The Illusive Race Question and Class Essay Example for Free

The Illusive Race Question and Class Essay Abraham Lincoln once said, â€Å"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds (cited in Franklin 1993). † This sentiment has been expressed many times since the absolution of slavery in 1870. Yet with every step we take towards eradicating racism, we fail to see it encroach in an insidious and malicious manner. We have been led to think that this epidemic is about the color of a man’s skin. In the Illusive Race Question and class it states, â€Å" Racism resembles bacteria. It has the uncanny ability to resist Cures (Acuna, p. 4) . † First Steps Our first biggest step toward eradicating racism in this country was President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Although the document had very little power to free slaves, it was considered an â€Å"Act of Justice. † It was a cry for America to wake up and understand that All men are created Equal. One hundred years later, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson said, â€Å"Until justice is blind, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact cited in Franklin, 1993). † Mr. Johnson understood that racism came not just in the form of color, but of education, location, and social status. Earliest Forms of Indoctrination Parents are recognized as the earliest source of children being indoctrinated with racists views , classmates are second ( Savard Aragon, 1989). This study states that during our early gradeschool years each child has learned to do some stereotyping. They also recognize that cultural and institutional prejudices are more subtle, the roots being passed down through many generations. Reverse Racism Annuit Coeptis takes racism one step further by suggesting that in all of our attempts to restore balance and remove racism we have created reverse racism again the white man. He says it is not uncommon on a college campus to see Asian Students Associations, or Latin American Students Associations, but you will not see a White Students Association. The article states, â€Å"Questions of race on college applications can mean only one thing; for college admissions officers, race does matter. That race helps to determine an individuals acceptance to a college is not affirmative action, it is discrimination in action. (Robinson, 2009) † Racism in another form Although the Illusive Race Question Class is based primarily on how racism affects Latinos and their history of racism, I have found through the research of this paper, that every ethnicity can claim racism in some form or another. We have all at one time or another been type casted whether it was because of our ethnicity, the area in which we grew up, our family’s history or financial circumstances. I close with this, â€Å" My point is that we once believed that racism had been defined and that we were on our way to eradicate this ugly social disease only to find it active and well, but in another form. (Azuna, 2005) †