Racism: A Contagious Virus

When it comes to defining racism its significance and effects are highly debatable although it is obvious who has it affected. In this essay, I will proceed to define race, racism, examine its roots and origins, its effects on certain groups in the United States of America and how can we as a whole society no matter what race can overcome it.

Society has come a long way since slavery days, and huge steps have been made granting equal rights on the basis of race. Although many believe racism no longer exist, many ethnic groups still experience some form of racism today. In most reading we have read, an issue of race was presented, there was always a race that presumes they were superior to others.

Racism is a socially constructed concept used by multiple groups of people and creates a hierarchy of sorts based purely on the color of a person’s skin or their cultural origins. It has been an idea that has existed since the beginnings of civilization. A more modern iteration of this concept was made prominent in the 16th century as European settlers began to explore different areas of the world, specifically areas in or around Africa. But slavery can be seen back in the 1500s all the way to 1880 and was most likely a leading example of what helped define racism up to the 20th century. In Ali Rattansi’s book, “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” , the author connects how slavery and race are closely tied together. European explorers would ignore the cultures the invaded in order to see these people as nothing more than native groups that were meant to be seen in a subservient role. Slavery would continue to grow across the Atlantic and seen as an institution that created large amounts of wealth for those who could reap the benefits from it. As long as money was being made, slavery persisted and was justified. Race and racism was conceived the way it was because the slave owning system was controlled by European colonizers.

THESIS: Scientists and other intellectuals recognize the modern concept of "race" as an artificial category that developed over the past five centuries due to encounters with non-European people. Even though people still attempt to organize humans into categories according to their race, these categories have been shown to have no scientific basis.

Destructive images and negative rhetoric became powerful representation of blacks that began to disseminate across the world as early as the colonial years of settlement of the late 16th century. The Negro’s representation of being destructive and negative was by far the catalyst that fueled whites with hatred for the African and these representations are considered powerful because it is the images themselves that further made it possible to allow white people to justify the cruel treatment of the Negro in America. Throughout history the Negro has also suffered from vagrancy laws, the black codes, and Jim crow (segregation) but nothing seemed to compare to the black image of inferiority that proved to be the most successful tool of propaganda within the institution of racism. Images such as servile, primitive, and simpleminded just to name a few were used to degrade Africans and it is these images that have influenced the dialog of the black leaders throughout history. My argument will discuss the psychological effects of such negative imagery of the Negro and its powerful effect on black leaders such as Dubois, Washington, and Woodson.

This paper will discuss the harsh reality surround racism in America for both poor and rich African

The roots and manifestations of Anti-Black racism can be traced far back in western history and cultural practice. Needless to say its continuing impact and repercussions in our modern day public, private, Judaeo-Christian and social institutions and practices, while perhaps, not always understood or openly acknowledged, is

In the midst of slavery’s storm, European slave traders used sales tactics that catastrophically diminished Africa’s reputation and African’s humanity. In the process, they destroyed Africa’s historical truth; and created images that Africans were unrefined savages that mindlessly roamed the grasslands with bones jutting from their noses, in loincloths, and spears in hand…simply as if they were mere human and behaved as untamed animals. Classifying Africans as inferior and uneducated is racist in theory

Racism is an epidemic that has occurred throughout history. Racism is when patterns of discrimination towards a certain race are established and perceived as normal throughout an entire culture. It is not one person from a certain race discriminating another person from another race, but rather an entire population operating in a social structure that makes it difficult for a person not to discriminate. People of color have been oppressed because of their race/ethnicity by those who have held the power, i.e. white people. This oppression is institutionalized through laws, social norms and ideals, customs, etc. and kept because of the theory and belief in white supremacy. Reverse racism is the supposed discrimination against the dominant

For generation racism has been an issue; it is based in the belief that human beings are superior or inferior to others because of race and or skin tone they were born into. Historical atrocities such as slavery and genocides have occurred because of this belief. Slavery was a form of systemic racism caused by the belief that darker skinned people of a foreign country could be bought, sold, and forced to work without compensation. Discrimination based on race was a problem before the Americans, but it became more prominent and more systemic once it reached out here. Now laws were put in place to keep African slaves from 'getting out of line '. They

Also, Baker contrasted the scholars motivated by scientific racism with scholars who fought to gain equality for all and rebuke the underlying racism created within anthropology and science. Ultimately, Baker wants to understand how anthropology contributed to the processes of racial formation. Thus, his work proceeds through the history of racial segregation and the steps science took in creating a realized view of the world, and how “equality for all” reigned supreme in the latter years of our nation’s

The deep divide between those of different ethnicities root back to America's slavery days. Racism is contagious like it's a flea in the Bubonic plague, an ideology that is nothing more than hate and ignorance. A problem with battling such animosity today is that racism isn’t so blatantly obvious as it once was. It seems as if the only ones that can recognize this evil are the ones that allow themselves to see it. Hence the reason why our society still has a long way to go. We as a people need to recognize our own bigoted views that we have been conditioned to assume that those beliefs are reality. As of consequence, the lack of knowingness of Black life and history by those that are non-color has created a society that lacks understandment

Racism first came into play during the modern age slave trade. According the the countries of Greece and Rome, “Africans were not human beings, and therefore, were born to be slaves” (Taylor). However, it was not always like this. Before slavery existed, the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Early Christian people viewed Blacks and other miscellaneous African societies as equals and may have even favored them more. Although, once slavery was introduced, people had a much new way of viewing

Throughout the semester the language, literacy, and liberation of Africa have been explored in multiple aspects. However, another topic that seems practically unavoidable when discussing these things, is the struggle and violence experienced in the process of colonization and liberation. Throughout history, africans had to endure a lot of anguish, both mental and physical. But, while sitting in class and taking in the videos, and discussions, I came to a startling realization: the global fight for “black” people is more than a simple guns and knives battle, it is a mental battleground.

It is obvious to us that race is a significant theme in African Literature, and race relations in the reading that we have participated in like The prisoners and the black girl where race relations were presented in a complex manner. My ultimate goal in writing this paper is to shed light on how race has an impact on our society Globally, ways in which people acquire racial identity and also ways in which people move beyond it. I will be using the two literally pieces previously mentioned “the prisoners” and “the black girl” to help you understand how they closely relate to racism and how they moved beyond it.