Racism in the United States: Essay

" (Fredrickson, p562)

In his view, the disadvantages (still) faced by many African-Americans is the result of some degree of institutionalized and unacknowledged racial and ethnic hierarchies.

Meanwhile, many minority groups that have achieved relative success have done so through one-way assimilation while accepting the price of cultural erosion. Fredrickson's vision of the best scenario is very much in-line with public policies and stated goals of American society:

"Of the four models of American ethnic relations, the one that I believe offers the best hope for a just and cohesive society is a cultural pluralism that is fully inclusive and based on the free choices of individuals to con-struct or reconstruct their own ethnic identities." (Fredrickson, p572)

Conceptual Complications:

The views advanced by Fredrickson, though benevolently motivated, may suffer from the conceptual incompatibility of two underlying elements. Specifically, the contemporary mainstream public position on race relations and cultural diversity proposes that individual races and ethnic minority groups revel in their heritage and cultural traditions and that all races and ethnic groups should be encouraged to do the same.

In principle, however, it is likely impossible to achieve genuine racial and ethnic harmony in society in that way. Unfortunately, the sentiments of racial or ethnic pride generated by a psychological orientation toward one's race or ethnic heritage are substantially responsible for perpetuating the same perceptions of "otherness" (Wachtel,

p551-2) in relation to different races and ethnicities, irrespective of artificial educational messages to the contrary. In the terms used by Fredrickson (p562), the simultaneous encouragement to celebrate cultural identity while simultaneously respecting and valuing other groups produces more of a peaceful group separatism rather than a community that is genuinely racially and ethnically neutral.

Conceptual Implications:

In the view of many social philosophers, it is likely impossible to achieve a genuinely racially and ethnically integrated society to whatever extent people are taught to embrace and celebrate their own racial or ethnic heritage. The promotion of the view that race or ethnicity is appropriately a matter of "pride" is counterproductive because it is completely incompatible with the notion that racial and ethnic differences are illusory in the first place. Therefore, as long as we are encouraged to value what are actually trivial and arbitrary differences embodied in our heritage, it may be impossible to value and respect "others" (Wachtel, p551-2) exactly as we value and…