Question

How far do you think the United States has come since the Jim Crow era? To what extent does racism and discrimination still exist in this country?

Answer 1

Whoa, this is a super interesting question! Alright, so I think we have definitely made progress. Since the Jim Crow era, segregation has been made completely illegal in the southern part of the U.S. and across the country. When you compare race relations to the Jim Crow era to race relations in the 2010s, we have definitely come a long way. However, that's not to say that racism and discrimination doesn't exist -- because it obviously still does in our society today. And honestly, I don't believe it will ever go away. Many forms of discrimination exists in the U.S. today, whether it's religious discrimination (hate crimes against Muslims and/or Jews), LGBT discrimination, and of course, racial discrimination (police brutality, etc.) Though I do believe we have made a lot of progress, it's not enough, and there are still many things that need to change.

Answer 2

Racism has evolved more than anything. The unfortunate truth is that America was built on racism, as white settlers stripped indigenous peoples of their humanity, homes, and rights in general. Modern racism is often more subtle than its ancestor, taking the form of jokes and jabs - to laugh at these jokes is to give power to those who do mean people of color harm. 

The fortunate thing is that people of color have room to fight back now. BLM is a movement that specifically battles police brutality (another form of modern racism, as many of its victims are, you guessed it, nonwhite.) We protest ICE, which arrests & deports nonwhite immigrants whether they are "legal" or "illegal".

So, in short, modern racism tends to be a subtle, creeping machine. It manifests in jokes as much as it does in government-sanctioned violence. It's not as obvious as it once was, but it's just as brutal. As a country, we still suffer from the aftershocks of slavery & the Trail of Tears & Jim Crow laws & every other racist invention of the 17 and 1800s. Hope this helped!