Residual distrust: Research present-day negative conditions or attitudes that can be traced to incidents or events of the Civil War

During the years of Civil War Southern society was penetrated with racial prejudices. And even in the XXI century the barrier between white and black people still exists.

Although sharp racial discrimination is evidently in the past, hundreds of violent acts for racial reasons are committed in many regions of theUSA.New York,BostonandChicagoachieved the highest level of racial opposition.

The main trace of the Civil War is the chronic unemployment, poverty, and high level of criminal activity mainly in black regions. After the Civil War many Afro-Americans had no chance to find a well-paid job, and many of them have chosen criminal style of life (Nitoburg, 1987). In past 20 years the rate of black criminals has rapidly increased.

Another negative condition in theUSAis the separation of black and white regions, especially in the Northern States. In the historical perspective, it began in 1915, when white people were prohibited to sell or rent houses and flats to Afro-Americans in their regions. It strengthened the opposition between white and black people. Black regions however quickly became the slums with jobless and poor inhabitants (Parley, 1987). Such physical separation of black and white people most visibly reflects traces of racism in theUSA. Nowadays black people consider a region to be ideal, if nearly 40% of Afro-Americans live there. From their side, white people feel uncomfortable if there are 10% of Afro-Americans in the neighborhood.

One more problem of modernAmericais the spread of drug-trade, robbery and murders among black people, who once have chosen such easy way of earning money. It naturally affected the attitude of white Americans to black people, who started to consider them brutal and aggressive.

All of these arguments show that modern Americans still have racist stereotypes and myths about black people, which result in negative attitude towards them and prove that there is still lack of racial harmony in theUSA.



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