In today’s world racism has become rampant and can be seen plain as day wherever you happen to look. It has gotten to the point that no one class or age group is spared. Whether it be fair-skinned against the black or African descents or Christians or atheists against the Muslim population racism has spread worldwide and the harm that comes from it keeps on increasing in scale and damage amount wisely. To show just how widespread racism has become here are some statistics that illuminate our claim. On average in the UK a black individual can be searched by police up to six times and in France, 85% of Islamophobic are targeting women with violence or harassment. Those are just a few real-world examples that have been made public but a whole host of more terrible acts of racism have been kept hidden from public eyes.
History
To understand the present situation we need to take some steps back and see how racism started in the first place, to begin with. Many historians have agreed on the fact the racism becomes commonplace at the start of the 17th century due to slavery committed by the Americans in order to run their plantations with African men and women. From then on black people were ostracized and taken advantage of for the most part by white Americans. On the other end of the racism spectrum comes Islamophobia, a term that has become of legitimate concern in recent years in the western side of the world. In accordance with multiple organizations, every one of which can be taken very seriously, have defined the term Islamophobia as an irrational, highly exaggerated fear fueled by false or negative stereotypes. Islamophobia has been around for much longer than most people can imagine. However, it was after the 9/11 attack that this phobia really got traction and the reason behind it has much to do with media coverage of the atrocities committed by terrorist organizations as the terrorist activities itself.
Throughout the history of both of the above-mentioned racism both parties involved, black and white people as well as Muslims and other people, have been at fault one time or another. However, instead of just blaming each other and looking at only the faults committed we need to look for solutions to our problems. Otherwise, the causality or racism will only get bigger and bigger and the fallout will get worse and worse.
For more on black racism check out: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-milestones
For more on Islamophobia visit: https://news.gallup.com/poll/157082/islamophobia-understanding-anti-muslim-sentiment-west.aspx
Cause and Effect
Causality or cause and effect is explained as the cause is the thing that makes other things happen. The effect refers to what results come from due to cause. It is what happened next in the text that results from a preceding cause. To put it concisely, the cause is why something happened and the effect is what happened.
When it comes to racism both parties involved will create causes, either negative or positive, and an effect will result from it, again positive or negative. To understand this let’s look at some real-life examples of cause and effect that occurred in the past.
- Nat Turner’s Revolt, August 1831
- An example of a negative impression
- Turner led some black slave against their oppressors
- Planned to capture an armory and use its weapons to siege a town of Jerusalem
- A large number of both black and white people lost their lives
- Nat Turner got caught, tried and then hung
- White people used this as an example of how inferior black people were
- Harlem Renaissance, 1920
- An example of a positive impression
- Made the nation and the world as a whole see the beauty of black culture
- A large number of artist, singers, and dancers of black origin came out
- The white artist tried to make them seem primitive in order to slow their drive
Fig: Jazz players during the Harlem Renaissance
- Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 1955
- Rosa Parks is said to be the mother of civil rights
- Took a stand after suffering for a long time
- Quoted that “I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.”
- Martin Luther King Jr speech, 1963
- His speech has been heralded as one of the greatest of all times
- Is seen as a defining moment in black civil rights movement
- Wanted more than civil rights for black people
- Wanted for all colors of men to stand together
Fig: Martin Luther King Jr and his famous words “I have a dream”
To know more about black history go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/books/review/a-history-of-race-and-racism-in-america-in-24-chapters.html
As we can see racism has been and still is a very real and harmful topic that is on almost everyone’s mind. It has become something that can’t just be put on the back of our minds. So the only thing that can be done is to fight it but in a way that does more good than bad. In the past, many tried to fight the oppression and racism using force but others used nonviolent methods and they were the ones that made it in the history books for their methodology and success. Thus we must learn from the past and use that knowledge to better the understanding of the masses. In a nutshell, it means that we must make people see that this negative stereotype and phobia directed at others is nothing but them letting the social media and false information steer them in the wrong direction.
If you want to help in combating racism educate yourself by going to:
https://www.un.org/en/letsfightracism/