern day racism in capitalist America, where the
people at the bottom are exploited.

7. Once you dehumanize someone, anything is possible. The mindset behind
European colonization is no different than the mindset that exists today that keeps
the suburbs free of people of color. Those otherpeople are less human than the
normal white people, therefore it’s no big deal to step on them and push them
around. The white people are much more evolved; therefore they need much more
space for much fewer people. White people need places like Lacy Park with 125
different trees and a guide for each one, and they sure can’t afford to have those
“other” people in there taking up space and dirtying the place up. As a matter of fact,
Lacey Park is built on land that “provided an oasis for native Indians and migrant
ducks and mountain coyotes flocked to the water”, until the white man came and
took it. Othering is the term sociologists use to describe this way of thinking.
Othering refers to securing one’s own positive self-identity through the
stigmatization of an “other”. Making someone an “other” dehumanizes them and
opens the floodgates for oppression. This way of thinking justifies allowing
gentrification to uproot people from their homes and relocate them just like the
Trail of Tears that the Native Americans took from their homes to the reservation. I
witnessed gentrification consequences with my own eyes when I visited a friend in
Hawai’i for my summer vacation. Hawai’i is just one example of peaceful people who
did nothing and had their land taken from them and received war in return. Many
wealthy people have moved to Hawai’i and now the locals can barely afford to live
there. More and more of the land on the islands is getting overrun and overcrowded

8. by tourists and other affluent people. Othering justifies locking up savage colored
people so we don’t have to deal with them, even when they’re still children who are
victims of circumstances they can’t control. This way of thinking justifies arresting
and brutalizing innocent adolescent boys who “fit the description” (has the same
skin color) of someone who committed a crime. This way of thinking justifies
throwing minorities into overpopulated, underdeveloped communities. This way of
thinking justifies not policing these communities properly. This way of thinking
justifies not providing these communities with proper access to education and
healthcare. The effect all this inequality has on the PEOPLE of the community is
devastating. Being born in a community where you are nobody and you have
nobody places tremendous limitations on your potential.
Much of the youth in these neglected neighborhoods end up joining gangs. If
someone doesn’t have support at home or a family that loves them, a gang can offer
acceptance. Everyone wants to be a part of something. If you constantly hear the
message that you’re unimportant, unintelligent, and unwanted by society, a gang
can offer a way out. Many youngsters also join gangs for protection they need that
they can’t find in the police or their family or anyone else. What they don’t think
about is how gangs only offer two futures: death and prison. Nor do they think about
the killing that goes on between the people of the same color, all over drug money.
This holds true for young men and young women alike. Lady Q, by Reymundo

9. Sanchez and Sonia Rodriguez tells the story of a Puerto Rican girl who was a victim
of circumstance, neglect, and abuse. Unsurprisingly, she got drawn into the
dangerous gang life in Chicago. Her history of domestic abuse made getting initiated
into the Latin Queens easy:
Sonia was ready and confident. She considered herself much stronger
and tougher than Vivian and had withstood worse beatings at her
mother’s hands than the one Vivian had just received.
She thought about how there was no physical pain anyone could cause
her that her mother had not already done. (Sanchez 51)
The saddest part is that Sonia is just one example of what goes on everyday all over
the country.
After studying sociology and learning about people of many different
backgrounds I am extremely thankful for the privileged childhood I was fortunate
enough to be born into. I grew up in a nice neighborhood where I could walk to
school alone everyday or walk alone in the dark without even having to consider
anything bad ever happening to me. I was lucky enough to go to good public schools
and be surrounded by mostly positive influences and good role models. I have never
had to think twice about whether or not my parents love me. I’ve always had
tremendous support from my family in school and in sports. My mom had the luxury
of not having to work so she could raise my sister and me and bus all my friends and
me to and from practice everyday. I’m thankful that I have grandparents that are

10. still alive and together. I have positive influences in my family that I can look up to
as role models. My mom and dad were always there for me. My dad even took time
of off work to coach my basketball team in the sixth grade when we didn’t have a
coach. I’m privileged that he had that option. I was lucky that as a kid I didn’t have to
worry about much or deal with anything, I just used my imagination and played. I
was able to simply be a kid and go to school and play sports and not ever have to
deal with abuse or neglect. I guess you could say I lived the picturesque happy white
family childhood. It wasn’t until recently that financial difficulty has caused me to
have to support myself through college. It wasn’t until this past summer that I really
came to understand the value of a dollar. Now I truly understand the saying “eating
good”. Now I know how it feels to not have money. I work and get a paycheck and
now I’ve experienced first hand the difference between income and wealth. And
because of the way society is, being white and not having money is counterintuitive
and that gives me problems. I get charged more than my African-American friend
Tony when we buy the same thing at the corner store. It’s unfortunate the way
things are, but even in my situation now my white privilege is a huge asset to me.
The network I have of people I know is going to help me in the professional world.
Until the United States makes some changes, the Pledge of Allegiance should
really say “liberty and justice for all Caucasians.” The Bureau of Justice Statistics
from 1997 found that 1-4 African-American males will be incarcerated, 1-6 Latino

11. males, but only 1-23 white males. That’s not liberty and justice for all. So what do
we do? We act now, all of us. That’s what it’s eventually going to take, everyone
working together. Nobody needs to reinvent the wheel. Organizations like Chuco’s
Youth Justice Coalition and Homeboy/Homegirl Industries have already proven
themselves. Now we just need to expand them, maybe even with some help from
“the man”. In order to be able to work together, people have to take time to think
about the other side, I mean really take some time, and actually try to put oneself in
someone else’s shoes. In order for anything to work, both sides need to grow. The
majority in this country needs to acknowledge the problem, and then deal with it.
On the individual level I am trying to always expand my sociological thinking and
apply what I learn to my daily life. The structural problems will take more time to
solve, but I feel that the young adults in our country are motivated to make a
change. Globalization is where the world is going, humankind will benefit greatly if
we can all stay together. It will need to involve pluralism and hybridity. It will need
to include EVERYONE. All involved will have to consider the “others”, and the
consideration has to be mutual. Remember, racism is defined as the hatred of
another person because of his or her race. Throughout my sociological studies and
dialogues with other people, I have noticed much hatred of Caucasians by many
minorities. I acknowledge that Caucasians are in power in our country and have
done wrong, but if racism is the problem how is it the answer?