There have been systematic comparative race relations in Latin America and United States since emancipation. Most scholars have captured the view that race operated differently in 1950s among the “Anglo-Saxon” and “Latin”. For example, reference has been made to the favorable impressions that were made by the Brazil race relations and the fact that Brazil has been considered as one of the few countries that have achieved race democracy. Whereas rigid forms of racial segregation are characterized by a rigid color-line in most race-mixed nations, scholars have been arguing about these characterizations since 1960s (Sanderson, 2013). However, the problem of race relations in America goes beyond color line to include ethnocentrism, sectarianism, imperialism, colonialism, fascism, communism and nationalism.

According to W. E. B. Du Bois, an African American activist, states that the world is divided by color. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, he explained that the American slaves and their descendants believed that the problem of color-line would be a problem of the twentieth century (Bois, 2008). Apart from the racial segregation that was the dominant form of discrimination in the early 1960s in America, the African-Americans have been in constant conflicts with the whites based on ethnocentrism. For example, the 1998 film Mississippi Burning by Alan Parker showed ethnocentrism was the culprit that led to racism between the whites the black after the murder of three Civil Rights workers in Mississippi. The three workers were killed by Ku Klux Klan after they had planned to open a clinic for the black people. Ethnocentrism has been defined as the tendency of people to judge other cultures relative to their behavior, religion, customs and beliefs (Sanderson, 2013). For instance, in the film, there was Anderson expressed prejudice against the blacks when he told his father to destroy the mule that was owned by a successful black farmer (Parker, 1988). In the twentieth century, the problem of ethnocentrism still exists in America. As Sanderson (2013) explains, it is unfortunate that most Americans believe that they are superior to other ethnic groups in other countries based on the idea that United States is wealthy compared to other countries.

There are other forms of race relations that can be identified in other historical regimes. For example, the film Lumumba which was shot in Congo after the end of the Belgium colonialism, revealed fascism as the dominant theme in the story. Fascism can be referred as government system of dictatorship that uses power, force and oppression to control the lives of those who try to disagree with it (Sanderson, 2013). In the film, the story revolves around Patrice Lumumba, a democratically elected Prime Minister who was assassinated by his comrades so that the he would stop opposing the Western world’s plunder of Congo’s minerals. Lumumba was eliminated because he opposed the dictatorship of the Western word through the African leaders who were perpetrators (Peck, 2000). However, Congo has been ruled under dictatorship since then, leading to deaths from those who continue to oppose the powerful leaders.

Grace Lee Boggs in her film, American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, challenges the new generation to abandon the old assumption of labor, power and Black Civil Rights Movement and redefine American revolution in the modern life. Boggs believes that America can address race issues through social justice activism whereby the white people will seek equality with the black people (Lee, Libresco & Wilkin, 2013).

References

Bois, W. E. B. D. (2008). The Souls of Black Folk. Rockville, Maryland: Arc Manor LLC

Lee, G., Libresco, C., & Wilkin, A. (2013). American Revolutionary: The Evolution Of Grace

Lee Boggs. New York, NY: Asian American Media

Parker, A. (1988). Mississippi Burning. United States: Orion Pictures

Peck, R. (2000). Lumumba. France: Cannes Film

Sanderson, S.K. (2013). Sociological Worlds: Comparative and Historical Readings on Society.

New York, NY: Routledge

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