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Isaac Powell

Ms. Schaner

AP Language 1st Hour

21 Feb. 2020

Racist America

Are all humans truly equal in America? On the evening of February 12, I drove to

Muskegon Community College with my close friend to go see a movie celebrating Black History

Month. As an AP Language and Composition student, I have to write analytically about a

“cultural experience” event that I attended during that trimester. A cultural experience is an event

that brings an individual insights on a community that he or she is not an active part of. Being a

white person who has not been subjected to a position of inferiority, my attention was captured

by this event. My curiosity was piqued by the opportunity to attend an event that celebrates a

race subjected to discrimination when I myself, as a white male, have never been subjected to

these kinds of troubles and have never been to any event like this one. The group celebrated by

Black History Month has gone through hardships of racism, and I have never experienced racial

injustice as a white person. I do not completely understand what black people go through, and I

likely never will — I can never experience life as a black person nor go through what

implications being black entails. However, at this Black History Month event, I got a glimpse of

what such a person might go through; I watched a potent, informational movie set in 1970’s

Colorado Springs that depicts a black police officer’s indirect experience with the Ku Klux Klan

(KKK). Titled ​BlacKkKlansman​ by directory Spike Lee, I saw a racist world through the eyes of

a black man trying to break racial barriers. This event was a powerful cultural experience to me
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because of how little I knew about the topic covered so heavily in the film — racism. I viewed

the film as a well edited masterpiece, designed to tie our emotions to each scene of the film and

to bring out the best in human emotional response from us. For example, in the film, we witness

KKK members talk about the “joy” in killing blacks; we also see a scene where these invidious

KKK members practice aiming their weapons at a firing range while they shoot targets. A few

moments after they leave, it is revealed what these horrendous targets were — human-shaped,

child-sized cutouts with lips that were grossly exaggerated in size; the KKK members were

savagely shooting racist portrayals of black children. It is striking scenes like these that bring out

the best of the audience, however; during this scene, I felt disgusted by the ruthlessness and

inhuman actions of the KKK members, and the audience went quiet — presumably taken aback

by the absolute hatred evinced by the racist clan members’ actions. We, as the audience, became

morally conscious of the injustices brought forth by racism, and we immediately made a reaction

revealing our stance against racism. These reactions attest to how consummate the film was; it

was amazing to see a film so engaging for the more than two hours it ran, smoothly allowing us

to experience meaningful reactions to the raw situations that it detailed.​ ​Through​

BlacKkKlansman​ ​and​ ​research​ ​that​ ​it​ ​led​ ​me​ ​to,​ ​my​ ​eyes​ ​have​ ​been​ ​opened​ ​to​ ​see​ ​that​ ​racism​

​toward blacks is​ ​inherently​ ​morally​ ​wrong​ ​and​ ​it​ ​still​ ​exists​ extensively ​in​ ​our​ ​“free”​ ​American​

​society;​ ​thus,​ actions must be made ​to​ ​try to prevent​ ​the​ ​ill-treatment​ ​of​ blacks.

A prevalent layer in ​BlacKkKlansman​ was the belittlement of black people by calling

them derogatory names. As this was a film in which the KKK made continual appearances, the

mordant term “nigger” was used by the KKK members all too frequently to refer to black people

in the film. Today, we predominantly despise this word and when it is used in our American
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culture. One can easily understand why this word is frowned upon so much, even if he or she

does not know what this word means or why it first came about. The word “nigger” was used as

early as 1837 to demean blacks, and the term has since been used in caustic manners to belittle

them (Kennedy). Over time, this term has grown more scathing as it has had time to ferment in

the brackish brew of racial superiority, exemplified in the Jim Crow laws of the 20th century.

Without knowing where this term originated, people today who have a reasonable moral

consciousness avoid using this word because of how negatively potent it is understood to be. If

essentially all people today understand how incendiary this word is, do all people then choose

not use it? Sadly, the answer to this question is an evident no. Not all people will follow their

moral consciousness even if they see the word as blatantly racist; if people all did choose to be

moral, we would be living in a utopian society far away from the harsh reality of modern

America. Even though we Americans would like to consider ourselves as leaders for the equality

of all in the world, obviously not everyone here individually follows this equality ideology.

There are some people in America who still use the word “nigger” while clearly understanding

the word’s racist background. Although I personally have never seen a white person call a black

person this word, I can not deny that it happens at least online, where one can be pusillanimous

and safely hide behind a screen and say whatever destructive words he or she fancies. In fact, the

freedoms meant to give “equality” in America actually breed cesspools for racist behaviours,

especially through free speech. The freedom of speech in America, the unrestrictiveness of the

internet, and the feeling of “safety behind a screen” that the internet provides creates room for

malicious and racist conversations and websites to be “enjoyed” by people who portray

minorities as inferior. There are even examples of people using the term “nigger” in jokes online
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for their own pleasure. An article from The Washington Post emphasizes this well with an

example: “Today, on the Internet, whole websites are devoted to nigger jokes. At KKKomedy

Central-Micetrap's Nigger Joke Center, for instance, the ‘Nigger Ghetto Gazette’ contains

numerous jokes…” (Kennedy). Kennedy also chooses to list specific jokes featured on the

website, such as this unspeakable example: “Q. What's the difference between a pothole and a

nigger?

A. You'd swerve to avoid a pothole, wouldn't you?” (Kennedy). After reading this, one might ask

this: “how can anyone find this vituperative and evil joke funny?” To that question, I can not

come up with a complete answer; I do not know how someone could view this as funny. Some

people in today’s world unfortunately do more than just use derogatory terms; they create

horrifying jokes with these terms intended to extract pleasure from their audience — more

racists. On the surface, because of how words like “nigger” are hated by the general public,

America seems like a pretty non-racist nation; but if one peers deeper into the places where

people cannot be punished for how they act and what they say (like the internet), he or she will

find entire communities centralized on racism as if it was a substantive foundation for building

such communities. Racist name-calling is still prevalent in American society, but it is “hidden”

by rather esoteric groups mainly centered online. The only advancement that American society

has made in this regard toward achieving non-racism since the late 1970’s ​BlacKkKlansman​ and

today is that racist ideologies and terms like “nigger” are shunned by the general public. If a

website like the one mentioned is devoted to just a comedy aspect of racist name-calling, how

many countless other websites based on such name-calling must also exist? How many websites
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must be built off of any kind of racism? How many countless faces in our American society do

we see each day without knowing that they frequent these warped and demeaning websites?

The term “nigger” was not the only derogatory term used consistantly to try to demean

black people throughout ​BlacKkKlansman.​ Black people were called a variety of degrading

insults throughout the film’s more than two-hour run time, including being called “toad” and

“monkey” by the racist whites in the film. Focusing on the racist terms “toad” and “monkey,”

there is a clear dehumanizing concept driving each of these words. The racist whites in

BlacKkKlansman​ used these words frequently to try to apply a bestial connotation to black

people as if they were less human and thus deserved less respect than the “fully human” white

race. The term “toad” seems to be derived from how racists view blacks as having large lips, and

the term “monkey” acts as a double entendre; on the surface, the term serves to poke fun at the

dark skin black people have. Look deeper and the insult also paints blacks to be subhuman in

intellect; historically, people tried to use Darwin’s theory of evolution to prove that blacks were

less evolved and more “monkey-like” than whites, as signified by darker skin. The ideology that

blacks were subhuman to whites was still superficially embraced by the racist white KKK

members portrayed in the film as they clearly thought that blacks were as worthless as flies,

evidenced by these members’ willingness and desires to kill blacks. Did the racist white people

in this film truly believe that blacks were less evolved and less human than whites? The answer

is likely no. In human nature, people tend to want to be right. People never want to waste any

significant amount of time on a losing side, so there are two options: to join the winning side or

to try to make the losing side win. Clearly, as time went on and as science was advancing, facts

have pointed toward blacks not being less evolved than whites and being sub-human. People
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started to generally drop racist ideologies (at least publicly); thus, society soon evolved to where

it stands today, knowing that blacks are equal in intelligence and ability to whites and are not

“less evolved.” However, the KKK members and racist whites already had racist ideologies

ingrained in their minds from how they had lived for so long before, and to suddenly

acknowledge blacks as equal to whites would completely discredit all that they had believed and

supported for so long. So, these people continued to “believe” and support the idea that blacks

were less than whites in intellect and in how far evolved they were because these white people

were likely too stubborn to be willing to completely change their ideology. Human nature here

did not want to abandon all that it had stood for on the “losing side” of racism, so it tried to

continue supporting this side so that it would win. As one can see in America today, this “losing

side” has more than lost, and the “winning side” reveals that blacks are equal and are in no way

inferior to whites. Racist name-calling is thus derived from people’s unwillingness to change

from tradition and their desire to “have been right all along. Black people are called racist insults

to try to prove racism true, a mindset that time and science has thankfully eroded heavily. People

today in America typically grow under society to understand such equalities and to treat

everyone as equally human, but there are still some people who are on the “losing side” of

racism. One may then ask, what causes their racism?

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines racism as “a belief that ​race​ is the primary

determinant​ of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent

superiority of a particular race” (“Racism”). This definition lines up well with the ideologies and

actions of the KKK members in ​BlacKkKlansman​; these racist whites thought of themselves as

more human and superior than the black people in the film based on race alone; because of this
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mindset, these whites racistly called blacks names like “nigger,” “toad,” and “monkey.” This

situation clearly makes racism apparent in people’s actions, proving how prevalent racism was

during this 1970’s era. Racism is also shown to still remain in modern American society, as

evidenced by the racist “comedy” website. The question remains: what causes racism?

Environmental conditions, or how an individual was raised and what environment he or she grew

up in, seem to be the driving factors for how an individual's ideology on racism is formulated.

An informative paper from “humanrights.gov.au” explains this well: “A lot of our attitudes are

shaped when we’re young. When our family members or friends express racist opinions, it’s

common that we will take on those views ourselves” (“Why are People Racist?”). Now one can

more fully understand why the KKK members acted the way that they did in the film; however,

their actions still were not justified. They had grown up in a time where racism and segregation

abounded in every street of the United States, and they had accustomed themselves to being the

“superior race” of America. Environmental conditions do seem to fit the cause for the KKK’s

ideology here, but what about for racist people today? There is no public racism that is taught to

children these days, so do environmental factors still play as strong of a role in developing

racists? If people in modern America have never grown up under the wing of a racist society,

then how do we still have racist members in our society? Well, environmental conditions are

indeed still the most dominant predictor for racism. Children learn much of their own cultural

views from their parents, and they often adopt their parents’ views for themselves without ever

seriously questioning them; children often take these ideologies and wear them like

hand-me-down clothes. As this happens, new generations of people can follow old generations’

beliefs. This concept can still be applied to racism today; people in the Southern United States
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have long been known to follow “traditional” ideologies throughout generations, and these

people are thus more apt to carry on their families’ racist ideologies as they are taught these

ideologies from childhood. Bubbles of racist individuals still exist today, and the continued

generational ideologies serve to explain why racist individuals still exist. The article from

“humanrights.gov.au” unpacks even more reasons for why some people are racist by informing

us that humans instinctively want to group together with people who are similar to them, and this

can be derived from both culture and race (“Why are People Racist?”). A person today might

still be racist because people of his own race are more like him than people of other races,

whether based on appearance or personality. White people generally grow up in vastly different

conditions than do black people; black people tend to be raised in a poorer atmosphere than do

whites. According to an article from The State of Working America, “45.8 percent of young

black children (under age 6) live in poverty, compared to 14.5 percent of white children”

(“Poverty”). These stark contrasts in the upbringing of blacks and whites can serve to explain

how some whites view blacks as “different” and choose to be around other whites. The article

sustains that about half of black children under six years old grow up in poverty, which is more

than triple the rate for white children. Being brought up in a family stricken by poverty yields

different attitudes than being born into a wealthier family and can often create a sense of

class-division. These differences can be amplified as an individual grows into a lifestyle brought

on by whether or not they are poor, and these differences can separate different races of people

into different groups based on the concept of “choosing to be with people similar to oneself.”

Thus, the main causes for racism in our American society are environmental factors, whether in

family or wealth, and how they shape people of differing races to be different.
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It is now understood what racism is and why it is present in America, but how should

people view racism? What actions should be taken in regards to racism? One does not have to

search past the definition of racism to understand why he or she should view racism as morally

wrong. Again, racism is the belief that one’s race is superior to another’s (“Racism”). By

believing that one is superior to others based on his or her race, this person incorrectly assumes

that other races are not equal to his or her own race and is thus likely to treat people of other

races as inferior. Treating others as lower than oneself is morally wrong, and this is a trait that is

inherent in racism. Thus, racism is inherently morally wrong and should be viewed as such.

What impacts can racism have on people? Racism does not just apply to the small-scale where

white individuals might think of blacks as less human; racism also has been shown to apply

large-scale and end in suffering for millions of people. Racism’s drastic effects are epitomized in

the horrors of slavery, a topic that has firm roots in America’s dark history. While slavery was

practiced at its peak, the white race took Africans from their home country and transported them

cruelly and dangerously to the Americas. Here, the slaves were forced to work gruelling hours

under harsh conditions by the commands of white slave-owners who saw black slaves as

expendable work animals, not humans. An article written for Haaretz explains the magnitude of

slavery and details this of the transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas: “[n]o fewer than

1.8 million of them died during the journey; their bodies were thrown to the sharks that trailed

the ships across the sea” (Ben-Ari). Ben-Ari continues that out of the 12.4 million Africans

taken from Africa, 10.6 million Africans survived the voyage and were captive to slavery’s

bidding. The hatred emanating from racism is so powerful that it directly changed over 12

million African’s lives and also changed human history. The brutal cruelty that racism brings to
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this world should clearly make racism be viewed as an abomination and nothing less, for racism

has killed nearly two million Africans alone through slavery. Slavery was just one puppet of

racism’s many hands, showing how racism is a larger issue than just slavery. Legally, slavery has

been outlawed in the United States through Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation;

furthermore, segregation was outlawed through the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of

Education and again with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Civil Rights Act”). So if racism in

practice is essentially outlawed, what other actions can we take today to further eliminate racism

from our society? Well, a plausible solution would be to add an amendment to the United States

Constitution to make hate speech illegal. Hate speech is essentially speech that has malicious

content toward one or more specific groups of people without directly putting them in danger,

and hate speech is often racist by being malicious toward a specific race. Currently, this type of

speech is legal in America because it is protected by the “freedom of speech” in the Constitution.

Thus, an amendment would be the only way to prevent racist hate speech, although an

amendment on hate speech is highly unlikely to pass through the government as the Supreme

Court has already concluded that hate speech is protected. Another reasonable way to alleviate

racism would be for people’s characters and ideologies in America to change, and the only way

to achieve that is through those people actively choosing to change. Ultimately, individuals must

choose for themselves whether they want to change their ideology or not — no one can choose

that for these individuals. If these racist individuals were further educated on how detrimental

and unjust racism was, perhaps they would be willing to view racism for the threat that it actually

is. Racism always was and is an apparent and damaging abomination to American society; we
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should try to prevent it in the only ways that we can — by teaching others of how backwards

racism is.

By simply choosing to go see a movie with a friend, I became a changed person, aware of

a threat that never has and likely never will target me — racism. I have had my eyes opened

wide to see how prevalent and detestable racism is, even in our “free” and “equal” American

society. Driving out to MCC to watch ​BlacKkKlansman​ was an impactful cultural experience for

me; this movie allowed me to delve deep into the mistreated African American community and

gain insight about a terrible threat to black culture that is so often glossed over in modern

America — racism. Racism has and always will be detestable in every form. From slavery to

people being called “niggers,” racism has had many outlets to hurt blacks throughout history and

even today, with freely-racist societies on the internet. We, as Americans, must all do our part to

take a stand against racism. We must caringly teach racist individuals about the horrors of racism

and why racism is inherently wrong so that they might choose for themselves to finally think of

all equally. We must now embody the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi: “In a gentle way, you

can shake the world” (Gandhi).

Ben-Ari, Nirit. “Can You Compare African Slave Trade to the Holocaust?” ​Haaretz.com,​ 10

Apr. 2018, ​www.haaretz.com/.premium-from-freedom-to-slavery-1.5245587​. Accessed

23 Feb. 2020.

Gandhi, Mahatma. “The Top 10 Quotes to Inspire You to Change the World.” ​Goalcast​, 10 Jan.

2020, ​www.goalcast.com/2017/06/14/top-10-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-change-the-world/​.

Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Kennedy, Randall. “Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.” ​The Washington Post,​

WP Company, 11 Jan. 2001,

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm​. Accessed 23

Feb. 2020

“Poverty.” ​The State of Working America,​ Economic Policy Institute,

www.stateofworkingamerica.org/index.html%3Fp=4193.html​. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

“Racism.” ​Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary​, Merriam-Webster,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism.​ Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

“The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom Legal Timeline.” ​Legal Timeline -

The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom | Exhibitions - Library of

Congress​, Library of Congress, 10 Oct. 2014,

www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/legal-events-timeline.html​. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/whyarepeopleracist.pdf​. Accessed 23 Feb.

2020.