please read my classmate post first than read the question and write one post like my classmates. Also comments to my classmates

classmate 1

The KKK is an obvious group that comes to mind when it it comes to blatant and outright racism. But, their personal beliefs do not just affect them. People of color and those of the jewish community are directly affected by their actions. As well as the society they live in. More specifically, The black community has been one of the many targets the KKK has set their eye on. They suffered from a numerous amount of physical attacks. As well as verbal and mental attacks as well. Although the KKK is not as publically active in today’s society, they were a force to reckoned with in the 1920s; where they “exceeded 4 million people nationwide”(https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan (Links to an external site.)). They were unapologetically racist. They used their racist mindset as an excuse to make, what they believed, a better society. Because the Ku Klux Klan was so public, it lead the rest of society to be more outright with their own racism. There was a sense of comfort knowing that there was an entire group dedicated to their prejudices.

Twitter is a perfect example of a social media platform that is misused to promote racism. While, a lot of the racism is shut down by other users, twitter is still a media outlook that makes users feel comfortable enough to say inappropriate things. A good example is Kaitlin Bennett. For those of you who do not know her, she is a young white woman who went viral on twitter for carrying an assault rifle on her college campus without any repercussions. Many argued that a person of color would not have lived to tell their story if they had done the same thing. Kaitlin tweeted 2 days ago “your whole ‘America is so racist!!!’ narrative really doesn’t fit together when you have to hire black guys to play the part of racist white men. Thanks, Jussie, for proving that racism is so minor in America that you have to fake it”. This tweet is a perfect example of a person expressing their own opinion while simultaneously being racist without knowing. While the Jussie Smollett scandal is bizarre and rather unsettling, she spoke only on the idea that racism isn’t real. That tweet alone received 15 hundred retweets, 6 thousand likes and 1 thousand comments. It reached a lot of people and spread a subtle idea that racism is nonexistent. Twitter is a black hole for ignorant comments. It is a form of news that millenials look solely for information and without proper research, can be often false.

classmate 2

Colorism is an outcome of racism that impacts cultures that include people of color as well as creating a sense of in-group (fair-skinned) and out-group (tan/darker-skinned). Growing up with in an Asian culture, being fair-skinned is definitely a privilege. It is constantly pushed by family members, peers, and even celebrities to avoid getting dark and achieve fair skin. As such, skin lightening is a thriving industry that preys on the insecurities of people who feel that they’re too dark to be pretty. Additionally, these lightening products sold in billions in the Asia-Pacific market which makes up more than half of the global market (Liu, 2018). Despite the dangers of these products, it is still a sought-after product that continuously perpetuates colorism.

Moreover, an issue that is used as a scapegoat for racism is the idea of immigrants taking all the jobs from Americans. We’ve heard this statement time and time again from Trump to encourage his followers to discriminate against people of color (mainly Mexicans) and decrease immigration with xenophobia. However, there is no evidence that immigrants have negative effects to employment of native-born workers. Undocumented workers often take the jobs that Americans don’t want to do. Oftentimes, these jobs are physically-demanding and downright unpleasant. In addition, these immigrants are underpaid and have trouble finding other jobs (Preston, 2016). Ultimately, high-skilled immigrants contribute more to the growth of the United States contrary to what is assumed of them. Denying immigrants and mass deportations do not solve the problem but providing better educational opportunities and skill development might be a better benefit for Americans (Hoban, 2017).

This the question

Your task this week is to go hunting–sociologically–for other outcomes of racism (outside of psychological and physical health). You should be looking at different levels of impact–individual, group (in-group and out-group), organization, cultural, societal–and discuss two in-depth. Provide evidence for your claims (from both course materials for analysis and news/articles/posts for specific events or discussions around your example).

You will also need to find one social issue in society that people (media, politicians, special interest groups, etc.) use that is a smokescreen/scapegoat for racism and discuss that in-depth. [For example, the War on Drugs that began in the 1970s was claiming to be protecting the people against drugs and punishing drug users and dealers. When in actuality, it was a clever smokescreen that had the hidden intent and overt impact of targeting and punishing communities of color, particularly black and brown men. AKA racism. More than any other group, these men were stripped of their rights (some over small possession charges), incarcerated for long periods of their lives, and once out, were not given social support to overcome the stigma of ex-con–all on the change in policy under President Ronald Reagan’s administration. See the Netflix documentary 13th for a more in-depth look at this, if you’d like.]