Choosing the Future by One Race - Coursework Example

Cou

characterised

Introduction

The 20th century was characterized by enormous changes in how the race was defined, effectively throwing out the 1800s antiquated notions and giving way to more realistic and sociocultural world view. The United States was distinguished by the diversity and size of its ethnic and racial minority population than any other country globally. Race-based issues, including immigration, affirmative action, and job opportunities, remain contentious in many countries. Racial classification is hooked to those physical differences between people with the apparent naturalness of a race seemingly obvious to the majority. This conception reflects the fundamental misunderstandings, particularly on the nature of racial classifications.

Racial classification uses the inherited biological traits as the primary classification criteria. Further, how the biological traits are translated and treated into categories known as races is defined by various social conventions. This paper examines various ways in which someone’s race defines their future, due to the difficulties and benefit they face at the start of their lives, the advantages and disadvantages that they’re introduced to because of generation influence and how society plays a huge part in solidifying racism and stereotypes in today’s modern world. The paper will be using ideas from Frantz Fanon and Ettiene Balibar to help aid in the supply of different perspectives. Also, this paper will discuss the possible misconception of Gandhi's authenticity with racism and use Gandhi as an example of how racism can exist even in the most unlikely.

Explaining Racism through the Eyes of the Less Affected

Racism refers to discrimination and prejudice directed to people from a different race based on beliefs that a particular race is superior. This definition suggests a person from any race may experience racism if they are treated badly for the same reason, even those perceived as not experiencing racism, such as white people. However, this definition leaves out a certain crucial element: power structures upholding and perpetuating racism. Ideally, racism does not exist in a vacuum but within a hierarchical structure, power at the core. Additionally, racism works because a particular group has power while the other lacks. Historically, white people, especially in the West, hold power on matters of racial divides, and are less affected by racism, thanks to the centuries of Eurocentric structures and beliefs that privileges and perpetuates whiteness.

As such, in the eyes of the whites, the increasing racial inequality is threatening their dominance in society. For this reason, whites perceive actions to improve minority races welfare as coming at their expense. Additionally, they perceive racism as another zero-sum game: any decrease in anti-Black racism, especially in the last seven decades is linked to increased perception of anti-white racism. Blacks are likely not perceived losses for Whites or gains for them because of the permanent Whites high status. As such, there is a novel prediction that changes in racism conception by the whites would be so extreme that the majority of whites would view anti-White bias as a bigger societal problem.

Explaining Racism through the Eyes of the More Affected

Blacks have endured decades of racism, making them the most affected. Majority of black adults say they are mistreated across institutional settings; from the criminal justice system to the workplace, banks and financial institutions. Eighty-four per cent of blacks in the UK say they have been treated less fairly compared to whites in dealing with police, while three-quarters say they are treated unfairly in courts. Additionally, two-thirds of blacks say they are treated unfairly than whites while applying for mortgage or loan. A smaller percentage of blacks but upwards of four in every ten see their unfair treatment in restaurants and stores as well as in voting.

Moreover, close to 71 per cent of blacks in the UK complain of being discriminated or unfairly treated due to their race while one in every ten or 11 per cent claim they experience this on a regular basis. Amongst blacks, both men and women are likely to report experiences of racial discrimination at a personal level. The level of education matters too with blacks who have at least a college experience, more likely to say of having been discriminated against. As such, experiences of racial discrimination are not common among the whites, although a sizable minority of white adults in the UK have reported having experienced racial discrimination or unfair treatment.

Fanon's views on Cultural Appropriation and Racial Conformity

Frantz Fanon is a prominent figure in the burgeoning sub-discipline of Critical Philosophy of Race. However, its surprising little attention is paid to his narrative about race. There has been intensified scrutiny on his account about Black Skin White Masks seemingly distracting attention from different aspects of his thinking on race. As such, Fanon is considered partly responsible for the relative silence on the subject because he did not leave a sustained medication about race. Fanon knew the eminent dangers by appearing as though he was underwriting the dominant concepts about race employed during the first half of the twentieth century. It has been shown that Fanon didn’t underwrite a new consensus on race that emerged around the statement made by UNESCO about race in the 1950s. Further, Fanon did not abandon his concept like some of his counterparts who took a different path. Additionally, he did not embrace a new anthropological notion about culture. Finally, Fanon failed to share a contemporary drive towards individualism.

Frantz Fanon used his clinical research and his analysingerience of a black man within a racist world in analysing the effects of racism on individuals aanalysedfically people of colour. Also, he analysed the psychological and economic impacts of imperialism. As such, Fanon was an important thinker in post-and de-colonial thought, and his work had widespread influence acolonisersninternalisedcial sciences. Fanon examined how colonizers intercolonisedolonialiinternalisedttendant ideologies and how colonized people internalized the ideas about their inferiority and how they ultimately came to emulate the oppressors. According to Fanon, racism functions as the control mechanism that maintains colonial relations as a natural occurrence. Black Skins White Masks provided a lasting and powerful indictment of imperialism and racism.

Is Conforming to the Perceived “Dominant” Race Necessary for Survival

Yes, conforming to the perceived ‘dominant’ race is necessary for survival. Human beings usually have the desire to fulfil a particular social need with others. And in fulfilling such a need, individuals may have to conform to another group's norms and behaviour despite the objections towards the behaviour. The impulse or push to conform is because of perceived or real social pressures experienced especially by a minority race. By encountering such pressure continuously, individuals conform to others and groups to gain a certain form of social reward. Such a reward may be real or at times, perceived. A key element influencing conformity is a person's self-concept which determines how strong one believes as belonging to a particular group. The strength of belief determines how an individual is most likely to conform to a dominant group.

Accordingly, a person’s race is one of the prevalent factors in associating with negative feelings. Likewise, racism and intra-race aggression are strongly connected to other feelings of anger, depression, being ashamed, and frustration, anxious, exhausted, sad, and hopeless. Hence, conformity to dominant race helps address these feelings and the perceived gains—a strong association with a minority race such as black causes anxiety when the self-concept is somehow challenged. Additionally, the social cost associated with conformity to a dominant race is prevalent. Most often, persons from minority race are told to negate their own identity to attain sucnormalisingally in a white-dominated world. Further, the normalizing white middle-class males and characteristics compel African-Americans to consider conforming to the dominant behaviour and avoid social costs associated with failure to conform to what is considered a typical good behaviour. Effectively, the social cost for failure to conform to the dominant white race means an individual could be singled out and unfairly punished.

How Race Affects Kid’s Upbringing

Children from minority races grow up poor and at a greater risk of disruption physiologically and depressed academic achievements. Stress is considered a commonplace terminology for the hormonal changes happening as a response to threatening or frightening conditions or events. If they become severe, the changes are referred to as toxic stress and impede a kid's cognitive capacity, behaviour, and physical and emotional health. As such, threatening and frightening situations are sustained and experienced frequently by minority race kids who are economically and socially disadvantaged. Additionally, kids from minority races have limited access to protective resources to mitigate stress to tolerable levelcharacterised kids come disproportionately from families characterised by low incomes, hence the disadvantaged economic and social conditions where these kids come from predicts the depressing outcomes. As such, from infancy minority race and lower social class kids will most likely have strong, prolonged and frequent exposure to traumatic events.

How Race Affects People in their Adult Life

Emerging adulthood, particularly ages 18-29, is one of the most critical development periods that bridges adolescence and adulthood. At this phase, individuals develop their identities through vocation, education, culture and relationships. However, for minority races, the occurrence of these events is in the context of institutional and systemic racial discrimination that mostly disadvantage them. Minority youths experience aggressive policing and residential segregation with less likelihood of attending and graduating from college like other young adults from dominant races. Additionally, adults from minority races face micro-aggressions and interpersonal racial hassles, including being avoided and receiving poor services. Besides, racial discrimination is associated with allostatic load- wear and tear of biological systems. Moreover, chronic and cumulative racial discrimination in adults is associated with negative health and biological outcomes such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, cellular ageing and risks of cardiovascular diseases. Also, racial discrimination in adults is linked to dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that helps our body control stress reactions and regulation of other key functions like mood and emotions, immune system, digestion, sexuality, expenditure and energy storage.

How Race and Class Go Hand-in-Hand

Race and class go hand in hand with whites in black race minority nations being associated with privilege due to their social and economic status. The advantages in belonging to a majority racial group are real even though it’s often hidden. Some fundamental disconnects motives and exacerbates racial and cultural divide due to lack of awareness about how privilege contribute to realities of racism. Essentially, racism has over the years been taught as something that put others at a disadvantage but may not be depicted as putting the white as privileged or at an advantage. Although the class is mostly associated with economic and wealth status, it applies even more broadly. Privilege or class is assigned to populations because they have unearned advantages which are highly valued but also restricted to specific groups.

The Explanation of the Difference in Difficulty of Different Races in Different Parts of the World

Many neighbourhood's with concentrated poverty have been established as disproportionately Blacks or African American. There is no other ethnic or racial group in Europe or the US that has lived in such low income and racially segregated neighbourhoods for generations as Blacks or African Americans. Ideally, residential racial segregation is a result of historical but deliberate federal, state and local practices and policies that tend to dilute factors protecting children against the development of toxic stress responses. Consequently, in Europe and particularly the UK, in low-income African segregated residential areas, it's difficult to access healthcare and even harder getting around public transportation because it’s unreliable and inaccessible. Further, there is an increase in social isolation and restricted access to opportunities for employment.

Balibar’s Views on Race and Class

French Philosopher Etienne Balibar brought into debate his fruits of more than two decades of analytical work that was greatly inspired by Louis Althusser. According to Balibar, racism is a growing phenomenon related to class divisions and nation-state contradictions. For this reason, racism in today’s contemporary society compels us to rethink the relationships between nationalism and class struggles. Additionally, Balibar challenges a commonly held notion that racism is a throwback to or continuation of the xenophobia linked to past communities and societies. Balibar analyses racism as a social relation indissolubly tied with the present structures in the social realm, including the labour divisions, nation-state, or the division between the core and periphery continuously. Balibar emphasizes the modernity of racism that should be understood about class struggle and contemporary capitalism.

How Society Cling Onto Racism

Our society has clung onto racism with racial classifications, historically been linked to different forms of oppression. Racial abuse has imposed harms to people who are racially oppressed even as the majority think racism only affects the minorities. Racism continues to profoundly shape different societies and politics, affecting different races in so many ways. For instance, in Europe and America, racism has been harming the disadvantaged groups in two distinct ways. First, it has divided popular political and social movements and undermined the capacity of challenging prevailing forms of inequality and power. Second, it has undermined the universalistic aspects of the welfares society.

Gandhi's Controversial Reckoning

Majority of black Africans call Gandhi a racist, and others question his sexual practices. Additionally, Hindu nationalists continue to reject his vision on pluralism in India. However, Gandhi is a revered figure in India and globally, but some teachings and habits are today facing fresh scrutiny. In many parts of the world, Gandhi is considered a controversial figure with is statue having been removed from a university campus in Ghana. Activists in Malawi and Ghana are angry about his early writings. While in South Africa in 1903, Gandhi wrote white people should be the predominating race and further insisted black people are troublesome, dirty and live like animals. Hence, some like Gandhi's biographer says he was a racist from the start.

Why Gandhi was likely to have the mentality that he had because of his race and upbringing

Yes, Gandhi was likely to have the mentality that he had because of his race and upbringingcivilisedyoung man he respected the ideas of his culture civilised and in his 20s thought Europeans were the most civilized. Although he held Europeans in such high regard, Gandhi managed to outgrow his racism, and during his life as a public figure, he was indeed anti-racist and talked about the end of discrimination in all its kinds. Further, he championed for women in politics.

How to break the wheel of racism

Racism is today a global issue that has been ignored as a problem. Staying silent on racism is proving deadly and makes one complicit in the systems of oppression. Even as 2020 remains a historic year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the uprising in the US and Europe against racial injustices has proved a turning point. Protests spanned across nations with more than 30 countries bringing awareness about racism. In combination with social media, the protests exposed brands, companies and individuals for their practices and behaviours. The wheel can be broken by keeping the conversion on racism going, embedding anti-racism into people's values, actions and training. Further, spreading awareness and cultivating diversity and tackling unconsciousness bias will also help in stopping or slowing racism.

Can Racism Ever Die

Racism is unlikely to die or decline. However, cases of segregation and gross discrimination have abated over the years, although basic racism remains entrenched in society. Blacks are still suffering from routine racial discrimination, particularly in getting jobs, loan application, getting a promotion, seeking justice and courts and police, getting taxi and services in restaurants. All evidence currently shows the playing field is far from being level.

Conclusion

The current trends promise these features defining race and ethnicity will endure. Racial classifications are never given from biological descent, although they invoke biology. They are constructed using complex cultural and historical processes. Besides, racial classifications are linked to various forms of social and economic inequality, exclusion and domination and a system of belief that almost always assign inferior and superior attrgeneralisationtuses according to race. As a sociological generalization, racial classifications have become essential to people to the extent that it’s associated with various forms of socioeconomic oppression and inequality. Hence, the term racism associates racial classification with a significant level of oppression.