Free Essay: Slavery, Race, and Racism

The current political situation in the United States has reignited some of the pertinent issues that defined the unions history shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation. Some of these protracted issues that Americans have struggled to extricate themselves form include gender discrimination, slavery, race, and racism. White racism which is the supremacy that the whited extended over other minority races based on prejudice and sheer bigotry. Due to the suppression that whites have historically subjected the minority races to, they continually become fearful just like those ethic groups that the injustices and discrimination meted out will someday backfire and harm them. During the debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and 1832, there was an increased political debate the moral implications of slavery on the American community. According to Thomas Read (1858), slavery was un-Christian, immoral, and undemocratic. This negative definition of slavery within the American society was based on the evident ill-treatment of salves but their slave owners and virtually every system therein. Justice processes were skewed in favor of the whites while accommodation for slave servants were not as conducive for human living as that of their masters. Racism coincided with slavery in the sense that most of the slaves came predominantly from the African Americans. Fundamentally, racism has been part of the American landscape primarily since the European Colonization of the North America in the beginning of 17th century. Today, various groups have borne the brunt of racism, which has been manifested through discriminatory laws, considerable social practices, and the criminal allegations focused towards the targeted group.

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After the election of the first US African American President in 2008, the country has experienced fundamental divisions based on racial undertones that are similar to those that trace to the era of slavery and its abolition during the American Civil War (Cobb 97). During the 2016 presidential race, the Republican Presidential nominee, Donald J Trump enjoyed the support from most of the whites including the members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). On the other hand, the African Americans publicly protested on the policies and the institutional racism perpetuated by the Republican Presidential Candidate. The African Americans and Latino Americans majorly supported the Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton due to their strong perception that she represented a progressive America through pervasive anti-discrimination policies and advocacy on fair pay for job done irrespective of gender or race. Every election, with the 2016 being the most recent, American races have variably looked at the presidential contenders due to the phobia that some may represent the old state of affairs dominated by bigotry, discrimination , races and racism. The whites, Latinos, Hispanics and blacks often differ on how they perceive presidential contenders.

The African Americans always endeavor to support liberal politicians while a large proportion of the whites still believe in conservativeness and hegemonic leaders. These conservative perceptions possible explain the success of Trumps slogan Make American Great Again. The Democratic Party under president Obama had often opted for racial inclusion in his administration and adopted favorable foreign policies to build what he perceived as the tenets of a string America. Trumps slogan could be easily felt as that which would promote unstable relations with regional partners, racism, and discrimination akin to slavery as Olaudah Equiano describes in his writing. In his writing, Patterson contends that these events lead to the events of social death as a theory in his book. The writer says that the nation and people he had passed through and only had their manners, customs, and language. This notion of the context identifies white supremacy that has been upheld by the white conservatives (Strong 34).

Due to the freedom that dominates the American Society, conservatives believe that there is a possibility of a cultural misplacement that may arise during this time. Obama's administration has over time been considered as a minority government leading to the rise of Donald Trump presidency. During the 1960s, most conservative whites were scared of the progress in racial inclusion that President Obama achieved during his tenure (Magill 213). This fear was evident in the Goldwater's rhetoric agenda that was to vote against the Civil Acts Rights. This act became deemed as a milestone that the conservative whites had never contemplated would made in the American Society (Rosenblatt 117). The American society is identified as that which has been divided on racial lines as seen in the voting trends. During Lincoln's second inaugural address, he clearly stated that American slavery is an offense that he wished to stop thereby giving authority to the North and the South to fight for the freedom of slaves. Slaves come as an oppression based on the racial segregation that occurs in the American Society. Slavery was a terrible war that he (Lincoln) was willing to get himself involved.

In the recent topic that the American quarterback, Colin refused to stand for the National Anthem, he cited the oppressions that most of the African-Americans and other people of color were going through. Critics burned his jersey and in his response, President-elect, Donald Trump said that he (Colin) should find another country in which he could live. The disparity in the perspective of the race held relations based on the support of their presidential candidates of choice. As for statistics, it is common for the African Americans to be shot and killed by police than whites. This claim creates a social problem that the President Elect, Trump, assigns to the black community arguing that poverty and unemployment lead to crime. The milestone remains that President Barack Obama was in a position to run for two terms and win despite coming from the minority group.

Work Cited

Cobb, Thomas Read Rootes. An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America: To which is Prefixed, a Historical Sketch of Slavery. University of Georgia Press, 1858.

Magill, Frank Northen, ed. Masterpieces of African-American Literature. HarperCollins, 1992.

Rosenblatt, Paul C. The Impact of Racism on African American Families: Literature as Social Science. Routledge, 2016.

Strong, Tracy B. "Lincolns political thought." Contemporary Political Theory15.2 (2016): e33-e37.