Untold History : Critique of Joe Feagins, Racist America

In Chapter one, “Systemic Racism”, Feagin argues that the U.S. is rooted and planted off racism. The U.S. laid the foundation for a society systemically and systematically racist. Intrinsically this system was to benefit “transplanted” European immigrants and ensure them means of wealth through white privilege

In concurrence with Mr. Feagin, I contend that other non-black groups also benefit from black burdens. Other groups such as Latinos, Asians, and others benefit from a foundation slavery already set. Ethiopia’s life expectancy for men and women is at fifty years, while France’s life expectancy is seventy-eight years. That is a twenty-eight year gap between living expectancy. The living conditions and standard of living based on race is blatantly prevalent in this case. Whites benefit in almost all walks of life based on early racial formation in colonial America. Blacks carry burdens concerning their health and their economic mobility in a society designed for whites to succeed.

Feagin brought up an extremely important point in this chapter that I think many scholars don’t address. Feagin elaborates on the negative images and stigmas of blacks and how these images shape and mold whites and non-white views towards blacks. He conveys the influence these attitudes emerge and how they directly correlate with the enforcement of these racist ideals.

I would strongly agree with Feagin here. Blacks have produced the most, have worked the longest, have endured the most pain, and yet are still at the bottom of the political, social, and economic totem pole. Whites have always singled out those closer to them as a tactic to divide and conquer on these grounds (light vs.: dark etc...). The lighter you are among any “minority” group the more privileges allocated to you, the more acceptances in society you are, and so on. White’s supremacy and western culture has influenced all peoples. Even in the black culture, if you posses more Caucasoid or white features, you’re seen as better and looked up to more. A colorblind society is not a true society but a false one. You can’t just erase the racist psyche implanted in American individuals, because some are not even conscious. The black images, the racist attitudes will not just go away because you say so.

Feagin enters and in-depth look into the racial ideology of whites and the social force driving this ideology. I agree with Feagin once again. From the “separate but equal” implementation, to the Black Codes and Jim Crowism, whites have always tried to decorate racism under new names and programs. As time past, racism has been manipulated to accompany these times. Never has the root of racism been attacked, rather the branches have been acknowledged. Whites use western culture to measure human progress. In any collegiate atmosphere, whites will propose that the Greeks were the first to establish what they call civilization. Whites are the newest to the planet but supposedly are the first to do everything. We know of Nubia (present day Ethiopia) long before Greece was even founded, Egypt in northern Africa which had flourished long before the Minoans (early inhabitants of Greece) came to be. Africa was the resource for knowledge to the known world at that time. Once they recognized this, whites then proclaimed the peoples of those lands (Egypt, and yes even Nubia) as white. Whites holdfast to this thought of western superiority and internalize it.

In Chapter eight, “Antiracist Strategies and Solutions”, Feagin argues “the eradication of systemic racism requires more than removing inequalities and disparities in existing institutions….full eradication of racism will eventually require the uprooting and replacement of the existing hierarchy of racialized power”. Essentially, Feagin argues that you can cut down the branches of a tree, but the branches will still grow; one has to uproot the tree in order to eliminate

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