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INTRODUCTION
Racism is everywhere. You can’t go anywhere in today’s society without bumping into some form of racism. Race is a social group based on the physical differences of skin tone, hair texture, and facial features. The differences contribute to our uniqueness and humanity. Because people can be grouped by any number of physical differences (height, foot size, resistance to certain diseases), race is no more significant than any other trait. But that is so far from the truth. In today’s society people of different races get abused phsycally, verbally, emotionally and so on. If someone is of a different race than you, that gives you no right to put them down, hurt them, or make them feel lesser than you, nor do they have the right to do that to you.
WHAT IS RACISM?
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English racism is defined as 1. A belief in the superiority of a particular race; predjudice based on this. . Antagonism towards another race. As stated by Sociology in Our Times racism is described as An organized set of beliefs about the innate inferiority of some racial groups, combined with the power to transform these ideas into practices that deny or exclude equaltiy of treatment on the basis of race. In the book Racism, Robert Miles quotes Wellman when he says,
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“A racist is someone who defends, protects or enhances social organization based on racial dissadvantage. It is determined by the consequences of a sentiment, not its surface qualities. White racism is what what peole do to protect the special benefits they gain by the virtue of their skin colour.” (Wellman 177, 5)
Until the 10’s Negroes were believed to be inferior to white people. They were inferior in the following ways
Culturally � Black people did not originate from the same place whites do, and their culture is different, and less accepted.
Aesthetically � whites felt, and some still do feel that they are the ‘normal’ way people should look, and blacks are different and therefore lesser than them.
Intellectually � They looked different, and acted differently, so they must not be as intellectually smart as whites.
Morally � Seeing as many of the everday acts of culture, intellect, and even appearance were different, their morals must be different, or even non existant. During this time discrimination took place against Negroes for jobs, education, and housing. Within the criminal justice system this discrimination was not considered to be morally wrong.. Discrimination is an understatement of the conditions blacks went through that included enslavement, rape, lyching, beating, murdering, unjust imprisonment and humiliation of blacks by whites that went on for hundreds of years. Those who were mistreated were also separated and excluded.This refers to the physical segregation that occurred by race in housing, employment, and public facilities for non-whites after the civil war.
In the 150’s posisibility of integration between blacks and whites became a topic of national contraversy, and differences viewed between races as a result of dissadvantage for non-whites (especially in education) that were kept in place by white bigotry. Segregation in schools, work places and public facilities were defended by whites. Naomi Zack says in her book Thinking about Race, “Integration would result in ‘miscegenation’ mixed race offspring from interracial marriage and sex.” () After the civil rights were secured for blacks in the mid 160’s they began calling themselves ‘blacks’ and ‘Afro-Americans’ instead of Negroes, and during this time the concept of racism developed. According to the textbook, Sociology in our Times there are a variety of different kinds of racism.
Redneck Racism is an unhidden type of racism. It takes it’s form in public statements regarding the inferiority of people that belong to a different racial or ethnic group. An example of redneck racism would be the white supremacist group, the Klu Klux Klan.(14)
Polite Racism is an attempt to disguise a dislike of others through behaviour that appears not to be harmful. An example of this would be discrimination in the work place, a black man not getting the job because of the colour of his skin, even though he is as skilled (or even more skilled) as the white man who got hired. (14)
Subliminal Racism involves an unintended criticism of minorities. An illustration would be Canada’s immigration policy as a form of subliminal racism. Support for racial equality is publicly affirmed but at the same time resentment is held at the idea of making room for new comers (14).
Institutionalized Racism is made up of rules, practices, and procedures that precisely and knowingly stop minorities from having equal and full involvement in society. This is carried out by a number of dominant group memebers based on the norms of immediate organization or community (15).
Systematic Racism refers to practices that have harmful impact on subordinate group members even though the practices were not orginally planned to harm anyone. An example of this would be police and fire, they have a requirement for minimum weight, height and also an educational requirement. (15)
WHY?
In order to understand racism you must understand why there is racism. The main reason why we have racism is because people want to have a sense of power and privilege over another group. Not only is this true in the human race but in most species. Everyone seems to want power, and in order to achieve that, they must defeat or overpower others. They do this by oppressing them which means to treat them cruelly, and make them fell as lesser creatures.
Oppression is starting to be familiar in society and therefore it starts to feel comfortable and morally right. This is called internalized oppression. The reason why racism is so hard to beat is because, like a virus, when you come up with a cure or answer, it has a new problem or takes a new form. People are also not educated enough to prevent racism from continually happening. There is an apparent lack of knowledge in today’s youth and even more so with the older generations. Ideas are transmitted from generation to generation (i.e. parent to child) through speech and action. If a parent is racist, than a child has a higher chance of becoming a racist person themselves because they have be constantly submitted to it,and may know, no other way. Many people these days have low self esteem, especially a person that is racist. They tend to feel bad about themselves that they will do anything to make someone else feel more terrible than they do.
The enslavement of Africans was justified by pseudo-scientific research ``proving that these people and their descendants were not really people, but child-like sub-humans. As such, they neither desired nor were worthy of equal rights. By the mid-1th century slavery became an obstacle to the unhindered capitalist development of the US and was swept away by the American Civil War. As the black slaves were transformed into wage labourers, the ideology of racism was refined to socially authorize the segregation and super-exploitation of the new, black-skinned section of the working class.
These developments in the US coincided with the colonisation of Africa and Asia by the industrialised capitalist nations. Racism was useful here too, to justify imperialist expansion and the denial of equal rights and living conditions to the non-white colonized populations. While today it is generally accepted in scientific circles that racial categorization has no biological basis, (although it is alarming to see new so-called research appearing again which reasserts the existence of racial differences), racism continues to make the categories of white and non-white very real, profoundly influencing the life destiny of the majority of the worlds population.
Racism can be changed for either the better or worse, we can look at the many sociological theories when we look at how racism can be changed.Interactionists examine how microlevel (focuses on smaller groups) contacts between people may produce either greater level of racial tolerance or increased levels of hostility. They answer the question, what happens when people from different racial or ethnic gropus come into contact with one another? According to the interactionist perspective and the “contact hypothesis” it is said that contact between people from conflicting groups can and should lead to tolerable attitudes and behaviour when certain factors are present.
The functionalist perspective focuses on the macrolevel (whole society) intergroup processes that occur between members of majority and minority groups in society. They answer the question, how do members of the subordinate racial and ethnic groups become a part of the dominant group. The functionaist theory uses assimilation which is a means by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic goups get pulled into the dominant culture. It is functional because it contributes to the stability of society by lowering differences in the group, that might result in hatred and violence. Assimilation is an aspect of the functionalist perspective, there are many levels of it including psychiological, biological, structural, and cultural stages. Cultural assimilation, also known as acculturation, is when members of an ethnic group use the dominant group traits as their own such as language, values, religion, dress, and preference of food. Structural assimilation, aslo known as integration, happens when members of a lesser racial or ethinc group get accepted by the members of the group that is dominant to them, this is done through social interaction. This starts in schools, and workplaces, and may later result in intermarriage. Biological assimilation, otherwise known as amalgamation, happens when people of different ethnic groups. Psyhological assimilation is a change in self identification racially or ethnically on the part of the individual. Another aspect of the functionalist perspective is ethnic pluralism which can be defined as the co-existence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnice groups within one society. So, instead of complete assimilation, many groups share elements of the main stream culture while remaining culturally distinct from both the dominant group and other social and ethnic groups. Also, equalitarian pluralism, or accommodation, is a situation in which ethnic groups co-exist in equality with one another. There is also segregation, or inequaliitarian pluralism present, which is when the spatial and social seperation of categories of people by race, ethnicity, class, gender, and/or religion. This exists when specific ethnic groups are set apart from the dominant group, and have unequal access to power and privilege.
The conflict perspective evaluates the economic differencesbetween the dominant group and the inferior groups. They use the question, why do some ethnic groups continue to experience inferiority after many years? Conflict theorists use internal colonialism to explain, and it is defined as a situation in which members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibily placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group. Groups that have been subjected to this usually remain in the subordinate position longer than others. Also the split market theory which is the division of the economy into two areas of employment; a primary sector, composed of higher paid (usually dominant group) workiers in more secure jobs, and a secondary sector, made up of lower paid (often subordinate gropu) workers in jobs with little security and hazardous working conditions. According to this perspective, white workers in upper job fields may use racial discrimination against nonwhites to protect their positions. This most often occurs when upper-tier workers feel threatened by lower tier workers.
SO WHAT?
Racism is considered to be morally and socially evil on grounds that people of different races are equal in human potential. Also it is morally wrong to harm others because they are racially different from those doing the harm.
Differences do exist generally between people of different racial/ethnic groups. However, in many cases, these differences are not relevant to a particular purpose. Does it matter whether a persons skin color is black, brown, yellow, white, red, or purple when the job that will be assigned that person is word processing? Do higher incidences of sickle cells have anything to do with the suitability of a person to eat at a restaurant? The answer to both is no, and therefore, using characteristics associated with race to make choices about people not associated with a particular task, job, or decision, misconstrues the true nature of the situation at hand and causes incorrect decisions to be made
Black people still get on average lower pay than whites, worse jobs than whites, fewer prospects for promotion than whites, more police harassment than whites, worse housing than whites … and the list goes on. The problem with racism is that many people dont think it is. Many live their lives not even realizing what is happening the world around them. Others know all about it, but they dont realize that they themselves, yes, themselves, are racists, and they refuse to believe it. Then they turn around and discriminate against someone elses human rights. One of the main problems with racism is that people live in racist conditions, without even seeing it. It flies right over their heads. It is present in our schools, workplaces, communities, neighbourhoods, and even our own homes. We hear a racial slur, and let it slide because it is infact just a joke. Hardly. Racist jokes are not harmless, many people think the jokes are funny, but they still hurt the people the jokes are about. Some of the worst racists are the ones who think that they are not racist and really are. Some of the worst racists are the ones who can’t understand what is happening and dont realize that many of their actions and words are racist. In their minds, they tell themselves they aren’t racist, even when they dont hire the East Indian employee who was the most qualified of the candidates. Even when the basketball team that they coach is all white. And even the time when they moved from their seat at the movie theater because of the black person next to them, and excuses come into play. No one deserves to be prejudged like that. The prejudice of people in the world is disgusting, and many people think that is the normal way to behave. Then there are those who are completely unaware of racism in the world. They walk down the streets, through the stores and working at their job, completely oblivious. These people have lived sheltered lives, or they just don’t’ believe what they are seeing If you take someone and put them in the heart of a racist area, they still wont notice the problems. They will see it with their own eyes, but it wont register in their mind. If these people dont open their eyes, they will never see what is happening, and nothing will be better. What is going to happen to the world if people dont start realizing what is happening? Will we be plunged into a time where racial tension is everywhere? Will we soon start having racial wars? Will racial violence be a normal every day occurrence? I dont know. No one could know. Unless we start taking action and helping people come to grips with the way they are we cant combat racism. People who dont see that racism is a problem are almost as bad as the racists themselves. Now, dont take that comment in the wrong way, but as long as they are unaware, racism wont stop. I am aware of racism. I am also not a racist myself. I have lived in a racist community for most of my life, thank god I havent turned out like the rest of them. There is hope for everybody.
CONCLUSION
So racism is believing that your race is superior to other races. It is calling people names, it is discrimination at work. Racism is really infact everywhere we go, in our schools, communities, workplace, and even in our homes. It started long ago, with slavery, and lots of discrimination, over the years it has lessened, but it is not completely gone. It needs to stop completely, but people refuse to educate themselves and pass their beliefs on to their children and grandchildren. Without action it will be a continuous cycle, never ending and our world will never change. Let’s stop racism, and prevent our children and our grandchildren from being subjected to this horrible practice.
WORKS CITED
Bowling, Ben (1). Racism, Ethnicity, and Criminology,
www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/rec/newsletter.html.
Kendall, Diana; Murray, Jane Lothian, and Rick Linden. Sociology in Our Times.
Canada 000.
Lewin, Julius. The Struggle for Racial Equality. London Longmans, 167.
MacDonald, Lisa. The Class Struggle To Approach To Abolishing Racism. Australia,
DSP 17.
Miles, Robert. Racism. Ed. Peter Hamilton. New York Routledge, 18.
Perey, Randall. Aesthetic Realism The Solution to Racism.
www.perey-anthropology.net/fr8let4.htm
Randall, Vernellia, R., Race, Racism and the Law, www.academic.udayton.edu/race/.
The Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Ed. Della Thompson. New York Oxford
University Press, 18.
Wright, Ian. Show Racism the Red Card, www.srtrc.org/wright.htm.
Zack, Naomi. Thinking about Race, Toronto Wadsworth, 18.
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