The alien discrimination is a signof the longevity of discrimination in America and also in South Africa. In over20 years in the film’s timeline, the condition of the aliens is horrible. Acommon misconception is that discrimination ended with the death of the JimCrow era. The belief that Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy wereprogenitors of the death of racism is exactly the reason racism slips throughthe cracks today.
Shaila Dewan writes “In each of the study’s 8,000 tests, onewhite and one minority tester of the same gender and aged, posing as equallywell-qualified renters or buyers, visited the same housing provider oragent…the white tester was usually favored” (Dewan). This subdued racism isdetrimental to hardworking men and women who are just trying to make their ownversion of the American Dream a reality. Dewan describes this type of racism as”door-slamming,” an apt term for having a door slammed both literally andfiguratively on an individual or a family. Another instance of discriminationin the current societal climate can be found with sentencing for crimes. TheU.
S Sentencing Commission indicates that “African-American men serve longersentences than white men for the same crime” (King). King further states “theracial disparity can’t be accounted for by whether an offender has a history ofviolence” (King). The same crime being committed by a black man and a white manwill result in the former receiving a noticeably longer sentence than thelatter regardless of prior history. Considering the United States has one ofthe highest incarceration rates in the world, it is not surprising why thathappens given the information from this new article. These studies show thatdiscrimination is not something that can be changed with policy. It is oftenincredibly difficult to identify racism and discrimination but when it’sidentified it can be easily passed off by using excuses.
