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Kylie Ameika

Professor Okan

ENG 111-15

15 November 2021

Racist and Sexist America Is Dead, Or Is It?

Since the formation of America, racism and sexism have been the backbone of society.

Even today, there are countless examples of racism that are overlooked and unidentified. In high

school for example, whether it be a teacher saying the n-word while reading for “educational

purposes” or asking only the boys to complete physically challenging tasks, younger generations

are still exposed to these concepts in a variety of ways. Although relatively normalized, racial

discrimination and misogyny still exists in the United States and can be diminished by the

education of new and older generations and by taking accountability for harmful actions.

In “The New Jim Crow” author Michelle Alexander describes a more modern take on

discrimination and racism being held against black people that is reflected in society today. From

the late 1870s to 1960s, Jim Crow laws actively set the tone for treatment of black people in the

United States. As a result, the government was able to legally segregate black and white people.

This included, but wasn’t limited to, separate bathrooms and waiting rooms and prohibiting

marriage between a black and white person. Although now this seems extreme and

unimaginable, the legislative system was allowed to enforce it through the idea of “separate but

equal”. This was essentially the principle that segregation was okay because even though the

black community was separate from white people, they still had access to public places (despite

the areas for the black people being significantly worse than the others). In her article, Alexander

opens the eyes of the audience to the idea that the values of Jim Crow laws have not dissipated,
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but rather evolved into a more institutionalized manner. The article takes a closer look at the

effects of the five pillars of discrimination, but more specifically the judicial and legislative

portions. Alexander takes her stance when she claims, “Once you’re labeled a felon, the old

forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right

to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and

exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal” (409). After this, she goes on to describe the

frequency of black men being convicted felons due to the normalized biases within the judicial

system. This can be applied to real-world situations such as the death of George Floyd. Although

there was ample evidence that Derek Chauvin was the man to blame for his death, many people

argued that his death was either due to or justified by traces of drugs in his system. Despite the

fact that the evidence was not nearly substantial enough to make an accusation, it is a perfect

example of how we are conditioned to associate black men with drug usage and the

consequences that come with it.

She also shares her own personal experience with exposure to the issue when she states,

“I was rushing to catch the bus, and I noticed a sign stapled to a telephone pole that screamed

in large bold print: THE DRUG WAR IS THE NEW JIM CROW” (411). Through the use of this

personal anecdote, the author is able to shed light on HOW Jim Crow laws have evolved.

The issue isn’t segregation, it’s how drug convictions turn innocent black men into felons,

and bars them from the basic rights of a US citizen. A skeptic or someone who doesn’t agree

with the stance taken by Alexander might argue that people who are convicted of crimes like

these have a probable cause. Yet, in a recent report from University of Michigan funded by the

National Registry of Exonerations in 2017, it is revealed, “Since 1989, more than 1,800

defendants have been cleared in ‘group exonerations’ that followed 15 large-scale police
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scandals in which officers systematically framed innocent defendants. The great majority were

African-American defendants who were framed for drug crimes that never occurred” (Possely).

In spite of some convicts being absolved of their charges after further investigation, the issue

within the corrupt judicial system is the impression that it leaves people with concerning the

black community. The general public sees an innocent black male being convicted of a drug

related crime, and automatically adds this information to the internal stereotype they hold. By

examining Alexander’s argument about the state of racism in the United States, it is apparent that

that racism has not gone away, it has simply evolved.

Additionally, discrimination against women has evolved. Anne-Marie Slaughter takes on

the discussion of the new definition of a successful woman in “Why Women Still Can’t Have It

All”. Everyday, we see examples of how women aren’t treated equally in the workplace. High

paying jobs are usually held by men and women make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Even when asked to picture a surgeon or CEO of a company, the prototype in most people’s

brain is a white male. Although great strides have been made from the suffrage movement until

present day, women still struggle with issues rooted in misogyny within the workplace. The

question is no longer will I be able to work, rather what will people think of me if I chose work

over my family (or vice versa)? Slaughter dives into the discussion when she states, “I was

increasingly aware that the feminist beliefs on which I had built my entire career were shifting

under my feet” (674). Feminism has taken a great shift in motivation within the last century. It is

no longer solely women fighting for women. Men also jumped on the bandwagon and have

become allies. Despite this, that is not to say that there are no longer men who don’t currently

support the issue, as well as women who don’t support it. The evolution that Slaughter talks

about in the quote is centered around one idea: the pressure women feel in the workplace from
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each other. The author shares her personal experience with the pressures of being a woman when

she shares, “Which means I’d been part, albeit unwittingly, of making millions of women

feel that they are to blame if they cannot manage to rise up the ladder as fast as men and also

have a family and an active home life (and be thin and beautiful to boot)” (679). In this

anecdote, Slaughter recounts a time when she realized that she was contributing to the stigma

surrounding finding family and work balance. Even though she thought she was contributing

to more inclusive standards for women, the author didn’t realize the standard she was setting

that women have to know how to perfectly balance their lives. Slaughter goes on to describe

how she eventually quit her high paying government job to go be with her two teenage sons.

Although she preached the importance of finding balance, she herself was struggling to find

it in a healthy way. Although women have made large strides towards equality, they still

encounter the same set of challenges they did almost 100 years ago.

Although different, the inequalities faced by both black people and women can be

compared by the effects of normalized discrimination in the workplace and justice system.

Some who reads more into the comparison of these issues may be thinking, how can these two

ideas relate when the discrimination of black people is literally taking innocent lives? Despite the

understanding of this argument, it’s important to look at the way the consequences of these issues

contribute to stereotypes and negative beliefs about each group. Although women and black

people aren’t normally explicitly discriminated against, the public tends to put them down often

and make assumptions about them. This is reinforced by schools and the lack of education on the

issues. There are countless news stories of racist acts committed by the children who attend them

without any consequences. For example, the backlash that is given by conservative parents about

the integration of critical race theory in the education system. Many states have been working on
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trying to ban the inclusion of critical race theory as a way to silence the voices of those who are

discriminated against. Similarly, sexism in many different forms is accepted within the education

system. From a young age, boys and girls are grouped based on their gender. Boys are given

trucks to play with while girls are given dolls. They are taught to identify certain objects as “boy

or girl” based on what color they are. Even though this seems like an irrelevant example, it is just

the beginning of children being taught to separate themselves from each other. The human brain

is notorious for seeking out patterns in order to make assumptions about the environment around

them. Therefore, it makes sense why a division between male and female is so normalized, and

taken to a larger scale for adults. The only way that this issue is going to be solved is diving into

the values within the education system and taking accountability for curriculum or practices that

are harmful. Discrimination has evolved and become harder to identify, however it still exists in

implicit ways.

Discrimination is still present in our society through judicial values and stereotypes of the

working woman. Although society has definitely evolved since the suffrage movement or the Jim

Crow era, there are still improvements to be made. Without bringing light to these issues, they

can be easily ignored because they’re hard to identify. Whether it be telling a friend that a joke

they made was offensive or reducing the stigma around stay-at-home moms, there are small

things that can be done in order to eliminate the amount of implicit discrimination. Although

these issues seem huge, they are similar in the way that they can be improved by increased

education on the subject and accountability.

Work Cited

Alexander, M. “The New Jim Crow”. They Say/ I Say (Ebook).

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/139331/r/goto/cfi/96!/4

Possely, Maurice. “Race And Wrongful Convictions In The United States.” Law.umich.edu,

University of Michigan, 7 Mar. 2017,

https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Race-and-Wrongful-Convictions.a

spx.

Slaughter, A. (2012). “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”. They Say/ I Say (Ebook).

https://ncia.wwnorton.com/139331/r/goto/cfi/152!/4