RACIAL ISSUES

  1. Racism impedes human potential and social progress.
    (Racial Injustice)
    https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/10/racism-and-mental-health
    “Racism and racial discrimination adversely affect mental health, producing depression, anxiety, and heightened psychological stress in those who experience it.”
    “Chronic emotional stress is known to have negative physical and mental health effects. Racism and racial discrimination create a unique environment of pervasive, additional stress for people of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.2These repeated traumatic interactions can result in reduced self-esteem and internalized hatred as they’re forced into conservative and apologetic thinking.”
    https://theconversation.com/discrimination-is-bad-for-your-health-and-your-kids-too-36054
    “During a conference on racism led by the Missouri Psychiatric Association, Marva Robinson, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist and president of the St. Louis Association of Black Psychologists, shared her findings on mental health in the African-American community. Robinson led a study on the stress levels in Ferguson, Missouri, after the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014. Thirty-four percent of the community and 14 percent of police officers met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as defined by the DSM-5. About 7.8 percent of people meet the criteria for PTSD nationwide.4”
    “In recent years, there has been a growing amount of research highlighting the effects of racial discrimination on not only mental health but also physical health. Discrimination may influence physical health through changes in stress physiology functioning.”
    “As an example, in African-Americans experiencing racism has been associated with higher evening cortisol levels, which are considered unhealthy. Similarly, a study among Hispanic youth found that racism experience was associated with higher cortisol levels across the day.”
    “Cortisol and other hormones in the stress physiology system are important for maintaining immune, reproductive and cardiovascular health. Therefore changes in this system as a result of discrimination experience can adversely affect everything from your body’s ability to fight infection to your ability to become pregnant.”
    “The quantity of evidence supporting the relationship between discrimination and physical health is staggering. And yet discrimination may have even greater impacts than was initially recognized.”
    file:///Users/tomflanagan/Downloads/The%20effects%20of%20racism%20in%20schools%20(1).pdf
    Above link in from the Department of Education WA 2010
    “Racism in schools hurts both individuals and the learning and working environment. It generates tensions that distort cultural understanding and narrow the educational experiences of all students. It affects: • Educational outcomes • Individual happiness and self confidence • School climate • Cultural identity • School-community relations • Student behaviours”
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27571526
    A recent study from Northwestern University corroborates Agostini’s experience, suggesting that the stress of racial discrimination may partly explain the persistent gaps in academic performance between some nonwhite students, mainly black and Latino youth, and their white counterparts. The team of researchers found that the physiological response to race-based stressors—be it perceived racial prejudice, or the drive to outperform negative stereotypes—leads the body to pump out more stress hormones in adolescents from traditionally marginalized groups. This biological reaction to race-based stress is compounded by the psychological response to discrimination or the coping mechanisms youngsters develop to lessen the distress. What emerges is a picture of black and Latino students whose concentration, motivation, and, ultimately, learning is impaired by unintended and overt racism.

  2. Public schools in America should provide a quality education for all regardless of skin color.

  3. Categorizing people by race creates unproductive social consequences.
    (Racial Injustice)
    https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/Racism-and-Its-Effect-on-Society
    “Racism causes tremendous moral, cultural, and economic suffering to a country. When the seeds of hatred and ethnocentrism are planted and fostered in society, it negatively affects every area of life.”
    “Racism does not allow for a collective contribution of its citizens, which is a critical component of a country’s development and success. If a class of people is not allowed to be educated, they cannot make important contributions to society in technological, economical, and medical arenas. The denial of quality education to certain groups of people only serves to obstruct the economic progress of a nation.”
    "Segregationist policy taxes all citizens not only on a financial level but on a civil, mental, and emotional level with reduced property values, a strain on community relations, tension and violence, depression and anxiety, the desperation of being deprived of the most basic of needs, the threat of arrest and conviction, and the confusion of changing law in rapid succession.”
    “If a class of people is not allowed to participate culturally, we fail to understand and appreciate our differences and similarities. We become increasingly ethnocentric. We fail to develop socially, unable to get along with our fellow man.”
    “Racism destroys our morality. No matter what a person’s culture or religious belief, racism is based on hypocrisy. To illustrate this point, the Christians have a commandment, issued by Jesus, to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Most religions have similar philosophies governing their social morality. Yet, there is the hypocrisy in going out into the night to burn crosses or participating in hate crimes. Racism is powerful enough to undermine their Golden Rule and turn it upside down.”
    http://time.com/3843203/racism-is-poisoning-our-society/
    “Racism is complicated, and has an individual aspect of prejudice. But even worse is the reality that generations of racist attitudes are now woven into our systems and institutions like poisonous threads, hurting us all. When our election laws begin again to systematically make it harder for African Americans to vote; when police forces protect and defend some people less than others and are not held accountable; when schools and jobs are routinely of lower quality in areas where people of color live; and when white people don’t know or care, then we have a system that perpetuates racism whether the people in it intend to be racist or not.”

  4. Elimination of racism is good for a strong America.

  5. Elimination of racism will help grow our economy.
    (Racial Injustice)
    https://www.vox.com/2015/4/13/8360789/racism-sexism-productivity-economy
    Researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford's business schools have found that up to one-fifth of the labor force's productivity growth between 1960 and 2008 came from simply making it easier for women and minorities to get better jobs.
    Eliminating racism and sexism would boost US workers' output by 10 percent or more
    The researchers concluded that 15 to 20 percent of the productivity growth per worker in the US economy since 1960 has been due to the decline of barriers to employment like discrimination and systemic inequality. 
    Source….Measuring America: How Economic Growth Came to Define American Greatness in the Late Twentieth Century by Andrew L. Yarrow
    The Economic Costs of Racial Discrimination, which claimed that eliminating racism would raise GNP by 3.2 percent
    https://theconversation.com/how-racism-and-a-lack-of-diversity-can-harm-productivity-in-our-workplaces-73119
    A review of multiple studies indicates exposure to racism is detrimental to performance. This is due to its impact on job attitudes, mental and physical health, as well as organisational behaviour. Research also indicates that, by inflicting job stress, racism can reduce productivity.
    https://www.salon.com/2013/03/01/how_racism_and_sexism_are_net_drains_on_the_u_s_economy_partner/
    Discrimination isn’t just an insult to our most basic notions of fairness. It also costs us money, because those who are discriminated against are unable to make the best use of their talents. This not only hurts them, it hurts us all, as some of our best and brightest players are, in essence, sidelined, unable to make their full contributions to our economy.

  6. A patriotic America is a melting pot of all colors.

  7. Opportunity for all Americans rests on being color blind.