HIST 406 History Of The Modern United States

In today’s society, discrimination and prejudice concerning ethnicity and race have become a norm (Bottero, Wendy and Irwin, 467). As a Mexican worker in the United States, discrimination based on race is an issue of concern. While working in an American oil company, I experienced a lot of discrimination based on my race. To begin with, we have salary differences across race groups. In my job group, all the whites received a hundred percent of their salaries while my salary was only sixty-five percent. When I brought in complaints, threats of getting fired would arise.

Secondly, lack of provision of better working resources. For example, offices used by the whites were different from the ones other races used. Besides, the working equipment’s were in a lousy condition hence being exposed into dangerous conditions. Lastly, offensive remarks from the management due to lack of respect was another issue that was of concern. For example, in case of minor mistakes, cruel and offensive words could be used to intimidate me.

The racial discrimination made me feel worthless. I felt as if I was below humanity and less of person. Consequently, I developed trust issues with every white person due to the prejudice. The experience was infuriating and taught me great lessons in life. I learned that the way you treat a person could negatively or positively impact the person. This is because, in many cases, victims of prejudice may end up in suicide.

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The issue of race is a crucial factor in shaping the lives of people. To begin with, the race of an individual has a significant role in death penalty situations (Krieger et al., 63) According to Amnesty International, it was discovered that the majority of the death row victims were executed for murdering a white person even though about half of all homicide cases are made up by the African Americans.

Prosecutors may be less likely to seek a death penalty for victims from a minor background especially the African-American. For the black people on trial due to the murder of a white person, the chance of receiving a death penalty is usually three times higher (Glaude and Eddie, 102) According to a report conducted in 2007, it was determined that about a third of the African-American individuals on death row in the state of Philadelphia would serve life imprisonment in case they were from another race.

Also, the intellectual abilities of an individual can also be destroyed by how other people perceive your race (Omi, Michael and Winant, 99). In the year 1995, a group of two researchers found that when a white and black student are given a “laboratory problem-solving task,” they would perform equally well. However, when told to perform the similar job as a “measure of intellectual ability,” they performed differently. As a result, the performance of the black student was much worse than the white counterpart thereby conforming to the stereotype that all whites are better. Therefore, even when social and economic advantages are eliminated, it was determined that race still affects the society.

References

Bottero, Wendy, and Sarah Irwin. "Locating difference: class, race and gender, and the shaping of social inequalities." The sociological review 51.4 (2003): 463-483.

Krieger, N., Waterman, P. D., Hartman, C., Bates, L. M., Stoddard, A. M., Quinn, M. M., ... & Barbeau, E. M. "Social hazards on the job: workplace abuse, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination—a study of black, Latino, and white low-income women and men

workers in the United States." International Journal of Health Services 36.1 (2006): 51- 85.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial formation in the United States. Routledge, 2014.

Glaude Jr, Eddie S. Democracy in black: How race still enslaves the American soul. Broadway Books, 2017.