Racial Privilege and Discrimination Nowadays

Table of Contents

Introduction
Allan Johnsons View
Augustine Fuentes View
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Questions about the nature of racism have been pertinent for several centuries. Scholars and public figures are currently trying to understand why racial privilege and discrimination continue to exist in the current cultural context. The work of researchers Allan G. Johnson and Agustin Fuentes allows readers to trace the mechanisms of stereotyping of social minorities, as well as to formulate possible steps to change prevailing trends in society.

Allan Johnsons View

In Privilege Power and Difference, Allan Johnson examines the reasons for the existence of elite and oppressed groups. He argues that privilege, regardless of the context, is already a consequence of discrimination. The author cites a study in which respondents were asked to close their eyes and imagine a drug dealer. In the vast majority of cases, people admitted that they imagined a dark-skinned citizen (Johnson 65). It follows from this experiment that when this type of crime is investigated, the first people who will come under suspicion will be African Americans (Johnson 89). In such an environment, white people are automatically privileged and are less likely to be arrested or searched than the social group that is the victim of the stereotype. The division of society into protected and unprotected groups is based on dominance, centrality, and identification.

The former implies the tendency described above, where whites, regardless of social status or income level, have a greater chance of a favorable outcome than blacks in the same context. Centrality consists of shifting the focus of attention to a privileged group, which is often evident at the level of mass media or art (Johnson 85). Finally, identification presupposes that white people are the standard-bearers of the right kind of citizen who deserves a central place in the cultural, political, and economic life of society. In an environment in which privilege will not be perceived as something spontaneous but as a consequence of discrimination, it will be possible to change the patterns of perception of different minority groups. In order for this to happen, however, it is important to denationalize and de-identify the white person in all spheres of society. This difficult task can only be accomplished with a high level of public awareness. Otherwise, such processes will be perceived only as reciprocal oppression of the white population and risk violent interracial clashes.

Augustine Fuentes View

Augustine Fuentes speculates on the unfairness of defining race as a biological category. The scholar examines several studies that assert false assumptions about the physiological, cognitive, and behavioral differences of groups of people with different ethnic characteristics. The author claims that such a picture of the world hinders the development of civilization, as it artificially creates a stereotype of the biological limitations of a large percentage of the population (Fuentes 24). Numerous examples from society contradict the myth described by Fuentes. For many decades, it has not been scientifically proven, but one difference between representatives of different races at the cognitive and physiological level (Fuentes 48). The position of having negative associations with African Americans or Asians is advantageous to a large number of privileged people.

There can be no other justification for the discrimination that exists. The author gives the example of Barack Obama, who has only one parent who is black. Yet society identifies him as African American, ignoring the information that his mother is a white woman (Fuentes 49). This story illustrates the general trend in which people tend to identify one another by the most negative trait. And the fact that two races are mixed in choosing one as the distinctive trait is depressing.

Both scholars approach issues of privilege and racism from different angles. Allan Johnson describes the interdependence of stereotypes and privilege, while Fuentes debunks the failure of the biological perspective to consider racial differences. What the two authors have in common is their detailed description of the mechanisms by which prejudice affects society (Fuentes 46). Nevertheless, the scholars suggest different practical steps to change the situation (Fuentes 48). Johnson argues for the need to combat the unfair criminal image of blacks and the need for oversight of law enforcement that artificially creates privilege for whites in investigations. Fuentes believes it is important to abolish the concept of defining race and ethnicity and to promote a cultural perspective that excludes any physiological differences.

Conclusion

Thus, the two researchers address the issue of racist stereotypes on two different levels. The first researcher looks in more detail at the practical side of the issue, realized in white privilege in various spheres of life. The second scholar focuses on the theoretical framework unfairly and unjustly formed by some scholars and the need to change it. Global problems such as discrimination and racial stereotyping have a better chance of being solved if both of these perspectives are taken into account and the proposals of both scholars are combined into a specific work program. If the latter succeeds in lobbying the authorities and gaining public support, the level of stereotyping of all social groups will begin to fall considerably.