Racism is one of the world’s biggest challenges. Though most groups have been on the frontline fighting this vice, no change has been felt. Most writers forget to define this term but just describe it as an evil act in the society. Bobo and Fox (2007) define racism as the poor treatment of some people because they have different origin (race). However, he is limited on the scope of this term. Racism is the discrimination of individuals due to their difference in social and historical background. Most researchers argue that racism exist in the current society than it used to be in the 18th century. Then it means that, the evolving man was never a racist and the modern man must be worried of this trend. People are not born racists but they are made to adapt to it as they grow up from their childhood to adulthood. Have you ever asked yourself why racism is quite prevalent in the United States more thanother countries? While the world countries have tried to eliminate racism, its rate is still high and suffices to say that it is taking different angles rather than what people thought of it. The existence of ethnicity and nepotism are some of the new trends that the vice is taking. Most country’s government spends sleepless nights thinking on how to root out racism of the society. However, there are strong forces behind racism that make it quite prevalent in the modern society.
Thesis statement
This paper discusses the impacts of racism in the society with the proposition of its ability to be eliminated from the society. First, there are various causes of racism that must be looked at, if at all, the determination to eliminate it still exists. Frustration is one of the major causes of racism since it influences people’s attitude towards others. When an individual experiences some social challenges, their attitude changes negatively especially towards people of other races. For example, when an individual ha ve financial problem, they will alw ays blame the government for creating employment opportunities to the foreigners who deteriorate the economy (Trepagnier, 2006, p. 25). The assumption is always in the minds of the natives who for maybe one reason or another fails to secure a job.
Secondly, meta-analysis of 10 studies reveals that, psychological factor is a key contributor of racism in the modern society. The psychological disturbances are the cause of racism. Psychologically, it is the tendency of people to feel superior economically, socially and politically (Gaylord & Cunningham, 2009, p. 534). Racism serves to rationalize, the hierarchical superiority of ethnic groups over other ethnic groups. The dominant group always wants to maintain psychological high social and material strengths over others. Due to this, the gap must be seen psychologically by the domineering group.Moreover, some people are also affected by xenophobia. Naturally, some people are born to fear people who they see are different from them. Deep fearfor other races can express itself in some racial motivated violence. For instance, the differences in physical characteristics may create difficulties in understanding one another. In the United States, some people treat immigrants as outsiders and this creates fear to interact with them on a specific co untry issues (Smedley, Audrey & Brian. 2005, p. 22).
Racism has several negative impacts that vary from individual impacts to the national impacts. Joe (2009) argues that, though the frustration affects individuals, but it impacts negatively on the economy of the country as a matter of fact. During the colonial American period, the slaves that were indirectly brought to America through the Caribbean Agricultural plantation had severe impacts on the individuals. The slaves reported elements of trauma induced to them by the act. In addition, they were secreted and discriminated to be lesser being since they were black Africans. Apart from the individual negative experiences, most country’s economies feel the impact racism. Through anxiety, stress and depression most discriminated employees perform poorly in their areas of production (Davis, Aronson, & Salinas, 2006, p412). Furthermore, the non-equa lity existence affects the country’s growth and development. Nevertheless, racism affects people’s participation in certain activities. For instance, a sport is the most affected activity with most elements of racism being quite prevalent. Sports report some racial remarks, from the facility owners, players themselves, fans and the coaches of specific. For example, the alleged Sterling (Clippers owner) racial remarks, caused tension with the players and fans opting to boycott their games (Almasy, Conlon & Shelby, 2014).
When president Obama assumed office, most people thought that, it was the end of racism based on the president’s traces of origin. However, this is not the case and a lot needs to be done to deal with racism. Even though most surveys reveal complexities in eliminating racism, it is important to note that , a step by step approach can eliminate it. When one wants fully to exploit the importance of living in a foreign land, embracing the people’s language is one of the first steps to eliminate racism. Language enables people to interact freely and this reduces chances of existence of racism. It further allows individuals to be aware of their environment thereby reducing the psychological factors attached to racism. The efforts by the ant-racial groups to create awareness among people, is one of the best ways revealed used to fight this vice (Bobo and Fox 2007, p. 319). Reaching out people who are racist make it easy to convert them to follow suit in understanding why racism is a disastrous act in the society. The government should be in the forefront fighting racism. Government appointments and employment recruitments should reflect equality in society. Furthermore, the government should implement strategic work plans to mitigate the current order. Moreover, tough policies should be enacted to deal with people who are found to practice racism. Nevertheless, change of attitude is the most important tool that can be appreciated to manage this situation. If peoplechange their attitude on the way they regard others from different races, racism will never find its way in the modern society.
In conclusion, racism affects people in various aspects of life and much need to be done to exclude it in the global world context. Frustrations and the psychological factors seem to be the driving forces behind racism. However, human beings are not born racists, but are made to think so. In order to eliminate racism from the society then we must learn to treat all people equally regardless of social and historical background. In this, the government has a major role to play in making all the people to understand the importance of appreciable coexistence in the modern society.
References
Almasy, A., Conlon, K. & Shelby, L. (2014). “Additional racist Comments Attributed to Clippers’ Donald Sterling.” CNN
Bobo, L.D., & Fox, C. (2007). Race, racism, and discrimination: Bridging problems, methods, and theory in social psychological research. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 319-332.
Davis, C., Aronson, J., & Salinas, M. (2006). Shades of threat: Racial identity as a moderator of stereotype threat. Journal of Black Psychology, 32, 399–417
Feagin, Joe R. (2009). Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations, 2nd Edition.Routledge: New York, NY
Gaylord-Harden, N. K., & Cunningham, J. A. (2009). The impact of racial discrimination and coping strategies. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 38, 532–543
Smedley, Audrey & Brian D. Smedley. (2005). Race as Biology if Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem is real. American Psychologist, 60, 16–26.
Trepagnier, B. (2006). Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide. Paradigm Publishers
|
Grammar
F
|
Formatting
C
|
Organization
D
|
Style
D
|
I’ll try to put this to good use immediately.