Rascial Discrimination essays

Rascial Discrimination essays The very first thing we need to do as a nation and as individual members of society is to confront our past...we need to recognize it for what it was and is and not explain away, excuse it, or justify it. Having done that, we should make a good faith effort to turn our history around so that we can see it in front of us, so that we can avoid doing what we have done for so long. Attempts to reverse centuries of inequality through assenting action and cultural self-determination are not attacks on whites, as such, but on the system of racism. The goal of these strategies is not to turn the present racial order on its head but rather to achieve an anti-racist society where all individuals have the right to dignity, power, self-determination, and expectation of equal outcomes for the value of their unique contributions to society (Derman-Sparks, pg. 26). The Civil Rights Movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge March on Washington in 1963(Cozzens, Lisa) The movement for civil rights in the 1960s helped break down the wall of racial inequality. In the 1960s several actions to end racial discrimination were introduced throughout the nation. In Greensboro, North Carolina Sit-ins became a popular type of protest among African Americans especially the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (DSouza 169). The 1960s version of fast- food restaurants had segregated lunch counters. African Americans sat at white only lunch counters refusing to leave until served. Practicing civil disobedience, demonstrators protested at restauran...