Gender and Race

Posted by Samanta Woods on October 9th, 2019

Gender and race equality are contemporary issues that affect social integration, phenomena that caught the interest of the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Kenneth Clark, Fred Korematsu, and Harvey Milk in their bid to promote co-existence despite the inherent differences.

Kenneth Clark, a Black American, in the twentieth century, is renowned for his activism against racial inequalities, especially in the education sector. Clark wrote papers, and his endeavors were known to play a pivotal role in ending formal racial segregation in public schools after the declaration by the U.S. Supreme Court. This paper was as a result of a test, which alongside his wife, Clark came up with a “test doll,” for which he is widely acknowledged. He used these dolls to demonstrate racial discrimination to which the Blacks were being subjected. He offered the dolls to children from different backgrounds and communities in the U.S. and asked them which doll, black or white, they would prefer to the other. In this study, it was perceived that the white dolls were more preferred to the black ones.

Katherine Hepburn, an American actress celebrated for her efforts against gender discrimination, had an open attitude as she was regularly observed to go against the social expectations of a woman by doing what the society considered inappropriate for female. This can be seen in her character, generally perceived as being a tomboy due to her short haircut that was male-like and the wearing of trousers even before it had become a social tendency. She campaigned for the freedom of women in the twentieth century to have freedom of free will and anchored them in doing whatever they desired. In addition, winning her Grammy awards in the film industry boosted her status and her social regard from most people after events of negative popularity of being regarded as a bad influence in the film industry. The discrimination of women and the marginalization of women by being publicly brave and doing as she pleased despite how the society regarded women of her time. Subsequently, women started having a voice and could do as they pleased.

Fred Korematsu is also a public icon, remembered for his fight for liberty in civil affairs and was known to challenge the Supreme Court in restricting of liberties as stated by the law. He is quoted lamenting that it was unheard of whereby it had not happened before, and it would not see the light of day then. He criticized the detaining and imprisoning of suspects in the Guantanamo prisons. He further mobilized people to hold public demonstrations urging them that change could be achieved by a single effort.

Harvey Milk on his end is well known for his gay campaigns that fought for public awareness and acceptance of the gays. He has led a normal private life until the older age when he declared his sexual orientation as being gay prompting the eruption of the gay movement. In his endeavor to bring equality and legalize homosexuality, he ran for public office three unsuccessful times until the fourth time when he got elected as a member of the board of supervisors of San Francisco. He is widely acknowledged as being able to counter sexual discrimination and due to persistence, he eventually held office as the first gay person in the public domain. Milk is also known to have campaigned for childcare alongside his view on gay matters.

A year after being elected, Harvey Milk was assassinated by anti-gay activists. His approach to counter gender and gay discrimination was at its best when he held a public office fighting for the rights of the gay community in an open platform rather than keeping low and private. This method proved fruitful as evidenced by the remarkable strides he made in regard to the gayism by representing them at the table of policy makers. On the other hand, the method employed by Korematsu seems to have worked best since at the moment it was acknowledged that, civil rights were essential making his method successful by engaging in legal battles through the Supreme Court. Consequently, he made sure that the matter was recognized by the law.

The article was prepred by a professional writer from top resume fonts service - Samanta Woods.