In the wake of unprecedented events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and a surge in Asian hate crimes, the issue of racism has once again come to the forefront. These incidents serve as a reminder of the systemic racial inequality that pervades American society, manifesting itself through poverty, racial segregation and an unjust justice system. While the US has enacted laws to combat racism, it is my belief that the existing legal system alone has limitations in addressing the issue. I agree with Hill's (1995) assertion that affirmative action, if properly conceived and implemented, could prove effective in combating racism in American society.

Joe Feagin (2001) defines structural racism as "a multitude of racist practices including the unjust accumulation of economic and political power by whites, continuing resource disparities, and the formation of white-racist ideologies, attitudes, and institutions to maintain white privilege and power" (p.16). Such practices are a reality in the racially charged American social system, deeply rooted in its social, economic, and political fabric.

Despite the Slavery Abolition Act, the US still maintained racist policies for over eight decades. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country, while the Immigration Act of 1907 blocked Japanese and Korean immigrants (Lee, 2007, p. 543). The National Origins Act of 1924 barred non-white immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Southern and Eastern Europe, by favoring white Europeans based on eugenics theory (Chishti et al., 2015). The Civil Rights Act, enacted in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 laid down the legal foundation for anti-racism. The New Immigration Act of 1965 allowed immigrants with high technology skills or family members in the US to enter the country (Portes & Rumbaut, 2014, p. 79), which has led to the multicultural society we see today. The US outlawed housing discrimination that segregated African Americans and whites in 1968 (Posner, 2020, 7:48). Although the US has seemingly embraced equality, centuries of institutional and structural racism, as well as white supremacy, have ensured that social justice for racial equality remains elusive.

The recent events during COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd illustrate the problem of structural racism once again, characterized by police viewing an African American as a criminal with no concrete evidence. The Center for Constitutional Rights (2009) analyzed NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy and noted that from 2005 to 2008, approximately 80% of total stops were of Blacks and Latinos, who make up only 25% and 28% of New York City's population, respectively (p. 5). This finding highlights the heightened risks faced by non-whites during stop-and-frisk encounters, indicating a prevalence of racial profiling rooted in institutional racism.

Asian discrimination is no exception in American society. The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the return of yellow-peril, leading whites to see Asian laborers as a threat to their social norms founded on Euro-Christian principles. Such beliefs resulted in the enactment of immigration laws that excluded Asians. Historically, the US portrayed Asians through media as "uncivilized, unclean and filthy beyond all conception" (Lee, 2017, p. 27), which perpetuated yellow-peril and reinforced a polarizing Westerner and Asian framework. Such portrayals strengthened the racial hierarchy and depicted Asians as inferior to whites.

Affirmative action has stirred up controversy in U.S. society due to its aims and effectiveness. Nonetheless, it has been significant in advancing the middle-class of African Americans (Katznelson, 2006, p.8). This policy has notably increased the number of African Americans attending top-level universities and has contributed to a high number of female African American professionals (Greenberg, 2002, p.569). If affirmative action is designed and executed correctly in the U.S., I believe it could solve inequality. Affirmative action should not only be a race-conscious policy but also designed from a diverse perspective where diversity emphasizes to enhance tolerance towards others, reduces racial stereotypes, and prejudice (Burns & Darity, 2019, p. 342). Going back to the first intention of the civil rights movement, anti-discrimination policy is strongly needed to eliminate structural racism, racial exclusion, and discrimination and achieve full civil rights for everyone.

In the U.S. society, racism has been systematically structured by law for centuries, and anti-racism movements have strived to achieve social justice, as I have mentioned above. Throughout U.S. history, there has been no exclusion or discriminational law against whites except for white supremacy. Recent events such as George Floyd's death and anti-Asian sentiments have highlighted the reality of structural and institutional racism embedded in the social, economic, and political order of the U.S. As Hill's opinion of affirmative action in her scholarship, "Whiteness as property" (1995), supports my stance on affirmative action, positive affirmative action can lead to equality for all races when executed properly according to its type and with a diverse point of view.

References

Burns, A., & Darity, W. (2019). A BLURRED CASE: The Diversity Defense for Affirmative Action in the U.S. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 16(2), 341-356. doi:10.1017/S1742058X19000262

Center for Constitutional Rights. (2009). Report: Racial Disparity in NYPD Stop and Frisks. New York: Center for Constitutional Rights. https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/ assets/Report-CCR-NYPD-Stop-and-Frisk_3.pdf

Chishti, M., Hipsman F., & Ball I. (2015). Fifty Years On, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act Continues to Reshape the United States. New York: MPI. https:/ www.migrationpolicy.org/article/fifty-years-1965-immigration-and -nationality-act- continues-reshape-united-state.

Feagin, J. R. (2001). Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations. New York: Routledge

Greenberg, Jack. (2002). Affirmative action in higher education: Confronting the condition and theory. Boston College Law Review, 43(3), 521-621.

Hall, J. (2005). The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past. The Journal of American History, 91(4), 1233-1263. doi:10.2307/3660172

Harris, C. (1995). Whiteness as property. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 276-291). The New York Press.

Katznelson, I. (2006). When Affirmative Action Was White. Poverty & Race Research Action Council. 15(2). 1-16.

Lee, E. (2007). The "Yellow Peril" and Asian Exclusion in the Americas. Pacific Historical Review, 76(4), 537-562. doi:10.1525/phr.2007.76.4.537

Lee, G. B. (2017). Dirty, Diseased and Demented: The Irish, the Chinese, and Racist Representation. Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本 跨文化. Journal of Global Cultural Studies (12). doi: 10.4000/transtexts.1011

Portes, A., & Rumbaut, R. G. (2014). Immigrant America: A Portrait. (4th ed..).

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