Racism refers to belief that certain race is superior or inferior to the other. Characteristics and abilities could be attributed to particular people on the basis of race, and the people’s moral traits, while social status are determined by their inborn biological characteristics. Racism and discrimination are used as powerful elements in promoting fear, as well as hatred in times of war and conflicts and during downturns in the economy.
Racism can be said to have existed throughout the history. For instance, in the past 500-1000 years, the case of racism that affected western powers affecting non-westerners had significant effects on their welfare. The most notorious of the slavery was that which affected African states. This enslavement was effective since they believed that Black African were inferiors as compared to Europeans and the other descendants of the white race. Let’s analyze the racism in Europe, as it had regional human rights that unrivaled elsewhere in the world.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Racism Definitions and History".
Racism in Europe comprised institutionalized racism in colonial times, during the times when racial beliefs were eugenic. Racism takes place in difference ways, especially when people make certain jokes towards a particular ethnic group. One can also call racist names or abuse other people verbally, bullying, intimidating or stressing others on account of race; which adds to racism. Other cases of racism occur when people write intimidating graffiti in the public places, while others make some offensive comments online. Some people go further to abuse others physically due to race, while others are excluded from organizations, companies or place of work due to some differences of the skin color or ethnicity.
Racism can also be quite indirect. For example, an employer looking to interview certain people might look at certain list and ignore people with Arabic names; or a situation where security man follows an African-American closely assuming the man is planning to steal from the neighborhood. There is systemic or structural racism where a certain organization or group that upholds equality in service, but acts gross to individuals from a particular ethnic or cultural background. For instance, a bank case where it requires people to fill out forms, or to open account using pure English language; a situation that would make it difficult for those who are not conversant with the language to open the account.
Race discrimination involves unfavorably treating other people on account of their race or due to personal images that are associated with that race. These facts include skin, hair texture, color and also certain facial features. It can also involve treating others unnecessary since they are married to certain skin color people. Discrimination can be in the place of work. The law guards against such discrimination in all aspects of employment that includes firing, hiring, job assignment , pay, promotions, training, layoff, fringe benefits or any other term or employment condition. In the past years, discrimination was high on skin color and race in USA and Europe that maintained that black skinned people were not supposed to own or work in certain institutions. Currently, the law has put into practice certain prohibitions on such needless cultures.
An example of racism in the past included European and American philosophers and scientists who came up with a false racial “science” meant to “prove” the non-Jewish whites supremacy. At the same time, the Nazi annihilation of the Jews gave no credit to most of these scientific efforts to promote a particular race over another, certain small numbers of those scientists as well as social scientists continued over the 20th century to argue the shortcomings of particular races, most of whom were Blacks. While this was happening, some public figures of American Black community championed that supremacy of race and the inferiority of whites through the use of particular identical language of white racists.
Racism has reduced significantly over the past few years. It can be said that racial discrimination cannot be changed immediately by political rhetoric and public laws only. These laws have been in place yet racism has been reported around the globe despite the tough laws are made and implemented to guard the people and ensure equity. Therefore, with all that in place, the solution lies with the fact that people need to learn to love and appreciate one another. They should ignore differences in race and help one another as humans. Nations should build color blind relationships in places of work, schools and other institutions, both socially and politically.
In conclusion, racism is the belief that certain people or races are superior to the other. This culture could be due to discrimination in terms of race, skin color, and age. Other cases of racism take place at work, schools, malls and other social areas. Racism can be traced from the ancient times during the slavery of African to Neo-Nazi in United Kingdom. Currently, there are tough laws that guard people against being discriminated in their places of work, interviews and other social areas. However, the solution lies with people learning to love each other irrespective of the social backgrounds, race, skin color, age or other differences. With such love and unity, racism would reduce significantly, and can be a thing of the past.
