Racism : Racism And Discrimination

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.

Research on structural racism should not only focus on independent effects but also should address interactions among multiple forms of racism. Further, it is likely that forms of racism may reinforce one another, and efforts to dismantle one system may yield little effect without simultaneous efforts on another system. The study of single forms of racism would lead to an incomplete understanding and, potentially worse, biased estimates (Sacerdote, 2005). For instance, assume that five forms of racism fully account for health disparities, but an intervention only targets one form. That intervention may show no effect simply because it is incomplete and potentially lead to the erroneous conclusion that anti-racism efforts fail. Hence, it is absolutely critical to consider the multiple forms of racism (Sacerdote, 2005).

Almost everyone has heard the famous hymn, “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” but not all understand the true meaning when it says, “Red, and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” The moment sin entered into the world, perfection no longer existed. This loss of perfection changed the way humans viewed each other. It made one ethnicity view another ethnicity as inferior, and in doing so, created what people now know of as racism. For centuries, racism has been a part of society, shaping the way humans view each other, but with the aid of Young Women 's Christian Association (YWCA) - Stand Against Racism, racial discrimination and injustice can be eliminated.

Today, racism and racial discrimination is something you see everyday. Whether it be in a news story, an article on social media, or something that you personally witness, but what is racism? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes racism as 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. This means that one race will discriminate another because they believe that their race is better. Some people think that the only people that can be racist are white people. Their definition of racism is summed up to white people discriminating against the minority including African Americans and Latinos. Their definition of racism is not true. Racism does go both ways. Anyone is capable of saying, “Hey, my race is better than yours for this reason.” This is called reverse racism. The term reverse racism is referred to as discrimination against racial majorities inflicted by racial minorities. Reverse racism does exist and it is just as common as racism (“Racism”).

Race and ethnicity are concepts that are constantly associated with the many hateful crimes and events occurring all around us in our daily lives. The race of an individual is an extremely convoluted subject matter in the social world. Discrimination against specific groups of people remains till this day one of the most severe issues that we stumble on, leaving many of us in shock, and consternation. Racism against a certain ethnic group often arises from embedded false assumptions that is associated with the group and their cultural behaviors. There are various different ways in which racism takes form; racism directed towards individuals with Jewish origins is often referred to as anti-Semitism, while racism that is directed towards Muslims is known as Islamophobia. Racism is embodied in various ways, allowing one group to have full authority, holding more political, social, and economic power. Discrimination and racism has a major effect on the victims, the victim’s family, as well as the community around them. Considering that racism is an immensely broad subject, this paper will focus on discrimination in that aboriginal people encounter everyday. Using Max Weber’s classification of inequality, aboriginals hold an extremely low position in class as well as status, as they acquire low or nearly no social prestige or life chances. Firstly, this paper will explore the reality behind first nations in the working force, as well as its affects on on the individual. Secondly,

Racism plays a substantial part in our nations history; from slavery in the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century, to segregation in the early 1900s. The extreme racism of those days are long gone, and continue to just be a memory of the past. Although, prejudice still exists and it always will, because our brains are hardwired to prefer one race to another. That being said; a white person that grows up in an all white neighborhood who also attends an all-white school will very well prefer white people. Same goes for other races as well. But why do we think this way? How does our brain distinguish race and why do we prefer one group of people over another? I have gathered some evidence as to why we think this way and why our brains process racial differences the way they do.

Race and racism are concepts which are unavoidable in one’s day to day life. When my mother was laid off from her job in Colombia 12 years ago she made the choice to immigrate to the United States. I was six when I arrived in the United States, but I had never really dealt with the matter of race before then. The concept of race is not as prominent in Colombia the biggest divider is socioeconomic level. In my six years of living in Miami, I don’t remember any racism directed towards me or my family. We relocated to Kentucky when I was around 8. Moving to the state gave me the opportunity to become aware of my race and the race of others.

This issue of racism is popular by name but tends to be sugar coated by the way people see it. In order to truly understand racism you need to take a bite into the topic in order to get a taste of what it is really like. Racism comes in many different forms and can be seen many different ways. But why even care about racism at all? Why does it even matter? One would think that with such a harsh background regarding racism in America it would no longer exist in society today. But sadly that is not the case here, racism continues to show up all over the country sometimes being worse than others but still racism is racism. People should all be considered equal regardless of what they look like, talk like, or even do that makes them who they are.

At this point in history scientific racism rose dramatically, and the theory of evolutionary psychology built itself up with the Darwinian Theory as the main foundation (Kock, 2009). Some research carried out was said to show that “Negroes” have smaller brains than Caucasians, however “Negroes” had better “primitive” skills such as better hearing and vision than that of a Caucasian (Richards, 1997 as cited in Sidhu, 1999). This shows research was very culturally biased, it could be argued that in today’s society although racial bias exists. Results from a more recent study (Kennedy, 2012) carried out on African Americans and Caucasians show that Caucasians are not seen to be any more intelligent than African Americans (Kennedy, Allaire, Gamaldo, Whitfield, 2012). Showing that institutions and society have already taken on the role of individuals been more diverse and open minded to new ideas from other cultures.

Throughout history, many immigrants have been subject to racism, bias and prejudice. This unfair treatment is usually the result of people that aren’t accustomed to change and rather than accepting it, they rebel by unnecessarily making derogatory remarks and sometimes even physical harm. African Americans dealt with it for years in the United States and unfortunately, in some areas, it still exists. Indians that had been governed by the British Empire were no excuse to these hateful acts. However, a soft spoken, vegetarian known as the Father of Indian Independence would become one of the biggest leaders of racial equality and help change history for the better.

The more we comprehend our self, our social location and the nature and history of power, oppression, and prejudice, the more we will be able to identify and react racism and discrimination when we see it. The harsh truth is that racism is something we learn not something we were born with, it’s very serious issues and shouldn’t be ignored, we should never try and hide our identity in fear of being discriminated, the good news is that no matter where we are there will always be support for us. Just make sure we look in the right places.

This research study “Race, Racism, and Discrimination: Bridging Problems, Methods, and Theory in Social Psychological Research”, (Bobo 2003) explains why people become racist. No one is born a racist this is something that taught or imprinted by your peers and parents. This study just wanted to find way to stop stereotypes and discrimination based on race. They addressed three guidelines for future research about discrimination which is engages minority group, create theoretical and methodological bridges, expand on how gender intertwines with

Race is defined as an ethnic group of people sharing the same culture, history and language. However, there is neither a characteristic nor trait that differentiates races. To me, skin color is only skin deep. One’s skin color does not define how one should behave. America is the only country that I know of that defines people by their skin color. In America, rather than one simply being an American they are classified as African American, Indian American, Asian American, and many others. In other countries, people are just simply classified by their nation. An example being, a person who would be called an African American here would simply just be an American. Racism is a learned trait, as no one is born a racist. Many people claim not to

Racism is commonly seen differently among whites and non-whites. Many whites understand how racism non-whites get treated not the same as white people. This can benefit us by helping us fix racism to the minorities in the U.S. Many studies have conducted throughout the years to show examples of racial microaggressions and more. Research has shown racial stereotypes matter in the workforce then it comes to getting a job and criminal justice. Another scenario includes police officers having more will to shoot an unarmed black suspects than white suspects. Racism has gone beyond attitudes and feeling towards one another to cultural and intuitional social power among all races. Multiple examples

To understand whether or not racism is learnt, we first have to divulge into the nature of racism. It is usually assumed that racism has been a part of civilisation since civilisation started, that it is embedded into how people work and that no matter what, it will always exist. Another assumption is that racism derives from the capitalism of the slave trade by white elitist men seeking to dehumanize people for economic gain, and used racism as a way to mask their financial motives to justify enslavement as righteous. After anti-slavery movements began to happen, the capitalist motives behind slavery “took on a new form as the justification of the ideology of imperialism” [4].