preview

Does Racism Still Exist

Decent Essays

While it is true that we as a society have come a long way since slavery – there is no doubt that racism still exists, affecting both certain individuals and the wider community. Surely, more and more people are being informed about the consequences and issues of modern day racism, and although there has been a decrease in reported hate crimes toward people of color since 2013 according to the FBI, the question still stands – is everyone a racist deep down?
One could argue that evolution plays a big part in this, considering that thousands of years ago, our ancestors had to stick with a familiar group of humans and work together for a better chance at survival. Evolutionary racism refers to Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory, which assumes that with species continually evolving, similarly, some races have evolved further than others, therefore causing racism to have grown deeply rooted in our genetics. …show more content…

This indicates that no matter if a person is actively racist, as in repeating racial slurs or committing hate crimes, a person will still benefit from the system as long as he or she is not black. There even exists a certain degree of colorism in the African American community, where light-skinned African Americans are preferable to those with darker skin, especially in the media. In conjunction with the structural racism, the internalized racism that exists within the community is just as big of an issue. One study, made by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark, illustrated how racism damaged young black children by making them choose between two dolls, one white and one

Get Access