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Structural racism and american democracy
Marable, Manning
Marable, Manning
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Marable, Manning
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dmarable.pdf
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"A century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois, the great African-American scholar and co-founder of the NAACP, predicted that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. 1 In truth, the color line Du Bois described has been a prominent feature of American life since its origins in the seventeenth century. From the vantagepoint of people of color, and especially Americans of African descent, our collective histories and experiences of interaction with the white majority have been largely defined around a series of oppressive institutions and practices. While laws have changed regarding the treatment of racialized minorities over the years, the deep structure of white prejudice, power and privilege which has formed the undemocratic foundation of most human interactions has not fundamentally been altered. In order for American democracy finally to become a reality for all of its citizens, we must, first, understand historically how and why these deep structures of racial inequality came into being, and how they were most decisively expressed in the daily lives and life chances of minorities and whites alike. When we talk about race, we don t mean a biological or genetic category, but rather, a way of interpreting differences between people which creates or reinforces inequalities among them. In other words, race is an unequal relationship between social groups, represented by the privileged access to power and resources by one group over another. Race is socially constructed, created (and recreated) by how people are perceived and treated in the normal actions of everyday life. As such, race is never fixed. It is a dynamic, constantly changing relationship. Some groups which are defined as an inferior race within American society at a certain historical moment, may successfully escape racialization and become part of the privileged majority, the whites. Other groups, especially those who are descended from African, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islander and Asian descent, have found the path for group socioeconomic mobility far more difficult. The unequal boundaries of color have been at times permanent barriers to the economic development, educational and social advancement for millions of Americans, living in what for them was a deeply flawed and often hypocritical democracy. The fundamental problem for the viability of American democracy, therefore, may be the problem of what can be termed structural racism : whether the majority of American people, its leaders, political organizations and institutions, have the capacity and vision to dismantle the complex structural barriers which severely curtail the democratic rights and socioeconomic opportunities of millions of their fellow citizens who are African American, Latino, American Indian, Arab American and Asian and Pacific Island Americans."(pg 3)
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2001-09-03
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With permission of the license/copyright holder