Racism - Admission/Application Essay Example

Racism Number A Question If a person (Person A) refuses to someone outside of their race (Person B) because of that persons race (Person B), it is proper to say that Person A is engaging in racist behavior. Person B is absolved from this blame because she is merely the recipient of Person A’s action. Person A is engaging in racist behavior because he has the power of choice and exercises that same choice to turn down the idea of dating Person B, simply because Person B is of another race. There are several qualities that Person B possessed so that Person A considered Person B legible for dating, save for Person A’s race.

Person A’s action is racist because it is informed by race while neglecting all other qualities that Person A possessed. This means that Person A has racist blanket condemnatory attitude towards Person B’s race or ethnicity. Question 2 If Person A wants to date Person B who happens to be outside of Person A’s race but refuses to do so because of the social backlash, then Person A is not engaging in racist behavior. This is because, there is another factor that informs Person A’s behavior or decision other than race or racism, and this factor is fear.

If this fear of social backlash is removed, Person A would date Person B and this attests the absence of racism on the part of Person A. It is also important to acknowledge the willingness on the side of Person A to date Person B as bespeaking of Person A’s liberation from racism. In this case, Person A’s behavior or decision is fearful; not racist. The Possibility of Having Racism without Racists It is possible to have racism in the absence of racists. However, racism that will be extant herein is not exhibited in interpersonal relations.

Instead, this kind of situation can only envision institutional racism where laws, policies, decrees and institutions are patterned in a manner that undermines the interests and welfare of a particular race. In this case, the dominant ethnic groups or race may have been liberated from racism and racial tendencies, but existing laws, policies, decrees and institutions may still facilitate and enshrine racial segregation and suppression. This situation may be commonly witnessed in former colonies that have made national healing and reconciliation but are yet to make constitutional reforms (Class notes, 175).

Student BQuestion 1 If a person (Person A) declines a date with someone outside his race (Person B) because Person B’s race, then Person A’s behavior is racist. Person A’s action is racist because there are several factors and qualities in Person B that should have informed Person A’s decision, but Person A chose to consider only Person B’s race. Absolving Person A from blame on the account that Person A has every right to make his decision and that the cancellation of the date in no way hurt Person B is to intimate that: an act is only racist when a person is hurt; and that only institutional or macro-level racism exists.

Again, to argue thus is to deny an individual [in this case, Person B] his position as part of the society and as a unit of the society (Class notes, 180). Question 2 Since Person A is willing to date Person B but only fears social backlash, then Person A may not be racist. This is because Person A’s decision is: not informed by Person B’s race; and only inspired by fear [the fear of social judgment]. Of racism Without Racists It is possible to have racism without racist in principle. By the phrase in principle, it is meant, that the general population will be free of racist behavior, and not the entire population to the last man.

It is possible to have a society that has sought national reconciliation but has not yet made institutional and constitutional reforms and reparations. In this case, racism may be institutional than interpersonal. This situation above is commonest in former colonies where the socio-economically dominant and the larger society race have become liberated [perhaps through radical activism and inclusive educational curriculum], but legal, policy and institutional reforms have not been made. For example, in Australia, interest in Aboriginal socio-culture has soared significantly because of better integrated school curricula but the South Australian government declined to fund Aboriginal legal aid which operates under the aegis of the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc, on the account that the same government has programs that effectively work for 80% of the population.

ReferencesClass notes. Race and Ethnic Relations: Symbolic Interactionist Approach: Defining Race and Ethnicity.