Obama Election: Increased Racism or Divided America? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Last Friday we happened to converse with my friend Sarah about one of the hotly debated topics in America; the topic concerns whether the election of President Obama increased racism in America or did it reduced.

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According to Sarah, the election of President Obama increased racism majorly in Western African countries. She argues that President Obama left Americans more racially divided than ever. His approach to America seems to be very different from the majority of Americans. Sarah believes that Obama thought of the United States of America more than a land of opportunity or hope. When he thinks of America, he views as a place where racist white Christian Fundamentalists originated from, did genocide against Native Americans, imprisoned and divided black people, deprived women, minorities, and, gays their rights, and, employed capitalism and a fixed legal structure to oppress poor individuals for decades. According to Sarah President Obama, the believed this was persistent nowadays. Hence, Obama assumed an approach that aimed at eradication of what he saw as the institutionalized, structural, and, discrimination, which defines America. In the process he tends to accuse white of 'white privileges' having an upper hand of oppressing minorities, blaming salary differences between men and women on discrimination, and, molding Islamic radicalism as a genuine response to discrimination. Sarah points that this approach has resulted into two consequences; firstly, it caused the accused victims of the apparent discrimination to become brighter, violent, and, to form demands and not willing to participate in dialogues because their sense of victimhood increased. Secondly, it causes the accused perpetrators of the perceived discrimination to feel unfairly responsible for problems that are not their mistake, hence less willing to participate in dialogue with individuals who are willing to do nothing but blame them of offense.

While according to me election of President Obama reduced the racism gap in America. Election of Obama was a symbol that indicates that the white no longer discriminates black people. In the past, it was believed that high social class was meant for only the rich affluent white people, whereas second class was for the black and there was single day in history of America a black had ever joined the ruling class due to racial discrimination, but by the fact that Obama was given a chance, it illustrates that racial discrimination is smoothly lessening in the U.S.

Reflection

After, a few hours later after the conversation, I search views on the internet regarding the matter. From a reliable source, I learned that racism since 2008 had upsurged by 51% since the Obama regime. This fact made reconsiders the view of Sarah. All Obama was doing was to try to create uniformity in the U.S. This created a false notion that there is uniformity in progress and things changed in one big step. Obama did not consider an approach that would have created a friendly atmosphere to dialogue and negotiation of two sides. Instead, he placed accused of white; hence, they developed to become more hostile.

In the process of inquiring the validity of the opposing view, I felt was challenged to move from my comfort zone and adapt flexibility and adaptableness. The process increased my thinking ability. In my mind, I gave an equal chance to the claim Sarah presented, and I presented. I weighed the two using clear and precise logic and in the process, I released somehow her point was making sense, but I disagreed with her point that the accused criminals felt unfairly accountable for the offense. An inquiry orientation is a respectful process, which challenges the status quo, sparks creativity, and, encourages exploration (Llewellyn, 2013). My viewpoint was changed due to lack of a rigid proof, I was arguing from an unverified assumption, which was contradicting the actual state of racism in the U.S.

Lesson Learned

Removing the attitude that I cannot be wrong and viewing myself as always correct was the obstacle that I struggle to remove in my mind to allow room to new ideas. The urge for awareness and desire to know why Sarah was opposing the topic established a path to agree to view her claims. In the process of accepting my friend point of argument, I learned that dialogue should not be comfortable. It needs to make participants feel vulnerable to change your limitations and arguments of others. Dialogue is meant to offer a chance to learn through inquiry and disclosure without an abrupt intent to push towards a decision, which may event as the process of dialogue, commences.

References

Llewellyn, D. (2013). Teaching high school science through inquiry and argumentation. Corwin Press. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bks4DQAAQBAJ&o