Racism. It’s when a white person discriminates against an
African American isn’t it? It must be, for that is the way we perceive it in todays American society when the word “racism” is tossed around or “discrimination.” Racism
itself as defined in sociology in all reality is simply agitation or
discrimination against someone of a different race (biologically inherited
traits: white, black, brown etc.). Racism though has taken different
interpretations in this day and age. A more recent example of racism that has
exploded all over the news is the issue of Los Angeles Clipper’s owner Donald
Sterling making comments derogatory towards people of African American descent
on a recording. These comments were by all means very disgusting and hurtful
towards African Americans, but the rebuttal to the situation by some is somewhat surprising as well.
New York Knicks executive Larry Johnson was known for his
play on the court but recently made a statement that made him noted for more. In
response to the Donald Sterling comments, Johnson stated that African American
basketball players must segregate into their own league. A perfect response
said in the article used was “how does segregation (separation of races into groups) solve racism?” One thing to
look at as well is why isn’t Larry Johnson undergoing the same scrutiny that
even Mr. Sterling is going under? Just imagine for a minute if a Caucasian man
were to state, “We need our own league of white players.” There would be an
absolute outrage in the African American community. The main point made is that
it is bad what Mr. Sterling said, but a man of his age (63) grew up during a
time where racism and prejudice towards African Americans was a social norm.
Reports of other prejudice that Donald Sterling showed were noted as well. For
a man like Larry Johnson to come forward and say to segregate the leagues is a
statement in my opinion that takes a step backwards in sociological progress of
creating equality among people of all races.
Back in the early and mid 1900s racism towards African
Americans was not harmful to the social structure because that was a different
time where it was accepted as normal. Racism in today’s world is harmful to the
structural functionalism of society since it is not tolerated. This goes for
all races, not just one race in general. The question to be asked is how do we as Americans observe what racism is? As
stated in sociology, African Americans have worked for almost 400 years to
get through oppression and are still fighting it today, but for a statement
like the one Larry Johnson did to come out just adds “fuel to the fire” in a
sense to those few that still discriminate against African Americans. Any
decent person white or black in society was 100% in agreement that Donald
Sterlings comments were terrible, no one disagreed with that, but when looked
on the other side of things; Larry Johnson’s comments were nearly the same
magnitude. People in today’s world need to think more about equality in these
situations and look at the sociological perspective that racism is not
discriminating against one specific race, but a meaning that can be used for
all races.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/04/28/Larry-Johnson-Responds-to-Sterling-s-Remarks-Start-All-Black-League
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2014-04-27/tarnished-sterling-sordid-tale-of-money-power-prejudice
Photo
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/jenkins/article/Warriors-enter-L-A-firestorm-surrounding-5436581.php#photo-6226672
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