Essay on Impact of Rasicm on Idenity in Ralph Ellison’s...

In society, there are many misconceptions in terms of racism. According to the merriam-webster dictionary, racism is define the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others . Many people would agree with that definition. What is racism? The normal person if asked will simply reply, not liking someone for the color of their skin. Racism from my attitude which is substantiated by historical events is a system of power .Therefore is a system of power that is used to control the world and its people. Racism was employed by Europeans to subjugate and discriminate against other groups, in particular Africans/black people. It is also a power which ran through a†¦show more content†¦My race represents my ancestors who are a part of me. To gain more insight on identity and racism, and the effect on each other, I contacted Trevor Musa who is African American and studies African American history. Mr. Musa s tated that, â€Å"Racism has many facets on how it effect ones identity and one of the most paramount being racism via media propaganda. News media and Hollywood are the two main vehicles of identity theft among African people. In Hollywood, blacks are always shown in a position of reluctant assistance or sub servant i.e. butler, helper and or slave. Apart from these sub-servant positions, news media almost always show many of us as animals and criminals of the lowest morals. Consequently, through the system of programming, constant repetitions of demoralizing images are perpetuated, and with no other source of reference to rely upon, blacks often consciously and subconsciously accept those images. Moreover some people, rather most become not only to accept those images, but many Black disassociate themselves from their race. It is as if they do not want to belong to race of â€Å"nobodies â€Å"and by default they capture the identity of the European race. One must keep in mind that racism is a system of power that is employed by White people, thus one must ponder, who owns and operates Hollywood and new media.† I agree with Trevor Musa that some blacks often tend to see themselves as invisible, because of a media sometimes infer