Racism Problem in the US - Essay Example

Having been born and brought up in a mixed race society I did not know anything to do with racism. In my childhood days I used to have friends from different races whom we used to share a lot with. We had no boundaries and our parents were totally okay with our interaction. We could play, go to school visit each other’s homes and spend most of the time having merry at our yard. Beeman stated that ‘through exercise and individual choice, people not only demonstrate their uniqueness but they also recognize and actualize their integration with others. They do this by making, acknowledging, and perpetuating social ties based solely on the affinity that arises through making the same choices’ (59). This was the exact description of my childhood days. No limits to govern me and no color to choose from all the children were my friends and I really boasted to have them. Going back home from school one afternoon, my friend and I were waiting for the usual train at the station. When the train arrived and we were rushing to get in one young man shouted at my friend, ‘hey, negro get in fast’. At the moment that did not click in my mind that it was a racial attack and as I tried to calm my really offended friend I embarked to know what was wrong with it. My friend is black and this was the first outright racial abuse that I had seen directed at her. As the days progressed I learnt much about racial discrimination and the selection by race that is so much engrossed in our society. I had been brought up from a background that had no racial bias and when I joined college I found that some students really discriminated others and even went ahead to choose their friends from the filtered group of friends from the ‘favored race’. This is why I decided I had to start a campaign against racism. Race should not be a factor to measure someone’s ability or determine her strengths. Today I am glad for the step I took some years back to sensitize my friends against racism. We have a group of multiracial students and we are doing great in the field. Our first step is to fight individualism. Tocqueville defines individualism as ‘calm and considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends, with this little society formed to his task; he gladly leaves the greater society to look after itself’ (39). With this understanding we have to take the initiative and impact change on the society as it is solely our mandate to ensure that we make the lives of everyone we live with fair enough and good to live. We are coining up new strategies that will enhance further reach and ensure that our ideologies reach more heads as everyone tries to fight racism in one way or the other. Racism This is the retrogressive belief that a person’s ability and characteristics can be attributed to him simply on the basis of his race. It disposes some races as superior to others. Racism which further yields discrimination and has been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in many times. Many people have tried to address the issue and end the old thinking which has seen bitter rivalry due to colorism and racism. It is difficult to talk of racism without mentioning colorism. Glenn tries to distinguish between the two; he says that ‘in the United States context, one can argue that race is premised on the existence of distinct bounded categories, to which individuals can be assigned based on their ancestry, while skin color is varies among individuals as well as between racial categories. Therefore, while racism in the United States is thought of as discrimination towards members of a particular category by another group, colorism on the other hand often takes the form of intra-category discrimination’ (7). In the case that I described above, the act of racism was facilitated by the color of my friend’s skin and though maybe it did not auger with the defaulter that it would be abusive, it caused apparent harm to the recipient. Racism is taking a new dimension with time and with the improvement in technology online discrimination is apparent. It is common to come across a racist comment especially on the social forums and websites. No matter how hard many people are trying to fight the ill it is still entrenched in our society and its roots are anchored deep, so deep that extra effort need to be applied to stop it. Mary C. Waters talks of symbolic ethnicity as the cause of the ills that are attributed with racism. She says that the knowledge of where people are coming from is important, however that should not go past that. Racism comes in when one starts seeing other people not by what they can do but by thinking of who they are. Prejudice which is the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience paves in and racists have that misconception about the people of the other race. This is what causes discrimination. According to Frederickson, ‘racism remains as a major international problem at the dawn of the 21st century’ (137). Different people should come together and try to address the issue better and from an unbiased point. It is common in places of work and also extreme in social sites. Analysis Racism is both a learned and transmitted ill in our society. We are a product of the environment that we live in. Racism is cultured by individuals who interact with people who have the prejudice about others. If you live in an environment that highly promote racism then it will go by default that you may likely embrace it. Malcom Brown while talking about racism says that, ‘racism is an ideology, and to solve it is necessary to delineate the complexity of its reproduction. This includes avoiding any assumption of simple, historical duplication. Ideologies are never only perceived but are also constructed and reconstructed by people responding to their material’ (169). This affirms the idea that racism is a bred ill which is passed from one generation to the other. To address the issue first we have to establish the root cause and the extent that it has gone to entrench itself in the society. This way we will know the amount of effort to put in order to address the issue. Racism is real and even very young children can be fed with the idea that some races are superiors over other or think that he/she should interact with people from a certain race. Parents and society should assume the mammoth responsibility of initiating the first step to edge out racism. This should be done from the elementary levels where interacting with children from various races should be encouraged. This will help to edge out any misconception that the children may have and the effect that the society will impact on her thinking will be curtailed. Addressing racism Brown argues that, ‘the real challenge is to place the concepts of radicalization and racism at the center of a historical as well as a contemporary sociology which is concerned with the origin of development, (169). From this analysis it becomes evident that racism is an ill that needs to be addressed first. In one of the most talked about cases of racism in 2005 in the US, an 18 year old man named Anthony was beaten to death with an ice axe because of the color of his skin. The murderers were Michael Barton and Paul Taylor who were found guilty and sentenced to more than twenty years in prison each. This just shows a case of racism that could have been contained if measures were taken from a primary stage to curb it. Conclusion Racism is still an international threat and no matter the effort put in place to address it the effects can still be felt. This calls for joint effort from all the affected entities to contain the ill and live in a world where no one is judge by the color of his skin, religion, race, gender or belief but by their ability. Cited Works Brown, Malcolm and Miles, Robert. Racism. London: Routledge, 2003. 2nd Edition. Print. Fredrickson, M. George. Racism: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Print. Glenn, Nakano, Evelyn. Racism. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009. Print. Waters, C. Mary. Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Print. Read More