Running Head: Racial Discrimination and Majority Culture
Racial Discrimination and Majority Culture
York University
SOCI1010 – Introduction to Sociology
November 16th, 2017
This paper will apply the sociological principles with regards to evaluating examples of the way different parts of one’s life might be influenced by racial discrimination behaviour and how it has transitioned throughout the years in a more cultivated manner. As well as explore the lives of African-American youths between the ages of 16-24-year-old who have been targeted by police officers and how the movement, “Black Lives Matter” came into effect. Due to the differences between culture, religions, beliefs etc., individuals are now separated from each other which makes discrimination more evident and has caused people to be brain-washed by society into thinking that there is a superior being; whether it be skin color, social class, sexual orientation, etc. In addition, the rise in incidents crimes towards racial minorities across the United States and Canada focuses towards the decline of multiculturalism as institutional system.
Racial discrimination can take a wide range of structures that can affect one’s well-being and self-improvement, however, the constant idea of racial discrimination continues as a huge aspect for individuals of visible minorities; mostly African Americans in modern society. Most African-Americans experience racial discrimination on a daily basis so much that according to researchers (Jackson, 1995, Krieger and Sidney 1996; Smith, 1985) have connected recurrent encounters with racial discrimination to the beginning of a few anxiety-related diseases (for example: high blood pressure, depressions, headaches/migraines etc.) Racial discrimination is fraudulent yet pervades many features regarding African American life. According to Jones (1997), the journey of racism is multi-structural yet may be categorized by the use of ‘tripartite typology’. The first form of racism placed by Jones is “individual racism”. This type of racism consists of African-Americans that are probably going to encounter racial discrimination on a private level. For example: an African-American is shopping at a store and a Caucasian security guard decides to follow him because he assumes something being suspicious with the individual shopping at the store. This would be a case of “racial profiling”. Another form of racism placed by Jones is “institutional racism”. African-Americans are faced with this form of racism because of the social and institutional rules that prohibits them from taking part in the advantages provided to other individuals of society. An example of “institutional racism” is when the government drug laws demands firm punishments of ownership of crack cocaine, a drug more open to African-Americans, rather than powder cocaine, the drug preference for Caucasians. Thirdly, “cultural racism” happens when the social practices of the majority group are mostly viewed...