The Impact of Racial Discrimination - Research Paper Example

1 Racism by culture What is racism? How can it be defined in the modern society and how is it related to culture? In the modern society racism appears a survived phenomenon. If you think that the time of people in white and caps with cut for eyes, with flaring torches in hands who call themselves Ku Klux Klan and punish blacks passed long ago, you are mistaken. They changed clothes, methods, rhetoric, symbolics, but the idea of superiority over people who have different color of the skin, different religion and culture is as large as life. As investigation shows, the majority of modern racists is limited and badly educated people, inclined to believe in myths and extolling their racial, national origin and religion. What is this survived "dinosaur" of the last eras called racism? The given work will explain the essence of the modern racism and prove that the roots of racist ideas are in the educational and cultural environment a person is brought up in. Racism is the set of views, based on the ideas of physical and intellectual inequality of human races and of the decisive influence of racial distinctions on history and culture. There is also a little broader definition of racism that can be found in encyclopedias, which state that racial signs impose decisive influence on abilities, intelligence, moral and behavioral features and traits of people’ s character (Flanagan et al 515). Racism includes the ideas about initial division of people into the highest and the lowest races, the first of which are the founders of the civilization, thus they want and should dominate over the second. “Racism is the overarching societal paradigm that tolerates, accepts, and reinforces racial inequalities, and is associated with racially unequal opportunities for children to learn and thrive. Racial inequalities result in the discriminatory treatment of people of minority status. For instance, individuals from historically marginalized racial groups may be perceived as less worthy or less intelligent than those from the majority culture. At the same time, children or communities from the majority culture are allowed to maintain their established privileged and valued status. This privilege can result in better treatment and opportunities than are afforded to others within educational systems and other social institutions. The presence of racism in educational settings harms everyone, but has the most negative and lasting impact on racial minority groups” (Racism, prejudice, and discrimination).The implementation of racist theories in practice sometimes finds the expression in the policy of racial discrimination. Sources vigorously report that racism remained in the past and this shameful phenomenon existed and had influence only until the end of the XIX century with short-term recurrence in Nazi Germany. However, the situation appears to be quite different (Bobo & Fox 340). In the past there was a state racism that fixed at the legislative level the idea of superiority of one race over another. Even now in the Middle Eastern states there is a discrimination of one state by another state, and the idea of superiority of certain people over other people, still exits. As for everyday racism, it not only didnt remain in the past, but also continues to expand and transform, supplementing racial criterion of superiority by religious, ethnic, cultural ones. Thus, if before ideologists of racism proved the superiority of white race over other races, now certain politicians, journalists, writers and even, scientists actually prove the superiority of some religions and cultures over other that provoke phobias and conflicts. It should be noted that a problem is many-sided: for example, while some countries discriminate Muslims, and represent Islam as primitive, aggressive and defective religion, other countries discriminate Christians, and produce myths about the inferiority and lameness of Christianity. Thus, racism depends not on the color of skin or religion, but on the cultural views of this or that group of people (Bobo 450). Racism has always presented in our life and now we can already come to the conclusion that racism is an indicator of immaturity of the society in general and of the certain individuals. The more mature the society is, there are the less chances it will be subject to racism; and vice versa - the more infantile consciousness the nation in general and the certain individuals have, there are more chances for racism to emerge. Such assumption is based on the simple fact. The person with the developed personality, the one who adequately realizes the identity, is able to trust himself, and the world, to develop his own opinion on many questions. The main thing is that he is able to take the responsibility for his own life, understands well that everything depends not on the nation, but on the personality. Also the mature individual will evaluate each person basing on his own personality, and not on any general signs (Davis et al 400 ). If the personality is not developed, a person is not ready to develop his own opinion. If a person feels (as a rule, unconsciously) that he/she can do nothing himself, he/she will always need a group, will need to feel involved in some community. It allows the person not to develop the opinion and values, but to use already formed templates and not to bear responsibility for the choices in life. The person who is not ready to assume responsibility for the life is, as a rule, not able to supervise it. And, as a result, the external enemy, who is allegedly guilty of some troubles of this community and the specific person, is looked for. And this enemy is "successfully" found - gays, oligarchs, officials, immigrants or simply the representatives of another nation. Such an individual with infantile consciousness cant actually build the relations based on a free choice, it is difficult for him to support the interest of others to himself, and his interest to other people. He is often connected with people by fear of loneliness, lack of support, fear of external threat and feeling of helplessness. Therefore, the unity of people against any external enemy provides the illusion of unity, support, community and security. And it hides their personal incapacity (Hernandez). Racism is difficult to fight with because, according to some experts, it may be put in a brain of a person before the birth and people express racial prejudice without realizing it. The sites of a human brain, which allow to understand what ethnos this or that person is related to, are directly connected with other sites, which are responsible for emotional behavior. Such results are showed by recent researches. Experts convince that even those people, who have no tendency to racism, can demonstrate similar inclination without realizing it. The group of researchers of the New York University led by doctor Elisabeth Phelps studied in detail the researches on brain scanning, which took place earlier, and came to the conclusion that categories of races are connected with decision-making process. As the result of the research showed, certain sites of communication of a brain play an important role in inadvertent expression of the racial relations (McKinney, 27). As researchers recently revealed in attempt to explain the variability of individual responses to racist insults, many things depend on the birthplace and an origin. It appeared that women of an Afro-American origin are more inclined to repulse in response to racist comments or insults, than women of the Asian-American origin. According to scientists, the difference lies in deep cultural distinctions. Research showed that racial, ethnic and cultural aspects of an origin of a person are a source of that variety, which can explain various behavior of the victims of racism. The conducted research was based on the previous work, which revealed a distinct difference in management of conflict situations, in styles of communication and rules of emotional behavior in individuals, who belong to different cultures (Gaylord-Harden & Cunningham 540). In one of the experiments making a part of research, scientists asked women with Asian or African roots to talk to other college students by means of service of instant messages. Actually, the research assistant was the interlocutor. His task was to purposely make the racist comments and rough comments, which did not carry a racist character. After that it was offered to the participants to choose candies for the interlocutor – tasty or not tasty. Researchers analyzed the talk to estimate, how rectilinearly participants reacted to insults, also they noted a choice of candies as indirect answer to an insult. The received results showed that Afro-Americans were more inclined to react directly to insults during the conversation, while Americans of an Asian origin preferred an indirect form of an answer, choosing for the rough interlocutor the candy with disgusting taste. In the second part of experiment the participants were asked to imagine an offensive conversation and to inform what reaction and the purpose of their answer would be. The majority of Asians would prefer not to answer directly, keeping peaceful interaction. The conclusion was made that the culture and educational environment influence the understanding of racial discrimination (Sullivan et al, 8). Racism is a fear of otherness. And it creates the illusion that familiar, habitual (and therefore - safe) belongs to your own nationality; and something that belongs to other nation, is terrible and has to be expelled. We are all very different. And the one, who is nearby, even if he belongs to your own nationality, doesnt guarantee neither understanding, nor the real closeness, neither support, nor the unity. But the majority actually doesnt have it, all the close relations are based on some debt and mutual manipulations, all the actions are full of fears, there is a constant feeling of injustice and expectation that someone has to solve your problems. And if it doesnt happened, it is necessary to have somebody to punish for unresolved problems. And it at least partly removes internal stress concerning own helplessness. Thus, the life of racists is far from happy. Other people, who are actually happy, inherently free, mature, who are doing that they want, are not concerned about racism. Happiness and racism are quite different things, like the happiness and any tolerance. The difference between mature and immature people is more striking, than differences in color of eyes, skin and cultural traditions. It is always possible to build the relations with mature people, in any country. And it is impossible to build them with the immature ones even in their own state. They, alas, can be only avoided or given repulse if they break your borders (Wald, J., & Losen, D. J, 2003). The basis of any racism is low self-esteem and aspiration to ego-trip. A child gets low self-esteem and the consciousness of a slave in the educational environment of a parental family, in a family where authoritarianism and intolerance dominates. He gets it also at school where the suppression and depreciation of the pupil dominates. The main driving forces of a person with a low self-esteem are envy and aggression. Why is he better than me? Why is he richer than me? Why is he more successful than me? Why is he more talented, than me? These are the questions, which cause the feeling of envy and aspiration to cope with it, as a rule, in he destructive way. If adults warm up this fire inside, the fighter against "others" is ready to act. Children are racists if in a family parents hate Jews, homosexuals and a rich neighbor. “Racism is the overarching societal paradigm that tolerates, accepts, and reinforces racial inequalities, and is associated with racially unequal opportunities for children to learn and thrive. Racial inequalities result in the discriminatory treatment of people of minority status. For instance, individuals from historically marginalized racial groups may be perceived as less worthy or less intelligent than those from the majority culture” (Racism, prejudice, and discrimination). To fight racism it is necessary not to be tolerant to any intolerance, not to be tolerant to racists, homophobes, religious fanatics and to all who break the borders of others on the basis of their own hatred and personal dissatisfaction. It is necessary to put as more forces as it is possible in fight against such phenomena. Each separately taken family should consider who we are, what we can give to the children and in what hands they appear at school. Equality of people means that all the people are equal and this equality doesnt depend on a sex, race, nationality, language, an origin, property, official capacity, a residence, religion, belief, belonging to public associations, etc. The problem of racism was not removed from the agenda, it became more difficult and multilateral. "Traditional" racism, in which superiority is determined by anthropological signs, is often accompanied by discrimination on the religious and cultural belonging. Therefore, the problem of racism has to be solved by the entire human community. Joint efforts of the both governmental bodies allocated with the power to stop any manifestations of discrimination and violence, and scientists, journalists, public figures and religious leaders are necessary. Works Cited Bobo, L. Prejudice as group position: Microfoundations of a sociological approach to racism and race relations. Journal of Social Issues 55, 1999, 445–472. Bobo, L. D., & Fox, C. Race, racism, and discrimination: Bridging problems, methods, and theory in social psychological research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 2003, 319–332. Davis, C., Aronson, J., & Salinas, M. Shades of threat: Racial identity as a moderator of stereotype threat. Journal of Black Psychology, 32, 2006, 399–417. Flanagan, C. A., Syvertsen, A. K., Gill, S., Gallay, L. S., & Cumsille, P. Ethnic awareness, prejudice, and civic commitments. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 2009, 500–518. doi: 10.1007/s10964- 009-9394-z Gaylord-Harden, N. K., & Cunningham, J. A. The impact of racial discrimination and coping strategies. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 2009, 532–543. Hernandez, D. J. Double jeopardy: How third grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. New York, NY: Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2008. McKinney, E., Bartholemew, C., & Gray, L. RTI and SWPBIS: Confronting the problem of disproportionality. Communiqué, 38(6), 1, 2010, 26–29. National Association of School Psychologists. Appropriate academic supports to meet the needs of all students [Position Statement]. Bethesda, MD: Author, 2009 National Association of School Psychologists. Ethical and professional practices for school psychologists. Bethesda, MD: Author, 2010 National Association of School Psychologists. Racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Bethesda Author, 2012 Sullivan, A. L., & A’Vant, E. . On the need for cultural responsiveness. Communiqué, 38(3), 8, 2009 Sullivan, A. L., A’Vant, E., Baker, J., Chandler, D., Graves, S., McKinney, E., & Sayles, T. Confronting inequity in special education, Part II: Promising practices in addressing disproportionality. Communiqué, 38(2), 1, 18–20, 2009 Wald, J., & Losen, D. J. Editors’ notes. In J. Wald & D. J. Losen (Eds.), New directions for youth development: Deconstructing the school-to-prison pipeline (pp. 1–2). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003 Read More