Teelanna Nguyen

Prof. Russell

POLS1100

4/24/21

Is American Politics Racist?

Within the roots of our government, racism has been integrated from the start of it. When

our government was created, the founding fathers wrote in the Declaration of Independence that

“all men are created equal. Though, it was not in favor of women and people of color. You could

say that they were treated inhuman instead. Our government was based on policies of keeping

white supremacy. An example of this would be the history of law enforcement in America. In the

1700’s, slave patrollers would volunteer to enforce slave laws and capture escaped slaves.

Another example would be the police enforcing the Jim Crow Laws.

The definition of racism is the belief that one race is superior to others. On Merriam

Webster, they explain racism as “: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits

and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” Of

course, this ideology has been around since what seems to be the beginning of time. However,

with the political climate today, it is especially important to know what it means. President

Trump’s presidency and elections in 2020 has brought upon more racial tension than ever before.

Such as, when he suggested the Coronavirus was the “Chinese Virus,” many Asian Americans

started to experience hate crimes. He has also said many other racially offensive things, which

influences his supporters to have the same view as him and create a greater divide within

America.
 Today, the polarization regarding Republicans and Democrats has been a hot topic.

Coincidentally, each side associates with specific races. Republicans have the majority being

white (with outliers) and Democrats have a mix of different races. There is such a split in

diversity between the two parties because of where they originated as well as other factors. There

was a study done by the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape about who faces discrimination.

This survey was answered by both Republicans and Democrats. To share, 77.5% of Democrats

thought that black people faced discrimination whereas only 45.4% of Republicans thought so.

However, 25.3% of Republicans thought white people faced discrimination where 11.8% of

Democrats thought the same. With only these two statistics, you can see a clear difference

between ideals.

The issue of white supremacy in politics is not necessarily what causes racism, but what

constitutes it. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “Make America Great Again,” you should

understand that we can only make it great for those who fit the criteria. Instead, we should work

to make America great for all. It is important to support this level of equality because if we

didn’t, we would live in the same unpleasant society people lived in a decade ago. In order to

have a thriving society people need to feel included and given equal opportunities. However,

with recent events, people have not felt included. It is important to preface that living in a great

country means people feel safe and supported for their views and by the government.

Expanding on what was just said, American politics is racist. Due to overlapping

interests, force has been used as the main resolver. Though, all laws seem to discriminate to one

group or another. The real question is “Is it Fair?” Talking about criminals, it is fair to put them

in prison but they may not feel the same. Another example would be President Trump’s refusal

of denouncing White supremacy groups. It has been seen that he has replied to such groups on
Twitter without any plan to disband the groups. This is fair to those groups but not to people of

color. The controversy regarding the fairness of laws and racism within politics is subjective but

apparent. The entire nature of politics always ends with the debate of race. From rough

beginnings to an even rougher future, racism in the government and politics is something we

should take an initiative on to eventually retire our country from systemic inequality.

Solving racism in America is simply not possible. However, making a more just system

of government is potentially possible. As an individual, you can support racial justice, educate

yourself on important political issues, and vote. As a country, we should start with the Criminal

Justice system. With being built upon a racist beginning, policing in America should undergo a

makeover. Defunding and Reforming law enforcement as a whole should be a step we take. If we

train police officers better and hold them to a higher degree, many incidents regarding racism in

policing will be decreased. Also, we can redistribute power, officers, and resources to help

communities feel safe without feeling targeted. The law enforcement we have now is causing

many issues regarding people of color and the Black Lives Matter Movement along with others.

These issues were eventually integrated into politics.

Fortunately, the government has done a lot for systemic racism. They passed many Acts

regarding prejudice against another race or religion. An example would be the Model Bill No.1

and the Civil Rights Act of 2014. Essentially, they are both speaking upon banning racial

preferences in employment, education, the federal government, etc. Even though America has

done so much regarding racism in systems, you cannot change someone’s personal values and

morals. If a police officer is explicitly racist and the training to aid in that did nothing, there is

not much we can do except watch them receive an appropriate consequence for their actions.

Truthfully, racism is one of the hardest topics to combat because it is focused on individual
views and morals. Unfortunately, people choose to be racially discriminatory and I said before,

we can’t change that.

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