Making Progress
How bigotry has declined in the US
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This article was first published at the Progressive Brief.
Social justice has largely been a force for good and has erupted as a movement in recent history. Racial minorities such as African Americans have been treated as second-class citizens. Women have been thought to be inferior to their male counterparts. Homosexuals and transgender individuals have been shunned for simply being who they are.
All of these groups have experienced bigotry in the form of anything ranging from insensitive comments to brutal punishment and even execution. But we mustn’t allow history to be forgotten. As long as we remember and acknowledge what happened historically, we can continue to improve our society and ponder over what else we can attempt to improve.
Though all of these groups have faced bigotry, it is important to recognize the differences between group’s experiences.
Anti-black Racism
When one is asked about racism throughout history, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is slavery. Slavery in the US began in the year of 1619. Slave owners made an attempt to make slaves as dependent on them as they could by restricting them from reading or writing as well as reducing their movement and behavior. Many masters brutally punished those who did not obey their sexual demands and rewarded those who did.
Slave owners actually encouraged their slaves to have children. This may appear as an odd freedom that slaves were granted until one realizes that more kids equals more people; and more people equals more slaves. This is why slaves were able to raise large families who often ended up being separated and sold at the owner’s will.
On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued an emancipation proclamation that stated that
“slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion,…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Although Lincoln’s revolutionary legislation ended legal slavery, racism did not end there. There existed a dominant culture that refused to treat black Americans as equal. This culture of racism was so broad that it was entrenched into the law. Jim Crow laws that began in the 1980’s made it so that almost every aspect of daily life, schools, parks, restrooms, restaurants, and even drinking fountains were racially segregated. Even rights as fundamental as voting were denied to black Americans.
Scientific explanations began to develop in order to justify racist beliefs. In Steven Pinker’s book titled The Blank Slate, he explains that Darwin’s theory of evolution was commonly misinterpreted as an explanation of intellectual and moral progress rather than an explanation of how living things adapt to an ecological niche. This pseudoscientific use of evolutionary theory lead to the belief that non-white races were more evolved than apes but less evolved than Europeans.
Scientific racism has also lead to the idea of eugenics — controlling human breeding to make desired traits more prevalent through evolution. Decades later came laws that called for the involuntary sterilization of delinquents in multiple countries, including many states in the US. It became most prominent, however, in Germany where Nazis murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals all in the name of Social Darwinism (which Darwin himself was no fan of).
Since the election of Trump, most Americans would generally say that race relations have become worse than they were before, in part due to the president’s litany of both racially insensitive and full-on racist remarks. This is despite the significant improvement our society has seen in the last few centuries. Perhaps this piece of data isn’t a reflection of our measurable progress with respect to race relations but rather to do with the election of somebody who thrives among many of his supporters off of his racist rhetoric. But if we have made progress, what is it?
Racism has been a serious problem for a long time. But there is good news: data shows that it is on the decline. To start, the most obvious advances in the name of social justice have been the abolition of slavery and Jim Crow laws. They have all been eliminated due to the steady decline of racist views and behavior among Americans. For example, only 4% of US citizens supported inter-racial marriage in 1958. That number increased to 87% since 2017. Furthermore, racist hate crimes have fallen 48% between 1994 and 2015.
Another issue under the blanket description of ‘racism’ is that of black underrepresentation. There is no doubt that black people are not equally represented in particular professions, but there are actually many professions that they overrepresent. One clear example of this is in the National Basketball Association (NBA) where blacks make up 3/4 of ball players. And it is surely a sign of progress to discover that a majority of black Americans view racial disparities as a result not of discrimination, but of something else.
White supremacy has been noted to be a significant problem as well, particularly in the United States. Though the current president has caused an increase in bigoted attitudes among those who already held them, only 4% of citizens have positive views towards the white supremacy movement. The data paints the picture of a still ever present, but declining scene of racism in America.
Sexism
Throughout most of history, women were expected to marry and have children instead of pursuing a career. In fact, men had authority over the property and choices of their wives. They were also expected to uphold what was called ‘non-market values,’ which included friendship, love and mutual obligation. At one point, women didn’t even have the right to vote in the United States. While this was all the case, many were running around proclaiming our unique freedom and liberty as a country.
One reason that legislation to grant women the right to vote was encouraged was because race appeared to be more important that gender. If women weren’t granted this right, many worried, black men may get the right first. Even though the consequence of achieving gender equality on this front was good, the reasoning for it was terribly off.
Another area in which women are still lacking in freedoms is their reproductive rights. Though feminists have been fighting for this right for a long time, and had some success in the supreme court case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, a large number of US states have passed bills to limit their access to an abortion. Unfortunately, this is not solely a restriction of freedom either, as it can and had lead to unsafe abortions as well as unfit people being forced into parenting.
Daily life for the average woman has without doubt increased significantly in the last few centuries. To start, a majority of women in almost every recent generation say men and women are equally privileged today. Women also feel far more comfortable to pursue a career of their own. In fact, the labor force participation rate has risen from 34% to 57% since 1950 while men’s participation rate continues to decline.
Other improvements in society for gender equality includes women’s right to vote which was written into law on August 18, 1920. Abortion is now legal in all US states, which marks a huge advancement for women’s freedoms, though individual states can make restrictions. Lastly, there has been a widespread change in our culture with respect to views towards women and gender roles in society.
Homophobia
Homosexual individuals also face a variety of bigotry in the United States. Firstly, make up 17% of those targeted in a hate crime, the third highest group in the country. One example of this kind of violence from 2018 was when a 20-year-old Samuel Woodward murdered openly gay and jewish university student Blaze Bernstein, a former classmate of Woodward’s. Bernstein’s murderer appeared to have held far-right or white supremacist views which influenced his actions.
Hate crimes are not the only thing homosexual individuals often face either. Around the world, homosexuality is currently illegal in 74 countries. The punishment for homosexuality in many of these countries is life imprisonment or even death. Much of this homophobic policy is stemming from religious fundamentalism, which has always been a source for bigotry.
Interestingly, some studies have shown that homophobic people are more likely to have unconscious homosexual desires. Sigmund Freud’s list of psychological defense mechanisms have shed light on this phenomenon with what he called ‘reaction formation.’ This is the idea that when people are excessively ashamed of a trait they have they will often go beyond denial and behave in exactly the opposite way. Behaviors that manifest from this are harsh anti-homosexual attitudes which help convince themselves and perhaps others of their supposed heterosexuality.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that granted same-sex couples a constitutional right to marry. Despite the negatives that remain, it is undoubtedly so that homophobia has declined, especially in the United States along with the rest of Western society. For example, since 2004, favorability of gay marriage has risen from 43% to 75% among democrats. This number is even up 25% for republicans.
According to sociologist Mark McCormack at Brunel University, “pro-gay attitudes are now held in high esteem and homophobia is as unacceptable as racism.” Twenty years ago, there was hardly anybody in the media that was open about their homosexuality. Now, there are many gay individuals we consume the media of, such as Anderson Cooper, Graham Norton, Ellen DeGeneres, Rachel Maddow, Alan Carr, Douglas Murray, Paul O’Grady, as well as a countless number of others.
Transphobia
Gender Dysphoria by itself causes incredible discomfort to those who experience it. It is defined as a conflict between one’s biological sex and their gender identity to such a degree that it introduces significant challenges socially or occupationally. Transgender individuals, despite being 0.6% of the population, suffer from disproportionately high levels of police brutality, prejudices in the workforce, high levels of sexual harassment and high rates of hate crimes.
6% of the trans population have endured bias-motivated assault by police officers. In the workforce, 20% to 57% of transgender people report experiencing discrimination, including being fired, denied a promotion or harassed. Sexual harassment is also reported at some point in about 57% of trans folks’ lives and 22 were even murdered last year alone. All of this on top of their high rates of suicide even after medically transitioning to their desired sex.
Another problem the trans community faces at large, like all other groups discussed in this piece, is the current president’s bigotry. Barack Obama implemented policies during his presidency that made it so transgender people can serve openly. The Trump administration has since reversed this progress. The facts still remain that trans folks are fully capable, given their passing of the physical requirements that all people have, of serving in the military.
Regardless of Trump’s regressive policies, on February 26, 2018 the first transgender person has signed a contract to join the US military. Representation in media and the political sphere have improved as well, with the likes of Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, Janet Mock and Chelsea Manning being well-known people among the US population. There are many cases now in which a judge has ruled in favor of a transgender student who was prohibited from using the bathroom of their gender identity.
Two things can surely be concluded. One, we have made a lot of progress throughout recent history for minorities. The second is that we still have things to improve. Social justice gets a bad reputation for its vocal ideologues in the fringes, but it has done the country (and the world) far more good than it has set us back. And though it hasn’t solved all of society’s ills, it has certainly done a lot to reduce them and make the world a much better place for all people.
All citations can be seen at the Progressive Brief.
