Rasism From The Point Of View Of Barack Obama

Racism is a system of prejudiceness and racial discrimination between humans. People often get mistreated based on their race, skin color and cultural background. In addition, it profoundly affects the quality of human life, for instance, inequality the between races, health issues and psychology. Discrimination has been present in every civilization and community throughout history. Even though the world has made a huge progress in technology, politics, social norms and the overall style of life, racism and hatred still exist in todays society.

In order to decrease the rates of racism, Barack Obama gave a Race Speech “A More Perfect Union” at the Constitution Center which included examples of unfair treatment, inequality, and discrimination between races in addition to the possible solutions he provided to solve this massive problem. He believed that this imminent issue can not be ignored and the government must take action to have peace in the country and avoid riots which will keep the tension amongst most Americans.

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Just as Obama emphasizes the actions that should be taken to decrease the rates of racism, so does The Pew Research Team which is “a nonpartisan think tank in Washington D.C., that conducts public opinion polling , demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.” writes in their article King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; Many Americans See Racial Disparities, about the harmful outcomes of racial disparities in today’s society. The Pew Research Team concludes that blacks are treated less fairly by key community institutions including public places, schools, police and courts.

It is important society understands this, because the amount of people being treated poorly/unfairly based on the race has been increasing the more we progress into our future.

Barack Obama believes that racism is still present in America and some people face covert discrimination despite the institutional and societal changes, as well as The Pew Research Team who claims that many people are mistreated based on their race, which has a negative impact on key spheres in an individual’s development such as their education and family formation, in which it is possible for the nation to put an end to it through collaboration and intellectual communication. Many people do not realize how much racism goes in our daily life and how it impacts people’s futures. To solve this problem, Barack Obama believes that it is important to educate people about what is racism and the numerous damages it has on society, so that people would be able to solve this problem together and achieve a strong and progressive union. By understanding that each individual has their own unique story, society will hold together in peace and overcome the obstacles.

In his speech, Obama mentioned Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s, who is a former pastor speech, that was about the privilege and dominance of specific races. Obama believed that Wright’s provocative comments had the potential to expand the racial divide, as he disrespected and failed to remember what made America truly great. Wright’s comment “expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical islam.” (Obama,2) . Obama claims that Reverend’s hateful comments are not only wrong but they can also destroy this nation by developing hate among different races. To show that the rates of racism are not improving, the Pew Research Team stated in their demographics that blacks are treated less fairly by key community institutions, including public places, schools, courts and the police.

According to Obama's speech, to solve this matter people need to work together, because to confront large issues such as wars, crisis, racism, global warming, falling economy and health care races need to unite, work together and share knowledge. According to the “Pew Research Team” research, after decades of Martin Luther King’s speech about his dreams of equity many people believe that a lot of changes still have to be done. Pew Research Team explains how college completion rates have changed “white adults 25 and older are significantly more likely than blacks to have completed at least a bachelor’s degree(34% vs. 21%, a 13 percent point difference.)” (Team, 633) From the statistics given in the research that “Pew Research Team” covered, it is an obvious dilemma that racism has a great impact on the schooling system. In addition, Obama claimed in his speech that many schools are still segregated and not fixed even though fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education have passed. They proved that “separate but equal” was not actually equal at all, since people were treated unfairly while segregating specific races. If humans are not treated equally, they would not be able to make the same progress, so everyone deserves to be treated fairly to put a positive effect on the community. Family Formation is another key point that resonates to how racism affects people’s daily lives and futures. “A lack on economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families- a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.” (Obama, 4) said Obama in his speech.

Ethnic inequalities continue to appear in public transit. The Pew Research Team shows with given statistics that over the past five decades “the black-white difference has nearly doubled.”(Team, 633). In addition, the analysis shows that the economic gulf between different races in almost the same as it was half a century ago. Inequality at work and the struggle of finding a good job lead black people lack basic services like being able to afford a house in a suitable neighborhood which will have a good impact on kids who are our future generation. Obama chose to run for presidency because he believed that racism cannot be ignored and people need to unite and hold on into each other to fix global problems together and that it is the only way to achieve an improved union and make a progress, so that America can stay the leading nation in the world. He believed that this generation can always be more perfected with the help of young people who are full of ambitions, beliefs and open for change. Though, the Pew Research Team conducted that “only about one-in-four African Americans (26%) say the situation of black people in this country is better now than it was five years ago”(Team, 635).

Although, not much has changed after Obama became the president, we still can see that the situation of the black people is better today than it was five years. Therefore, both authors prove the same point in different contextual forms that racism is still present today and in order to overcome this massive issue it is important to educate people about how racism harms our society, so the amount of ignorant people could decrease, and society could learn to accept, help and support different races, as well as expand our knowledge by communicating and learning from its diversity.