The Conflict Theory
Films, web series and TV series are often considered the reflection of current society (Komalawati 2018). These are very effective tools for representing various social-political, cultural, and other issues. Multiple theories and models have been used to explain the roles of media representation of issues and their impact (Hamil 2021). New Amsterdam is one such popular TV and web series that often tries to explain various issues from the perspective of the medical industry. This series is based on the book Twelve patient: Life and Death at Bellevue hospital. The series revolves around the day-to-day activities of the hospital and the doctors. The show was first premiered on September 25th 2018, on NBC and is quite a popular American TV series. The show is available on various OTT platforms. The series had been a quite popular TV series among the American audience as well as on the international platform. The season has been running for Four Seasons each season has an average of 20 episodes. However, this paper will discuss these shows’ take on systematic racism by Dr Max Godwin.
New Amsterdam season three, episode six begins with the statement by Max where he declares his agenda of fighting systematic racism within the hospital. Max is the medical director of the hospital. This season explores Max’s venture to create the hospital a better place and explores various characters’ family problems and other regular episodes of the hospital. This episode explodes over the fact that how systematic racism has crept within this society and has been a part of it without even anyone acknowledging it (Cambra-Badii, Guardiola & Baños, 2018). This show explores how Max tries to find everything, but himself gets involved in the complete situation as he finds himself to be a white male with a lot of privileges; hence he hands over his duty as the medical director to Dr Sharpe. Max deems that this systematic racism at Amsterdam hospital is one of the key problems that has made this workplace not so friendly for many of the doctors working there (Center2020). In previous episodes of this show, it has been seen that Max tries to approach systematic racism through his optimism and his idealism to make this situation much simpler, but as he ventures deep, it has been found that the situation is much more complex than he had deemed to be. Systematic racism, known as institutional racism, is basically the form of racism that is engraved and institutionalized within the laws and regulations of the society and the organization (Payne & Hannay,2021). This systematic racism is a part and parcel of society and often goes unnoticed or unacknowledged by various individuals. This kind of racism, in particular, is quite different from individual racism and discrimination as this kind of racism often gets the protection of the law itself. For example, as shown in the show, Max explores various stories of various people all across the hospital and finds that the black people are often paid less than the white counterparts, the female surgeons are often considered less efficient, and the male colleagues and the black patient is asked for a drug test even if she claims that she is suffering from sickle cell anaemia. The manifestation of systematic racism could have occurred through different systems such as the criminal justice system, employment, housing, health care, even in education and political representation (Gravlee, 2020). As it could be seen in the case of indigenous people, say of Canada, who often fall behind the Canadian citizens with European ancestry. Most of the indigenous Canadian peoples face a lower number of promotions in their workplace with a much higher rate of unemployment. As a matter of fact, the number of school graduates is also very low compared to their Non-indigenous counterparts (Aaron & Stanford,2021).
The Cultural Theory Of Racism
After analyzing the issues shown in the TV series as well as understanding the actual impact, the systematic racism thesis that has been formulated is that even though the laws claim that equality has been provided to all but systematic racism is the most popular yet and acknowledged form of racism that is being followed event today.
The race conflict approach could be defined as a perspective that focuses on the differences, inequalities, and conflicts between different racial groups and ethnic categories. This is the case of Canada between the Canadian indigenous group and the non-indigenous people. Even though through common law, it could be seen that each and every individual land of Canada has an equal opportunity for all the government and other public resources. However, most of the indigenous groups of people in Canada suffer from fewer opportunities. Most of the institutions based in Canada are mainly based on European cultural norms. As the aboriginals and other Canadian indigenous peoples uh the minorities within the states, they are devastatingly affected by this systematic discrimination. Most of the indigenous people are very left accustomed to the European cultural forms, which leads to a negative cycle in education and employment. The people from European ancestry are quite well customed with the cultural norms and tradition load within various institutions throughout Canada, including the governance, justice, and education systems that provide the non-indigenous people with an undue advantage over their indigenous counterparts.
As it could be seen that the organization does not discriminate in terms of recruitment or in terms of opportunities provided to their employees (Cénat, 2020). However, their adaptation of European cultural norms creates institutionalized discrimination between the indigenous and non indigenous people as the European cultural norms get imposed over them, resulting in poor performance resulting in too poor promotion and employment. The second form of institutional discrimination that comes into the picture is Canada’s mainstream education (Dryden & Nnorom,2021). The mainstream education in Canada is mainly based on English written traditions which for the indigenous as well as the Indian community is a secondary language; therefore, it becomes very difficult for the individuals to cope and understand this formal language. Most of the parents of the native indigenous people, along with the Indian parents, often lack the proper education to support their children in this venture. On the contrary, the Canadian those for human rights entitled each individual to have equal opportunities irrespective of their place of origin, gender, place of work, sexual orientation, sexual preference, skin color, race, and ethnicity. Yet, the popular cultures and other forms that are being followed within the country make it difficult for individuals to sustain themselves.
As the education system popularizes the European cultures and manners, the indigenous group of people within Canada and all across the globe have often felt that they have been ostracized due to the manners and attitudes, speech and other various factors as well as it has been represented in the New Amsterdam series that the individuals were imposed upon the foreman white cultures being followed within the medical facility (Lopez, 2020). Today as a nation routinely ranks in the top three of the human development index of The United nations, yet quite contradictory to this report, a huge difference between the medical facilities being provided to the aboriginals plus the non-native Canadians could be identified. Most of the aboriginals have seven years less life expectancy than their other counterparts and have twice as much as infant mortality rate. This has been the same in political representation by the aboriginals and indigenous people. He mentioned that many have argued that human right and divorce within the country has further strengthened the population’s stands against discrimination, but in reality, the political stances taken up by the government has resulted in the prejudices and racism being more concealed and engraved within the law rather than eliminating it completely. And in some cases, it has been more engraved within the systems of Canada.
Cultural racism is another approach towards racism where every institution has been considered equal by the law, but the cultural differences make it discriminatory for individuals, especially the binary groups. This theory of racism is quite a prevalent farm of systematic racism. This form of racism differentiates the cultural minority based on a particular race and their culture. As mentioned in the above section, the cultural differences between the aboriginals and the non-aboriginals are due to their cultural difference. As far as the laws and regulations are concerned, one of the major cultural differences that could be seen and promoted by the law themselves is the acceptance of the European culture and traditions as the common culture of the entire Canada. One such example of this political acceptance is the Indian act which remains one of the most discriminatory laws of Canada (Sayers, 2021). According to this law, the people with European ancestry are considered to be First Nation citizens who add treated in a different manner than the civil rights of the other Canadian citizens.
Another such example where racism could be found in Canada is the recent referendum conducted in British Columbia where the government was asking for their choice and opinion to decide on the mandates for the various treatizes on the Indian minority of the country. Similarly, based on the cultural differences between the Chinese and the Canadians, the legislation of the country passed the Chinese immigration act of 1885 rich levied a tax of $50 on each Chinese immigrating to Canada (Chen, 2020). This tax was known as a head tax, and the rate increased every year till 1904, where the tax was $500, which was slightly reduced in 2006 to $490 in 2006. One of the recent cases of 2020 was the death of Joyce, where the Canadian Prime Minister himself recognized the case of systematic racism (Tirmizey, 2021).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it has been clarified that systematic racism is a very common form of racism prevalent throughout the world, and it’s engraved and embedded within the barriers institutions and organizations across the world. There have been various laws and regulations that, on the upper hand, may seem very innocent and non-discriminatory, but in reality, they have a significant amount of discrimination present with them. The examples such as the anti-Chinese immigration laws and the Indian act, and the cultural racism that is being followed within the country have been some serious examples of systematic discrimination. The joyous case has also been an example of systematic discrimination within the country.
Reference
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