The dynamics of relationships between different races and ethnicities both in the global community and especially in the environment of local ones has always been a rather problematic issue. Due to the impact of colonialism and the presence of deeply rooted stereotypes, the impact of prejudices on how racial and ethnic minorities are perceived has always been very strong (Omi and Winant 3). Stemming from the bigoted perspective that the colonialist thinking provided, legal regulations and biological theories have aggravated the quality of relationships between members of different racial and ethnic groups, creating the scenario in which the ethnic majority could easily abuse the rights of ethnic and racial minorities.
Remarkably, even the ideas that had a potential for advancing the relationships between people belonging to different races have also been misconstrued and distorted to the point where they started being used as an excuse for racial profiling. For instance, the idea of color blindness regarding ethnicity and race might seem innocent enough as a policy that advocates for the idea of erasing prejudices and harmful stereotypes about other races. However, when applied through the lens of colonialism and the concept of superiority, it quickly becomes a vehicle for denying the presence of power that white people possess over ethnic and racial minorities (Bonilla-Silva 75).
As Bonilla-Silva explains, when used in bad faith, the principles of color blindness serve to erase not only cultural differences but also may semblance of ethnic identity, thus stripping representatives of minorities of the opportunity to establish themselves and explore the roots of their culture (74). As a result, the initially neutral concept of color blindness becomes the tool for reinforcing the status quo of the power relationships within a community. Therefore, even the ideas that may have been created in an attempt to pursue equality in intercultural relationships may be easily twisted to serve the purpose of racial profiling.
Another aspect of the legacy of racism that has been carried into the present-day interactions and still sends ripples across the American community, the issue of legal standards needs to be addressed. The infamous case of People v. Hall (1854), which concluded that Chinese residents of the U.S. could not provide the testimony that could be used against white witnesses can be seen as one of the most infamous cases of blatant racism in the U.S. legal system.
The described court decision represents how racism and other ideas that contribute to dehumanizing specific races and ethnicities affect the perception of people of different races and ethnicities in society and the legal system. By warping the notion of social justice, American society shaped the legal one as well, causing significant harm to Asian American citizens. Although the regulation in question no longer holds any legal power, it still serves as a gloomy reminiscence of the racist past of American history.
Specifically, the case in question shows that the significance of human life used to depend on the ethnicity to which they belonged: “According to the court, there was no doubt that the legislature intended to include Chinese people within the class prohibited from giving evidence in favor of or against a white man” (People v. Hall 1). Therefore, the current presence of biases in the relationships between different races can be explained by the history of not only social, cultural, and d economic, but also legal subjugation of racial minorities and the suppression of their needs.
The present-day system of racism beliefs, in turn, seems to be grounded profoundly in the ideas that the specified case, as well a myriad of others that support the concept of the white race superiority, has supplied. Although legally, the standards for the treatment of every ethnicity and race have been established as strictly the same under the principles of the Fourteenth Amendment, the scenarios in which the rights of racial and ethnic minorities are violated in the modern legal system are becoming increasingly more common.
For example, in his 2005 article, Carbado points to the evident presence of racist assumptions behind the decision-making of law enforcement units in the U.S. environment. According to the author, several encounters with the representatives of law enforcement have made it blatantly obvious that the principles of racial profiling remain the main theme in the relationships between African American people and legal forces. Specifically, the author mentions that “Unwillingly, we were participating in a naturalization ceremony within which our submission to authority both reflected and reproduced black American racial subjectivity” (Carbado 634-635).
At this point, Carbado introduces the idea of the harsh reality that African American people face in the U.S. being a part of naturalization and even an element of an uncanny initiation process that defines their ethnic and racial legacy. Therefore, the presence of racial profiling as an institutionalized notion that has been reinforced by the years of legalized racism still permeates American society and defines whether African American people, as well as the representatives of other racial and ethnic minorities, can receive any semblance of justice.
Unfortunately, creating an entirely neutral environment where the representatives of different races and ethnicities will remain on equal footing and will not face any ambiguities in their interactions does not seem possible in the nearest future due to the legacy of past inequality and the suffocating effect that the principles of racial segregation produced. In an attempt at controlling the biology-related facts to change the sociocultural narrative, the proponents of the idea of racial segregation have attempted at encouraging segregation with the threat of the white culture being ostensibly supplanted through interracial marriages (Brostoff).
Representing an absurd intersection of racism and a complete misunderstanding of how the process of genetic information being passed from parents to children, the described view shows the influence of racial biases and discrimination on the development of scientific thought. Namely, the proponents of racial segregation and discrimination managed to co-opt the scientific narrative to steer it away from progress and into the direction where it would serve the purpose of further segregation.
Remarkably, despite the nonsensical nature of the ideas described above, they still echo in the contemporary discourse concerning the diversification of American society and the enhancement of the principles of equality in it. In his paper, Lipsitz explores the concept of whiteness and the artificially promoted idea of threats that the phenomenon of whiteness ostensibly experiences in modern society.
According to Lipsitz, “whiteness emerged as a relevant category in American life largely because of realities created by slavery and segregation, by immigration restrictions and Indian policy, by conquest and colonialism” (370). Therefore, ironically, to resolve the infamous problem of whiteness, American society will need to encourage diversity and introduce the members of the American community to the idea of cross-cultural communication and culture fusion.
In addition to the twisted perspective that the Capitalist notion of colonialism and the skewed regulations produced on shaping the relationships between different races in the American context, the biological aspect of the issue has been used quite frequently to justify the presence of rampant racism in the very fabric of American society. Although the American community has made quite a big leap since the development and promotion of the specified ideas, the impact of the specified line of thinking has still been producing a tangible effect on interpersonal relationships within American society (Harris 1710).
The attempt at justifying racism with the help of science, namely, biology, appears to be particularly insipid since it suggests that the presence of racial profiling in American society is not only impossible to avoid but also ultimately necessary to control relationships. The specified assumption is entirely false, as both moral reasoning and the presence of basic common sense prove, yet the fact that the specified notions have trickled into the modern relationships between the representatives of different races and especially between white Americans and racial minorities, provide substantial food for thought.
Therefore, after years of being promoted on multiple levels, starting from legal to academic, the absurd concept of racial superiority has been engraved into American history to the point where it still affects modern society despite numerous attempts at correcting the issue. Although the current perspective promoted by the Capitalist principles allows viewing colonialism as a shameful relic of America’s past, the ideas that served as the basis for colonialist relationships still affect the dynamics of relationships between cultures. As a result, the instances of racism and ethnic profiling occur in American society frequently, appearing on the legal and social levels and causing the relationships within American society to deteriorate.
Amplified to the point where it loses all logical reasoning and focuses solely on the pursuit of egotistic ideas, nationalism with the profound support of ideological postulates reinforced the concept of ethnic and racial superiority, creating the breeding ground for the ideas that would become the divide between the white American population and ethnic and racial minorities represented in it. As the paper by Balibar shows, the development of the concept of the nation-state is inherently flawed in itself since it leads to the creation of the ideas of superiority of one nation over the rest (331). With the focus on the evolution of the American nation as the entity that embraces certain inherent characteristics of citizens, the threat of marginalizing a particular group of people is always present.
Therefore, while the principles of the nation-state as the empire built solely for the benefit and well-being of white people are no longer representative of the American national philosophy, the remnants of the specified mindset still affect the relationships within contemporary American society negatively. Specifically, Balibar points out that the myths associated with the superiority of a particular nation represent “an effective ideological form, in which the imaginary singularity of national formations is considered daily, by moving back from the present into the past” (Balibar 337). Thus, the author outlines the fact that the philosophy based on the premise of a specific nation’s superiority is regressive as it reverts society to the previous stages of its development.
Overall, due to the legacy of colonialism that made its way into the legal system and affected people’s perception of biology and human nature, in general, the remnants of racism remain ingrained into modern society to this day. While multiple attempts have been made to address the presence of inequality in modern society, eliminating prejudices does not seem possible currently, which affects cross-cultural relationships in the American social landscape drastically. However, by introducing the principles of cultural competence and reinforcing the awareness about the pressure that racial and ethnic minorities experience presently, the American community will be able to address some of the inequalities and promote justice on multiple levels, including social and legal ones.
Based on the biased concept of relationships between different races and ethnicities, as well as the outrageous idea of racial superiority, the principles of colonialism and the misconstrued legal and biological assumptions that it entailed defined the bigoted understanding of race and ethnicity. Although some of the most atrocious aspects of the specified perspective, ranging from slavery to segregation, have been dismantled over time, the legacy of colonialism still affects how interracial relationships occur in the modern context.
Nonetheless, the progress observed in the development of social justice and the perception of the concepts of race, equality, and cultural competence must have a positive outcome on the relationships between people of different races and ethnicity in the future. While the legacy of racial discrimination will have its toll on the relationships within American society in the future, opportunities for promoting equity may emerge.
Works Cited
Balibar, Etienne. “The Nation Form: History and Ideology.” Review (Fernand Braudel Center), vol. 13, no. 3, 1990, pp. 329-361.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. “The Central Frames of Colorblind Racism.” Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, pp. 73-99.
Brostoff, Maria. “How White Nationalists Aligned Themselves with the Antiabortion Movement.” Washington Post, 2019. Web.
Carbado, Devon W. “Racial Naturalization.” American Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 3, 2005, pp. 633-658.
Harris, Cheryl I. “Whiteness as property.” Harvard Law Review, 1993, pp. 1707-1791.
Lipsitz, George. “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the ‘White’problem in American Studies.” American Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1995, pp. 369-387.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant, eds. Racial Formation in the United States. 2nd edition, Routledge, 1994, pp. 3-13.
People v. Hall. 4 Cal. 399. Supreme Court of California. 1854.