Rim MekonnenRacism in the twenty-first century1. Throughout U.S. history, whites have dominated society by enacting laws that limited the power of minorities such as Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans. For hundreds of years, whites have controlled minorities using laws and mind games to ensure that these minorities never rose up to threaten their control. In the 1950s and 1960s, Congress passed laws to protect the civil rights of minorities, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on “race, color, or religion” in the workforce. Although many people would say that racism ended decades ago, in the Indiana Law Journal's “Piercing the Brilliant Veil: Two Stories of American Racism,” Deborah Jones Merritt argues that two stories of racism exist in our society. Deborah Jones Merritt believes there are two stories of racism in society. One is one in which racism has been eradicated and minorities occupy high positions. In the other, minorities live in poverty, have higher rates of going to prison, and fewer chances of finding work than their white counterparts with identical qualifications. The above story shows the disadvantages minorities face both in schools and in society, where whites are more likely to receive financial and academic aid. The author believes that both stories are true: the first demonstrates America's dedication to social reform while the second shows the existence of racial discrimination, in which minority children grow up. These stories are significant because the existence of affirmative action where there is no racism hurts both whites and minorities, but on the other hand, affirmative action recognizes the fact that whites receive better… mid-paper…more comfortable working with other minorities than whites.5. Because of my experiences as a minority, I believe Merritt described the difficulties that many minorities face even today in the United States. It has shown that minorities are treated differently in the workforce, the education system, and the healthcare system. At school, minority children face opposition and discrimination, which develop over the years and reinforce their feelings of inferiority over the years. The perfect solution suggested by the author uses affirmative action programs to recognize the difficulties minority students face and allows white students to interact with them and learn more about them. Eradicating affirmative action would allow white students to blame their preference for white lab partners on, for example, African American students' lack of competence.