An Argumentative essay

The use of race to establish social and economic divisions in western culture has become a point of contention that has taken center stage in contemporary debates. The topic is so controversial because it involves basic moral and racial issues that must be resolved in order to create a world free of racial discrimination. A multitude of arguments has been advanced to discuss the racial inequality that exists in modern society. Specifically, Beverly Daniel addresses antagonistic perspectives on why it has been impossible to achieve a constructive dialogue about ethnic disparities, racial identity differences, and bigotry in general.

Through her insightful self-reflection about the subject, she endeavors to explain her understanding of racism and why it has been advanced to create boundaries in the society. On the other hand, Peggy Mcintosh in her essay “White privileges: the invisible knapsack” alludes to a general construction that has been founded to advance racial segregation between races. In her essay, she attempts to unravel the social construction that has portrayed the white race as a universal point of reference for good or bad. While black race is drawn as evil, the white race is associated with power and privileges. These two essays are perfectly complementing each other. Thus, the essay will incorporate both author’s viewpoints in an attempt to understand opposing and similar viewpoints in regard to the concept of racial discrimination.

The choice to consider both essays in the new edition textbook is informed by the fact that both essays present us with contrasting viewpoint and self-reflection on how different people perceive of racism. On one side, Beverly Daniel analysis of racial differences between various groups is helpful in the quest to understand the relationship between different races. In her discussion, she posits that whiteness has been internalized as a normative category in which all other races gain their comparison from. Thus, although we may all agree with the argument that purports that racism is evil, she argues that achieving this goal is trying because of political, cultural and economic powers represents whiteness as a “superior” race. Secondly, the ideology to represent whiteness as a normative category which is ideally superior to other races advances norms that reinforce the cracks between different races.

Although people believe that racism can be eliminated from the society by simply changing our viewpoint on different social issues, it may not come that easily. Over a long time, the issue of racism and negative prejudice have been accepted as a normative system that has marked each aspect of the society’s culture. Ideally, the belief that different racial groups are the same in the 21st century is somehow misplaced. People of African-American descent may, however, see themselves as being “normal” although they enjoy limited privileges to the whites. Thus, the idea to portray black and white to be equal has to be accompanied with the purging of system advantages that favor the white Natives. In this perspective, abolishing systemic racism is the only way to realize a racism-free society.

In complementing Beverly Daniel arguments about systemic racism, Peggy Mcintosh idea to explain racism from a sociological point of view is critical in supplementing Daniels’ arguments. Thus, instead of trying to combat systemic imbalances that put the white race in a better position in terms of induced powers and privileges, we should be preoccupied with fighting the sociological aspect that sees other races as being inferior groups. Since the time of William Dubois in the 20th century, social constructions that address the whites as a normative group has been the source of racial segregation. Thus, the Euro-American system that was normalized decades ago has to be blamed entirely for drawing a line between the whites and other “inferior races.”  Discursive theories have all advanced racism at all levels of the society, especially among university students.

Profoundly, racial segregation is deeply embedded within our culture and may be difficult to streamline systems that advanced this vice. Although solid features and structures such as the apartheid in South Africa were eliminated before the attainment of independence, the white domination is still prevalent in the country’s society. Due to the fact that the ideas of whiteness are hard and enduring, whiteness ideologies and negative mindsets that find favor in perpetuating racism theories should be discarded. If the modern society is seriously committed to abolishing racism, it should desist from advancing ideologies that perpetuate the issues of whiteness and segregation in terms of where each race should live.

In conclusion, both essays are perfectly complementing each other in their arguments. Ethnic development is a complex subject that requires the inclusion of sociological perspectives in explaining why the 21st century is still marked by racial discrimination, either directly or indirectly through induced privileges. However, the society should seek to promote multiracial heritage and self-acceptance among races that feel that they are “inferior” to the whites. The idea of inferiority complex is a psychological thing that is characterized by unfounded notions about the aspect of the “self.”