Racial Discrimination
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The Social Issues of the Past to Today:
Racial Discrimination in Cleveland
Allison McCann
School of Communications, Cleveland State University
UST 202: Cleveland: The African-American Experience
Professor Michael Paquet
February 22, 2021!
Racial Discrimination
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Abstract
Looking into the racial discrimination in the city of Cleveland is not as simple as looking
into the country’s past as a whole. Geographically, the circumstances of racism differ by the
people who live in a given region. Even something as obscure as behavioral differences by
physical region make the racial situations different from each other. The difference is not limited
to behavioral differences either. The economic and wealth situations differ from city to city as
well, and racial discrimination amplifies those differences even further.
Keywords: discrimination, African American, Cleveland!
Racial Discrimination
!3
The Social Issues of the Past to Today:
Racial Discrimination in Cleveland
Cleveland’s history of racial discrimination is unique rather than what is expected. The
entire history is based on religious immigrants planting their roots in the city and creating the
concept of religion and culture being tied together. This culture was treated as not only sacred to
its people whom it belonged to but as power over other immigrant cultures. The city was first
dominated by white Protestant Anglo-Americans from England. They established social norms
which in their eyes, all immigrants following after them would have to become accustomed to. A
recurring theme in Cleveland’s history, the immigrants wanted to retain as much of their own
language and culture as they possibly could. When it came time for African Americans to settle
