preview

Racial Imperfection

Decent Essays

As imperfect humans, we all have something in common. Imperfections. There are many flaws that we have, and they can often have a negative impact on ourselves and other people. One imperfection that is a big problem today is a form of prejudice called racism. Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. It seems like as time goes on, the meaning of racism gets more complex. So what does racism mean in this day and age? Discrimination based on a certain cultural background has been around almost as long as the world has been around. Nobody is born with a racial prejudice, it is something that is taught. It could be taught …show more content…

One of the more blatant forms is scientific racism. Scientific racism is the belief that some races are biologically inferior and should, therefore, be treated as such. Scientific racism can be traced back to the 1700s. American founding father and physician Benjamin Rush believed that being black was due to a disease. A hereditary disease called “Negritude” that he believed derived from leprosy (American Philosophical Society). Adolf Hitler also believed that other races are inferior and decided to kill off those who were not fit. To Hitler, fitness did not correlate with one's ability, but rests solely on their cultural background and physical appearance. Scientific racism is invalid even though people constantly try to make truth of it. There has been no concrete evidence that a race is superior to another due to our cultural background or biological …show more content…

Individual racism happens on a more personal level. One type of individual racism is just a racial bias. A racial bias is when you form an opinion on someone strictly based off of their race. The scary thing about this is that this can happen consciously or subconsciously. When it happens subconsciously, people do not think that they are being racist. It is like talking to a brick wall when one tries to confront them on the issue. Another stage is discrimination. This can happen on a cultural level or just because someone hates a certain race. When it is cultural, one may discriminate against others because they think their race is the superior race, but discrimination can still happen just because one may purely hate a certain race for different reasons. Another type of individual racism is same race racism. Same race racism is pretty self-explanatory. Some people hate on people that are the same race as them due to the fact that they do not like how they act, they don’t like how they look, and many other reasons. Institutional racism is pretty much the same thing as individual racism, just on a bigger scale. Institutional racism is Racial discrimination that is looked at as normal behavior within a society. Popular examples of institutional racism include Nazi Germany, Jim Crow, and Apartheid in South Africa. Institutional racism affects a whole group of people. A powerful quote by sociologist, professor,

Get Access