ADDRESSING RACISM

ADDRESSING RACISM

Executive Summary

Racism is a vice associated with the discrimination and prejudiced aimed at someone for belonging to a different race. The idea of racism is based on the belief that one race is superior to the other. The definition of racism is based on different points of view by different individuals. The basic definition of racism is the classification of people into distinct groups according to social behavior and their innate capacities. The other meaning of racism is the classification of people led by the belief that some people are more superior to others. In the current world, racism has taken a toll on different sectors and has raised concerns on the efficacy of the attempt to create global peace. Racism has dominated different fields such as politics, sports, business, and even religion. In politics, for example, people become divided among racial lines in a bid to choose leaders from their races. On the sports sector, players have suffered both physical and emotional abuse inside and outside the pitch.

The impacts of racism are clear, and the past has proved to be sufficient evidence to support the fight against racism. The fight against racism cannot, however, be successful unless the leaders involved are serious in following the rules made. Most of the times, leaders become racist and stand in the way of doing away with racism. History does not fail in reminding the world of the negative impacts of racism. Events that have happened to put humanity into a test have stood to remain fresh in the memories of both the offenders and the victims. Take for example the Holocaust; the Jewish community was almost wept out of the face of the earth due to the racist nature portrayed by the Nazi Germans towards the Jews. Another occurrence that cannot be quickly forgotten is the apartheid rule in South Africa. Also, colonial rule was based on a social organization driven by racism. The colonized communities were pushed into reserves while the colonialists took hold of the fertile lands for settlement.

Lee (2017) shared an essay he had written in 1968 about the evils of racism and proved that the essay is still relevant today. Stan Lee quotes, “Bigotry and racism [have proved to be] among the deadliest social vices that are troubling the world today. However, the two vices cannot be dealt with by a punch in the snoot or the use of a ray gun. The only effective way to destroy racism and bigotry is to expose the vices and to reveal them as evil as they are.”

Fighting racism does not seek to mean that bugging wrongdoers are unreasonable, but condemning an entire race is unreasonable. Racism can only be termed as irrational and insane since it only aims at proving that human beings may have come from different origins

Why Racism should be fought at all Costs

Racism has taken a toll on required fields in the world. Different communities have decided to impose superiority on others. The measure of superiority has been based on the level of civilization.  Communities use the excuse of imposing civilization to enslave other communities on a racial basis. Racism has been taking different forms in different places. The forms that can be taken by racism include prejudice, discrimination, or at its worst, hatred. The vice is made complete when directed towards an individual based on the racial affiliation of the individual. Racism is often associated with acts of abuse and harassment. However, racism does not have to involve violence and intimidation to be viewed as a vice. Under normal circumstances, racism may take forms that do not appear serious among the victims such as exclusion from groups and activities. Racism is revealed through the way people behave as well as the activities that people are involved in doing. Also, racism can quickly be reflected in systems and institutions. In other times, racism may not be revealed at all, but that does not mean that racism does not exist. Racism can be revealed through people’s actions as well as their attitudes. It can also be reflected in systems and institutions. But sometimes it may not be revealed at all. Not all racism is blatant. For example, someone may look through a list of job applicants and decide not to interview people with certain surnames.

This white paper will discuss the different contexts affected by racism and the attempts that have been tried in the fight against racism. The first context is on the victims of racism and the impacts on the people experiencing racism. The next bit of discussion is the places where racism happens, why people are racist and why people are racist. The white paper aims at helping individuals to make decisions concerning the right action to take in supporting the fight against racism. The paper is addressed to the general audience that might be affected by racism in one way or another.

Previous Approaches

Racism is not a new vice. The fight against racism has been going on for the better part of man’s history. Racism has existed since the first time man recognized that the social organization could not be uniform among all the human social groups. The division on racial lines has been following the ability of specific groups to have more developed social structures than others. The fight against racism can be said to have improved in the recent past with rules and regulations being set to control the behavior of individuals in places that involve genetic interactions. The history of racism is darkened by the events that happened in the past due to racism and have remained in memories for generations. The dark past of racism has moved several individuals to engage in the active fight against racism to try and avoid similar occurrences in the future. The efforts of activists have proved to be a bit fruitful in achieving their agenda. Some past events that darken the history of racism are the Holocaust, the apartheid rule and the slave trade in the Americas. Previously, attempts have been made to curb the adverse effects of racism. The debate that has been in existence about the true definition of racial equality has made the fight against racism hard to bring into reality.

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act: The fight against racism became evident in the 1950s when the debate on what should be done to counter racial discrimination and promote social equality and racial relations. The issue of black migration raised concerns that the fight against racism would at one time become a political issue and dealing with it will be a real struggle. The first substantial attempt to do away with racism was hit with a blow in 1962 (Shawki& Harris, 2017). The establishment of the Commonwealth immigrants’ act was significant in supporting the fight against racism. The act aimed to control the continuous flow of black migrants into Britain territory. However, the act did not appear to be concerned in answering the question of the future racial relations that would follow among the British Society. The attempt was initially criticized as promoting racism but later came out to be understood that the commonwealth was considerate about the adverse impacts of uncontrolled immigration. The problems that the immigration act tried were divided into two and were later addressed in the commonwealth white paper on racism. First, the influx of immigrants into Britain was causing tensions and racial problems that could only be solved by controlling immigration. Also, the feeling of the Britons that immigrants would give unnecessary competition in the job market as well as in the utilization of resources would only cause unfriendly relations between the residents and the immigrants. The Commonwealth intervened to help in avoiding the impacts of uncontrolled immigration.

Figure 1 Immigrants try to access the Europe through the sea. The Commonwealth believed the immigration Act could solve the immigration problem

The Race Relations Act: In 1976, an act was passed to help in a more structured fight against racism. The fight against racism has to be well structured, and the pioneers should show seriousness in following up the adherence of the rules set. The race relations act was criticized for doing very little in making the fight against racism fruitful. Many critics based their arguments on the claim that the act was only a political attempt that was aimed at lying to the public that the government was doing something in the fight against racism (Honeyford, 2017). The criticism started when critics realized that racial events were still consistent and no severe actions were being taken against the offenders of such crimes. Also, the policies made by different governments seemed to be racial in some ways although the governments used the excuse of the race relations act to blind the activists into believing that a lot was being done to stop racism.

New Findings

Research has been done on the ways that can be employed to support a successful fight against racism. Racism has advanced to happen literary anywhere. Currently, a normal belief is that racism can happen in the next door, in the neighborhood or even in the religious structures. With the development of technology, racism has advanced to social media with the vice spreading fast. Different platforms have put recommendable measures to restrict users who might misuse social media to spread racial ideas.

Social Media Policies: The use of social media has proved to be an avenue for spreading racial hatred and ideas. Users always use hidden identities to commit to their intended ill desires (Mason, 2016). The use of social media has however been subjected to new information-sharing policies that try to manage the extent to which information should be shared freely on social media. Although the measures do not necessarily define ways of filtering the information passed, policies have been put in place to punish the offenders of racial crimes.

Figure 2 A graffiti shared on a social media platform spreading racist ideas

The sports sector: Racism has come in handy to spoil the fun associated with sports. The main goal behind holding sports is to subject players to fair conditions to be involved in a fair competition. However, the sports sector has been hit with racial concerns that affect the way sports are managed. Racism in sports takes different forms and starts right from the policies set to regulate different sports. The management of sports has been blamed in several occurrences to be done in racial ways. For example, the application of disciplinary policies has been criticized for favoring players and stakeholders from certain races at the expense of other races. Also, racism has been prevalent in the cheering and fan management on different sport occasions. For example, racial chants have been witnessed in various matches raising concern on the safety of players and stakeholders taking part in the sports. However, different management bodies have put measures in place to try as much as possible to curb the ill-intended vice and reintroduce the fun associated with racial-free sports. The FIFA, for example, has put in place policies that try to contain fans from making racial abuses to players. The banning of fans from attending football matches is among the measures put in place to ensure that fans behave while watching football matches.

Figure 3 Fans unite to champion for the end of racism in football

Conclusion

Racism is a vice that needs to be fought under all possible means if race relations are to be upheld. The fight for racism depends on the seriousness of the different bodies tasked with dealing with the vice. History has acted as sufficient proof of the need to fight racism with zeal and self-drive. The acts of the past such as the Holocaust, the massacres during the apartheid rule as well as the slavery in the Americas should serve as lessons to motivate the current generation to desist from any forms of racism. In the recent past, efforts have been made to curb to spread of racial ideas though the fight has been met with several stumbling blocks. Lack of support from prominent political figures has been a great hindrance towards the realization of a racially united world. Some of the attempts in the past were the Commonwealth’s Immigration Act of 1962 and the Racial Relations act of 1975. Currently, attempts are being done to improve the fight against racism through social media and the sports sector. The current efforts have been proving to be successful.

References

Bell, L. A., & Adams, M. (2016). Racism and white privilege. In Teaching for diversity and          social justice (pp. 151-200). Routledge.

Dominelli, L. (2017). Anti-racist social work. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Honeyford, R. (2017). Commission for Racial Equality: British Bureaucracy and the Multiethnic   Society. Routledge.

Kivel, P. (2017). Uprooting Racism-: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. New           Society Publishers.

Mason, C. L. (2016). Tinder and humanitarian hook-ups: The erotics of social media racism.          Feminist Media Studies, 16(5), 822-837.

Shawki, A., & Harris, N. (2017). The First Commonwealth Immigration Act 1962: Fifty Years     On. In Selected Essays (pp. 465-467). BRILL.

Trepagnier, B. (2017). Silent racism: How well-meaning white people perpetuate the racial            divide. Routledge.