Racial discrimination in the United States is a social problem that had existed since the colonial era when white Americans were privileged to have socially sanctioned rights at the expense of other races in the country. The inequalities exist up to date as people of color, namely African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and others, encounter harsh treatment in different sectors (Unnever 140). Although the country has made immense achievements in trying to alleviate racism from its populace, some people seem to promote the vice, transferring it from one generation to another.
Some of the negative profiling that affects learning institutions in the country include the perception that different races have distinctive abilities of understanding. For instance, Latinos are profiled as being lazy, immoral, aggressive, and unintelligent, while African Americans are perceived as being animalistic, impoverished, dirty, ugly, and lazy, among other pervasive stereotypes (Unnever 143). On the contrary, favorable attributes are accorded white Americans, who are viewed as intelligent, beautiful, and morally upright. Educators who perceive their students’ learning abilities, participation in school activities, and overall behavior based on these stereotypes promote racial discrimination in the country. These elements translate into discriminative treatment by teachers, where white students are treated fairly at the expense of those from minority groups.
A significant effect of negative student profiling is continual social erosion. Teachers punish students disproportionately; as a result, learners of African American, Latino, and other minority descents have higher chances of being suspended from school compared to Caucasian students (Unnever 139). The bias judgments of teachers to students’ mistakes jeopardize their psychological functioning, which makes them behave in a manner that depicts the negative stereotypes attributed to them. In this regard, students from minority races engage in several social behaviors that ruin their lives due to the continuous stress they face that emanates from the people around them.
Media platforms are responsible for exacerbating negative stereotypes about African Americans and other people of color in the country. Several video clips and pictures portray young black men as physically aggressive and Latino girls as rude, among other forms of pervasive profiling (Unnever 140). These narratives continue to reinforce negative behaviors in school settings since when students are punished selectively by teachers based on the stereotypical ideas, it provokes violence and other social mayhems. On the same note, since students from minority groups feel insecure due to negative profiling, they are tempted to engage in activities that make them relevant and prominent in society (Unnever 140). However, some of these activities are socially unethical, such as participating in drug and substance abuse, which ruins their lives further. Therefore, school management and other stakeholders need to discourage people from buying the harmful stereotypical ideologies that media platforms promote to achieve a racism-free society.
Racism comes along with various adverse effects in society. Although the aspect of some races perceiving themselves as superior to others was planted in ancient times and enforced during the slave trade period, the U.S. government should formulate strategies of combating the vice to enhance equality in the country. On the same note, different stakeholders need to focus on addressing the causes of racial discrimination in schools to reduce the challenges it causes to students and future generations. The alleviation of racial bias in learning institutions enhances equality and overall student performance.