AMESWorldHistory

RacialIdeologyandDiscriminationinGlobal
Politics
HistoryDayFairProject:SpencerLeyva-Cardenas

PhotoofaKuKluxKlan(KKK)rallyinWashingtonD.Cin1928.

Introduction

Racism is nothing surprising in the world that we live today. Coming from the ideas of
whom we love and hate, known personally or from a form of media, and the ideologies and
customs that us as humans grow up with. And these beliefs of racism dont stay with us
personally, having a need to spread to a sort of modem, stored in a system of judgement to
others and in some cases ourselves. Now for most people today in the past, and in the last
century especially, that modem of racism is spread out through a different and extremelylegal
system, that is politics. Through presidents, dictators, candidates and other political positions
starting from a global role, to those in a local candidacy such as a mayor, governor, senate,



legislature and a city representative. Although these positions of power are supposed to be
used for the purpose of supporting its people and/or government depending on the
administration of the country, topics such as racism can slip out from officials and be put into
turmoil.Whichcanleadtoextremelydangeroussituations,suchasastrandofattacksthathave
been been put under certain presidents name, or anything worse under that same topic.
Presidential candidates such as George Wallace and current president Donald Trump, both
residing in the United States, both being involved in a situation although not together at the
same time for the same purpose,discriminatethoseofdifferentcolorandcultureincontrastof
their own. Even leaving for a position in South Africa in 1948 all the way up to 1991 for an
apartheid by law of thecountrytooccur,separatingAnglo-AfricansandAfrikanerswiththoseof
pure African descent. And yes this mightseemrambunctious,especiallycomingfroma16year
old Latino in Salt Lake City. But take into the fact of what has happened the past century:
segregation of African-Americans in the United States until the 1960s with the Civil Rights Act
[1], further ontonowtoourcurrentPresidentTrumptothecallingofMexicansasonesbringing
drugs...bringing crime... rapists [2]. As for the topic of Taking A Stand, of course there have
been many in history that have done just that. Frederick Douglass, Gandhi, Martin Luther King
Jr., Nelson Mandela. Yet there are those taking a stand in our communities, in our cities,
nationally and/or globally. SoasforisTakingAStand,letshititoffwithushumans,nomatter
what background, ethnicity, or personal preferenceswehave.Weallhaveonethingincommon;
usbeingoneraceandonepeople.Nowisntthatsomethingworthtakingastandfor?

RacialBiasvsRacialDiscrimination
To start, you as a reader need to understand that there is a difference between racial
bias and actual discrimination, and that they are not one of the same. Bias being: prejudice in
favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way
considered to be unfair [3]. In short,havingaprejudice,oranideaagainst/forasubject,butnot
acting upon it. Which is against discrimination, stating that the unjust or prejudicial treatment
of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex [4].
And to clarify; discrimination is acting prejudiceagainstasubject,whichforthispaperhappens
to race. As previously stated in the previous paragraph, whathasbeenoccurringforsometime
is that now bias and/or discrimination hasbeenappliedtothefieldsofpolitics,reachingfroma

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local to a global scale. Lets start off with an example of bias vs discrimination that has been
appliedthroughouthistory.

GeorgeWallace

Democratic politician that had served as governor of

Alabama from 1963-1987, tried running for president in1968during
his governing term as part of the American Independent Party,
running again for president in 1972 as partoftheDemocraticParty
and ran again with the Democratic Party in 1976. [5]. Unfortunately,
the way that he stayed in power of the Alabama governor for 4
terms, was that he had been backed up with white segregationists
and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Backing up his victory in his
inaugural speech stating Segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever [6]. This being an example of racial
discrimination, not from the speech that he had made, but what he did the same year as his
inauguration. Leading what was called a stand-in-the-schoolhouse-door, he blocked 2
African-Americans;Vivian

Malone and JamesHood,fromenteringthedoorsthatledto

the University of Alabama. Putting him as the face of
segregationism in the 1960s [5]. Comparing him to
someone of today, lets put on a face that most of us dont
really want to see in office of the President of the United
States.WIththatpersonbeing.DonaldTrump.

DonaldTrump

Starting off with the concept of what he

believes, specifically what he believes during the
campaign trail. As previously stated in the previous

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paragraph, one portion of what has been claimed by Trump at the beginning of his political
campaign was during one of his first speeches on June of 2015. Stating that when Mexico
sends their people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have a lot of
problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringingcrime.Theyrerapists.Andsome,I
assume, are good people [7]. Personally as a Mexican-American and a proud one, to the
perspective of the Mexican community, this is simply offensive. Assuming that immigrants,
specifically of those of my culture are what he says is plain and simple bias. And those who
support this claim that our President has made, stating that Trump is claiming that there are
bad people coming in from Mexico, and that theyareallthatTrumphasprojectedtothepublic.
But put this into context: Vice-President Mike Pence stated during the Vice-PresidentialDebate
on October 4, 2016, that there are criminal aliens in this country,Tim,whohavecomeintothis
country illegally who are perpetrating violence and taking
American lives. As Kaine responded to that comment,
simply stating if that was usable reason to go against
Mexicans, Pence replied [Trump] also said, And many of
them are good people. You keep leaving that out of your
quote [8]. Heres the thing Pence: You keep leaving out the
fact that the quote youre using, iscompletelyandutterlythe
opposite of what Trump has stated. And many of them are
good people doesntreallymatchwithAndsome,Iassume,
are good people, does it? One puts the assumption that what Trump had stated was a sort of
misconception, and the other was said by the actualpresidentwithactualmeaningtowhathas
been claimed. To further this situation that is Donald Trump, understand what he had said
during the 1st Presidential Debate of 2016 against Hillary Clinton. When on the topic of inner
city relations, Trump had proclaimed that minorities,
such as African-Americans and Hispanics, specifically in
Chicago since he was ranting about property in thearea,
that minorities are living in hell due to the city being
so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot
what do you have to lose? [9]. Well, first off, there are
such things as families, which hewouldknowifhedidnt
constantly switch wives (sorry). But on a tougher note, in response to this claim, Clinton in the
same debate had explained the positive effectsthatminoritieshaveinthecity.Thevibrancyof

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the black church, the black businesses that employ so many people, the opportunities that so
many families are working to provide for theirkids.Theresalotthatweshouldbeproudofand
we should be supporting and lifting up [9]. And thats very true whentheeffectsarenotsolely
based on the negative and paint a bad picture of the nation. Yes, although there are cities that
have shootings such as Chicago, that doesnt mean that by every corner of a city, there will be
someone or a group of people that decide to hurt someone that is a minority. As Clinton said,
there are those willing to give opportunities for families, and that as a people, we should be
supporting and lifting each other in that effect. And not as Trump boldly describing as an
onslaughtofdangerandeveryoneofcolorasontheirown.

EffectsofDonaldTrumpandRacismtothePeople
And heres thing with politics and
Donald Trump specifically: although Trump
might be stating that whathehadsaidwasa
misconception, as something that wasnt
meant the way that it was taken, voters can
take that inasseriousandassomethingthat
has to be done to show support. A few
effects that had occurred neartheendofthe
election are included: Nazi and racist graffiti in Philadelphia and pro-Trump graffiti in Maple
Grove, Minnesota, middle schoolers yelling Build the Wall in Royal Oak, Michigan, a Muslim
threatened by an unknown assailant to remove her hijab or to be set on fire in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, and a Pro-Trump racist message put onto a banner saying Trump nation, whites
only in Silver Spring, Maryland [11]. These effectstopeopledont
just happen unless there is a cause. In thiscase,effectslikewhat
had occurred above, show the cause due to political influences
from the U.S election over the past year and a half that Donald
Trump has been on the campaign. And although there are things
that Trump hasnt said concerning race while on his presidential
campaign and while currently in office, that doesnt mean that
there are things forgotten concerning things such as race
relations. A recent poll given by the Pew Research Center shows

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that due to the election of Trump back in November of 2016 that out of the 25% of all voters
who say that Trump will lead to better race relations, African-American voters of the samepoll
only had 5% agree with Trump and better relations, with 17% neutral and 74% stating that the
president will worsen relations. Compared to President Obama in November of 2008, with 75%
of African-Americans saying that he will increase relations, with 24% neutral and worsen
relations deemed unclassified [12]. Thats kind of thething,isntit?WithallthatTrumphassaid
throughout the election with his campaign, logically it doesnt seem surprising that this is the
case that race relations with an ethniccommunitycanbeaffectedduetothingssaidduringthe
political campaign. Negative comments made by a candidate, especially comments made
against race, can dastardly change the opinions of voters, including those that the comment
wasspecificallyfor.

Now to put aside all of that against Trump, comes a situation that occurred about 70
years ago in South Africa. Putting the country into a situation that eventually turned to a racial
dividefromblackAfricanstoAnglo-AfricansandAfrikans.

TheApartheidofSouthAfrica

InSouthAfrica,withblackAfricansbeing
themajority,andwithwhiteSouthAfrican
(inAfricanknownasAnglo-Africansand
Afrikans)astheminorities.Sowhatisone
thingthatapparentlyworksforthe
separationofthepeoplebyrace?
Segregation,butinSouthAfrica,asan
officialpartofthelaw.Unlikewhathad
occurredintheUnitedStatesduringthe
1950sandthe1960suntiltheCivilRights
Movement,wheresegregationhadoccurredbythecontrolofthepeopleandnotbythe
government[13].Startingfrom1948andendingin1991,theapartheidputmorerights
underthewhiteminoritiesandlessfromtheblackmajority.Andasitcomesforcertain
eventsforthecountrysuchas:votingrights,freedomofthepress,freedomofspeechand
more,weresegregatedthemselvesmainlyforthosewhoarewhite.Lawsthatwereinthis
selectionoftheracesincluded:thePopulationRegistrationActin1950;citizensare

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classifiedandregisteredbytheirracialgroup,theGroupAreaActin1950;physical
separationoftheraces,suchasseparationin
subways,bathrooms,waterfountains,restaurants,
andevenseparationfromhousing.ThePromotion
ofBantuSelf-GovernmentActin1959;racesare
separatedtolivinginsegregatedareas.Andmore
lawsthatexpandedtheapartheidincluded:the
ProhibitionofMixedMarriagesActin1949,the
ImmoralityAmendmentActin1950,andthe
SeparationRepresentationofVotersActin1951.Sowhentherewasmorerightstothe
whiteminority,therewerealotofrightsthathadbeenappliedtotheminority.Butwith
theserights,thatdoesntmeanthattherewasntresistancetotheapartheidthathad
controlofthecountry.ResistancememberssuchasJacobZuma,thecurrentpresidentof
theAfricanNationalCongress(ANC)andthecurrentpresidentofSouthAfrica,hadbeen
againstthissocialsystemsincetheenactmentoftheapartheidin1948andspecifically
duringthe1960swhentheANChadstartedtoenactcontrol.Andthosethathadofficially
endedtheapartheid,werethosehadbecomewellknownforthewell-beingofbothwhite
andblackcitizensofSouthAfrica.OneofthemostbeingNelsonMandela,former
PresidentofSouthAfricafrom1994to1999.Withallthatthecountryhasdonethroughout
thispointoftimeofthelawofsegregation,itisclearthatwhathadoccurredwascomplete
andutterracialdiscrimination.Thetakingofactionagainstthoseofcolorinthiscase,using
segregationaslawtoeradicaterightsoftheAfricanpopulationforthecontrolofthe
minority.

Conclusion

Aspreviouslystated,racismisnotsomethingnewthatwasjustcreatedandhas
beenaroundjustrecently.Thissystemhasbeenaroundlongerthanjustthelastfewyears,
evenfurtherbackthanthedatesthathavebeenmentionedinthispaper.Racismhasbeen
aroundforalongtime,andwiththatcomesthebeliefofcertainraces,theideologyof
racialbiasandevenfurther,racialdiscrimination.Fromthissystem,comesunfortunate
eventssuchastheonelistedinthispaperandevenworsethroughouthistory.Theevents
thathadoccurredfromGeorgeWallaceandhissystemofracialdiscrimination,toDonald

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Trumpandhisoverbearingsystemofracialbias,tothemassiveeventsthathaveoccurred
inSouthAfricafromthelate1940stotheearly1990s,thesesystemsofbeliefcandestroy
apopulace,causeanarchyinsomeformsandfurtheron.Butthisissomethingthat
shouldnthavetohappen.Forthegoodofasocietythatgoesallthewayupfromalocalto
aglobalscale.Protectionforthehumanraceshouldbeimportanttous,insteadoftearing
usapartintoseparategroupsofthesamerace.Weshouldhavetostandforbeingtogether
asone,ratherthangoingagainsteachotherasdifferentiates.

Standasone.

Sources
http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415892940/data/8%20history%20and%20immigration%
20timeline.pdf [1]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/politics/donald-trump-mexico-statements/ [2]

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS579US583&ion
=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=bias [3]

https://www.google.com/search?q=racial+bias+vs+discrimination&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS579US5
83&espv=2&site=webhp&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN8Puo-arTAhUB22MKHWGuCP
MQ_AUIBygA&biw=1364&bih=678&dpr=1#q=discrimination [4]

http://www.biography.com/people/george-wallace-9522367 [5]

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/14/us/george-wallace-segregation-symbol-dies-at-79.html [6]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/06/16/trump_mexico_not_sending_us_their_best_cr
iminals_drug_dealers_and_rapists_are_crossing_border.html [7]

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/05/mike-pence/mike-pence-tidies-do
nald-trumps-quote-about-mexica/ [8]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-minorities-living-in-hell-228726 [9]

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/2-views-of-race-relations/ [10]

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/11/13/a_list_of_racist_incidents_across_the_united
_states_since_donald_trump_was.html [11]

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2016/06/27/2-views-of-race-relations/ [12]

http://www.history.com/topics/apartheid [13]

http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa [14]

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jacob-gedleyihlekisa-zuma [15]