Project Proposal

Within the world today, there are many individuals who wish to promote the idea that man is inherently good. It is this veil of ignorance that we are shrouded in that leads us susceptible to disappointment and failure. Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, our country has made some progress in the realm of race relations but we still have not come as far as we would like to think. Our country tells another story with one major flaw—it lacks truth. We are told that America is the land of opportunity and that those who are racially intolerant are a part of the fringe culture. On the contrary, the vocally intolerant might be a part of the fringe culture but at the end of the day, racism is still alive and well in our country. It has merely undergone a transformation into a newer, more concealed form.

Even as an individual coming from a vastly liberal community, I was able to see the prevalence of racism within my surroundings. As a young child, I would be punished almost daily in school because of the fact that I had fought someone who made a remark about my ethnicity. Going back even further, individuals shunned my mother and offered her money for an abortion so she wouldn’t have to have what they called, a “nigger baby.” I know that racism is still a reality within this great country of our’s. Though it may be “incovenient” to realize that we have so much farther to go in an effort to put such racist ignorance to rest, we must find a way to deliver ourselves from repeating the same careless mistakes we’ve made in the past.

The disaster known as Hurricane Katrina brought the issue of race back to the forefront as we were forced to question if one’s ethnicity had anything to do with it. Recently, race has become an even greater issue as presidential hopeful Barack Obama campaigns across the country under racial dissent so strong that CBS News was forced to remove the ability to comment on any Obama related stories. Over the course of the past few years, it has become more and more apparent that race relations still have a long way to go. As someone who has been shunned due to the color of their skin, I feel an overpowering connection with this ever so controversial topic. Through my research, I hope to address many questions. First of all, I would like to discover where this racism stems from. Secondly, I would like to discover if instances of racism are as prevalent as they were in the past. Thirdly, I hope to discover how I, my classmates, and the rest of the world can stand up against bigotry and intolerance.