Personal Narrative: Prejudice And Racism

Unfortunately, I grew up with a deeply held value of racism without knowing it. This view originated from my racist parents and grandparents. While I was completely unaware that my thoughts and language were racist, I realized as I got older that I had unintentionally held racist beliefs. I had thought growing up that I was not racist, that only my family members were. I believed I was being “honest” as my mother had always called it. Years later, I realized I had been racist as well; I was just more subtle. Stereotypes were so firmly rooted in my belief system I never realized they were there. Moving to North Carolina my sophomore year of high school initiated a slow change; my best friends were African-American. This was really the first time I ever had African-American friends.

In everyday life, everyone experiences racism. Whether it is a humorous racial stereotype joke or to something offensive like asking how Asians can see or asking an Asian person if he or she is Chinese. What we need to remember is that no one is born racist. Racism is either taught or learned. The definition of the term race that was created socially which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies. The definition of race is how we use it. For example the label “white” instead of using Caucasian. Racism still exists today because is how we distinguish people by their pigment of the skin.

It has been said many times that, “racism is taught- you are not born a racist.” The question is, where do people learn their negative racial attitudes from? It can stem from many different causes such as your family members, friends, media, or your community. Personally, I believe that your parents are a big influencer on how you are as a person- how they raise you plays a big part on how you view society and the world as you get older. Research says that a parent and child’s relationship is a strong predictor of an individual’s adjustment (Cole, 2014). Young kids that are constantly being exposed to racial stereotypes will embed those stereotypes within and will continue to think the same as they get

I think you bring up a very important point, over whether racism (or other forms of discrimination) is innate or learned behavior. While I realize that this subject is controversial, I tend to agree with you that racism is in fact a behavior that is learned. I think the evidence that young children do not care about the race (or religion for that matter) of their playmates, or even their caregivers (such as teachers).

Some People tend to laugh and feed on putting someone down based on their race and some may not even know they are being racist at all. The fact is that your behavior towards someone can be racist even when you may be “Joking” or “Messing around.” The matter of fact is the racial comments were still made and still have a hurtful message. In the essays we read we were given a real life example of how even unintentional racial comments can still be harmful to someone and shouldn’t be used as a cultural norm. One imperative stride to lessening the racist culture in America is to incorporate educational programs for our youth to show them that we are all created equal and racism has no place in our society. These measures can help raise equality and counter the impacts of any prejudice or dogmatism that happens in the children’s homes by helping them see and comprehend what generalizations and racism are and that they ought to be stayed away from. The adults and leaders in the lives of the youngsters are the illustrations that the kids look up to and will determine how they will act when they are older. By instructing the kids at a young age about the threats of generalization and racism, we can limit the transference of bigotry to the future

Research shows that even people who state that they lack negative racial attitude may demonstrate racist behavior unconsciously (Steed, 2014). This unconscious behavior caused by unconscious beliefs affects many African Americans today by creating many racial disparities that are harder to explain using racism as a factor to its existence.

In the United State of America, racism is part of our cultural cloth. It's in the air that we breathe everyday. The sad part about is that i believe that some may know when their racial comments and others could get it from their family background and their so use to that they don’t even know they're being racist. Institutional racism is a strong system of privileges and powers that is based on race. Those powerful structures typically start as innocent interactions that is suppose to be helping all races but in the end will only be helping one. For instance, people tend to move to different areas than the areas you will typically see them in just for great schools, living conditions, great teachers, great paying jobs, maybe even for greater

While growing up around children and adults of all races, I was raised to believe that all races are to be treated equally. This has molded me to become an understanding and friendly person to be around all races. As I grew and learned more about race, I realized that my family did a great job adapting me to the world concerning race as race became irrelevant to me. Race was not, and is not, a divisive factor for me so much as privilege was, however.

My parents and my extended family has always made sure I knew my culture and that my race was different from other races such as Caucasian and Asian children I went to school with. I also always knew I related to a different race due to my family skin color versus the other people who were around whose skin color is different from mines. As a child when I was growing up I heard adults or older kids talk about issues such as different races and people they have interacted during the day. Another thing exposed to me as a kid was the different political issues especially George Bush administration and racism as general. Being exposed to many views on how the color of your skin will affect the way society sees you and places you in the social system put perspective on how I saw my future. Being black you often automatically deemed as you are not going to succeed in life or you are not going be educated enough to place in high

After reading and viewing the racism pieces, I conclude that many use racism as a form of acceptance, an ego boost, survival, and for dominance. According to “Exploring the Psychology Motives of Racism” by Clay Routledge, there are many motives to racism that influence someone’s actions and beliefs. One of the motives is to boost self esteem. When people target others self esteem, it may give theirs a little boost. Another includes fitting in and the fear of change. When you want to be accepted into a group, you would do anything to get in. Being prejudice against another minority or group to be accepted is one of the more common reasons. When you grow up in a house that is prejudice, it is very hard to change your ways; you grew up believing

In the early 70’s as a kid, I’ve seen my parents and older siblings deal with racism. Being 7 years old at that time I really did not know much about racism. I use to hear my parents talk about Dr. King they also, taught about him in school about who he was and his quest for equality.

One of my favorite quotes on Racism is by Denis Leary, “Racism isn't born, folks. It's taught. I have a 2 year-old son. Know what he hates? Naps. End of list.” Each one of us has been taught how to be a racist. It doesn't matter what race you are, we all have prejudices against some other race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or another neighborhood. We all have to prove that we are superior to someone else because we want to be in control of other people because that is how you get ahead in society. The only real people who are in control are the people themselves.

Eventually I had three children and married a man that had no bias against race at all. My children began to bring friends home and we accepted their friends regardless of their race, religion, culture, or gender. I felt that I had unlearned the learned belief and my children were becoming well rounded accepting individuals. During one summer, my children asked if they could have a friend spend the night. My oldest son asked if his friend Robert could spend the night. I told him no that I was tired and did not want to be bothered. Several days later my middle son asked if his friend Sean could spend the night. I told him yes that would be fine. My husband witnessed both of the instances and pulled me to the side only to tell me that black does not wear off on the sheets. My husband called me a racist and told me I was being unfair to the children. I was stunned by his accusation, I had worked very hard not to instill the beliefs that I had learned in my children. My children don’t see the world in the manner that the generations before them did. I did my job, they are accepting of all

According to this article, Dr. Donald Saucier, a Kansas State University Psychologist, studied racism issues for nine years. He believes people have to understand the modes of racism before reacting to it. First, they should not have a bad behavior toward it. However, he mentions two types of behaviors people experience concerning racism. One, the person that knows they are racist and try to hide it and those who are not sure if they are racist. One, those people who hide their feelings soon let it be known they are racist, especially when an opportunity presents itself and those people who are not sure their racist. They try hard to hide their racist but eventually it comes out but at the wrong time.

When I take the time to reflect on what social forces have impacted my life a lot comes to mind. I was born and raised in San Jose, California which is a very multicultural area with people of all ethnic backgrounds. There was a specific juncture in my life that impacted me at a very young age. When I was about 7 or 8 years old my mom took my friend Zac and I to Burger King. While we were sitting there eating and just talking about typical things a 7 or 8 year old would talk about an elderly caucasian male approached us. Now looking back on the situation it was apparent that he was either drunk or under the influence of something. He then proceeded to start throwing racial slurs at me, and started questioning us. In his words “ why a white would be friends with a black “ in a belligerent manner. He continued, so mom called the cops and he was arrested for public intoxication. At the time I was baffled as to why he would say such things, especially to a child. I now realize in his socialization period it was a social constraint for caucasians to be friends with a minority or even sit next to or converse with one. Its unfortunate that people still haven 't come to accept social change, but more importantly I was aware of how prejudice some people are at a very young age due to this instance. Social facts are aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals (Giddens, 2014, pg. 11). Being a victim of discrimination, seeing my mom and grandparents succeed, and