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Introduction
Throughout human history, racism and the discrimination of people based on their race, cultural attributes, and backgrounds have resulted in despicable acts against fellow humans such as the holocaust that claimed the lives of millions of Jews in Germany. Nevertheless, racism continues to be one of the most prominent social challenges today because it is deeply rooted in society. Racism constitutes adverse feelings or actions perpetrated against individuals because of their racial background, ultimately leading to marginalization and discrimination. However, its implications are far-fetched as they diminished societys levels of morality and limit the community from collaborating toward continuous development and higher living standards. Therefore, racism and discrimination are social evils that must be eradicated due to their negative social, emotional, and mental implications on their victims and societys continuity.
Sociological Causes and Explanations of Racism
Racism is an ideology that differentiates people according to their ethnicity. Racism is a doctrine that proposes that the worlds population is differentiated into different racial groups, which predominantly determine human traits, abilities, and capacity (Banton, 2018). As a result, these beliefs encourage some individuals to perceive their races as superior to others. In particular, the concept of racism emerged in the 18th century due to slavery and colonialism initiated by North American and European powers. The Europeans sought to distinguish their difference and superiority from individuals of African ascent who had been forcefully enslaved and spread all over the Americas (Shiao & Woody, 2021). Hence, the Europeans justified their atrocities against slaves and sustained their existing system of human exploitation while portraying themselves as champions of human rights, equality, unlimited opportunities, and freedom by classifying Africans as lesser beings. However, racism in the modern world has evolved and exhibits more complex features and adverse reparations for societies globally. Seemingly, racism is a vice that is eroding global developments because it causes occasional conflicts between individuals and groups due to uprisings.
The theoretical explanations of the emergence and development of racism are categorized into functionalism theories, interactionism, and culture of prejudice theories. Functionalist ideologies perceive society as a fixed structure with various parts that serve a specific purpose and contribute to the social and biological needs of society (Back & Solomos, 2020). Thus, functionalists consider racism a critical aspect of society that must exist to serve a particular function for society to achieve order and stability. Symbolic interactionists suggest that human attributes such as ethnicity and race are sources of identity. Thus, racism results from the interactions of individuals in dominant groups (Banton, 2018). Finally, the culture of prejudice ideologies suggests that bias and prejudice are engraved in the human culture because people grow up surrounded by discrimination and stereotypic inclinations (Back & Solomos, 2020). Hence, racism is a result of the implications of individuals environments and societys habits on their thought processes. Consequently, measuring the effects of racism is difficult because racist actions might be intentional or unintentional.
The Social Factors that Contribute to Racism
One of the main facilitators of racism is individuals ideology of supremacy and culture of racial domination. In other words, racism thrives when people use a presumed cultural or biological superiority in their racial group to justify the inappropriate treatment and inferior positioning of other groups. Racialization is the process through which physical differences such as skin color, height, and eye color, are used to differentiate between groups of individuals (Shiao & Woody, 2021). Thus, racism is the result of racialization which follows a socially consequential valuation and hierarchical placement of racial groups. For example, white supremacy is a system that identifies white people as superior to all other races, thus encouraging white supremacists to dominate other groups (Banton, 2018). Over the years, racism due to white supremacy has encouraged the establishment of institutions that continuously disadvantage those of color in the US. As a result, individuals of color in the US are exposed to several adversities that are noticeable in their way of life, increased levels of poverty in their communities, and high crime and incarceration levels.
Science and medical research are fields that were widely misused in the 17th to 19th centuries to mislead the public and justify racism. In the 18th century, individuals based their practices on enlightenment and rationalism while slowly moving away from the faith and superstition-based practices. Therefore, researchers took advantage of individuals inclination to science to offer pseudo perspectives and evidence suggesting that white people were superior (Walls, 2022). For example, scientific studies proclaimed that there were notable risks in racial interbreeding since the offspring would be more susceptible to diseases than normal and had a short lifespan. As a result, this and other scientifically-backed misleading information encouraged racism and the wrong treatment of individuals from other groups (Walls, 2022). The flawed studies and empirical evidence used to show the inherent attributes of African-Americans and other races over white individuals encouraged the establishment of individuals cultures, systems, and attitudes that influence society today.
Systemic and structural factors also play a major role in facilitating racism since they allow individuals to engage in the vice unconsciously. Systemic and structural contributors to racism refer to the legal, political, criminal justice, and education systems and the structures that oversee these systems functioning. According to Groos et al. (2018), racism that takes this form is deeply embedded in written and unwritten laws, policies, practices, attitudes, and established beliefs that condone the behavior and encourage prejudice against individuals in other groups. As a result, they lead to diminished access to healthcare, unequal resource distribution, and unfair treatment by law enforcement and the criminal justice system (Banton, 2018). The implications of structural and systemic racism are disastrous and far-fetched because of their invisibility. Violations such as police brutality and the murder of unarmed victims receive attention from the public and the media. However, other forms of systemic and structural racism affecting broader populations including poor living standards and increased suffering due to marginalization go unnoticed.
Potential Solutions to Racism
Racism is a social attribute nurtured from childhood as children familiarize themselves with their surroundings and increase their awareness. Therefore, a reliable solution to eradicating the vice is educating children from early childhood on the essence of accepting each others differences and cultures. An approach to ensure that children learn better human values is abolishing any teaching and learning materials that do not encourage cohesion and equality (Marrun et al., 2019). Moreover, instead of shielding children from the atrocities that scourge society due to racism, parents should talk to their young ones and instill anti-racist qualities in them as they grow up. Similarly, educators should be well-positioned to identify racist aspects in their pedagogy and make the necessary changes (Marrun et al., 2019). Although most teachers are aware of the steps they should take to limit bias, non-intentional discrimination due to systemic and structural factors can impede their judgment. Therefore, it is crucial to train educators on how to evaluate their environments, learning materials, and teaching methods to limit racism and discrimination.
Creating awareness in the general population and equipping them with mechanisms to abolish racism is a reliable solution to dealing with the vice. Racism is perpetrated from the individual, group, and societal levels. Therefore, informing people of why racism is detrimental to society and explaining to them why it exists can help them realize its insignificance and change their ways (Banton, 2018). Educating the public about the adversities of racism and what action to take when they witness racist actions enables them to play an active role in its elimination. As a result, they will be motivated to make things better and oversee the well-being of all individuals. In addition, the government, law enforcement, and shareholders in humanitarian services should provide citizens with reliable solutions to report human rights violations and discrimination due to racism (Shiao & Woody, 2021). A special department dedicated to dealing with racism cases will encourage more feedback and increased participation of individuals to fight against racism. Racism stems from the notion of peoples or a groups supremacy over others. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt strategies that target individuals and encourage them to challenge racist systems, institutions, and structures.
Additionally, the government and lawmakers should collaborate to develop more strict anti-racism and anti-discrimination laws to discourage people from engaging in the vice and mistreating others. The United Nations and other international organizations work tirelessly to ensure that governments champion policies that respect human rights and positive societal development. As a result, policymakers should borrow from proposed guidelines and adopt some rules and regulations recommended to eradicate racism (Banton, 2018). In addition, the government should create statutes that distinguish between different acts of racism, especially in the employment, housing, healthcare, social service, law enforcement, and education sectors, and warrant taking action against perpetrators. Moreover, the government should enhance its reporting and monitoring system to ensure that all racism cases are handled promptly. Setting up strict rules against racism and punishing violators can reduce its levels in society and encourage people toward upholding morals.
Conclusion
Racism is a social phenomenon that disrupts societys frameworks and erodes the positive values of humanity by placing unnecessary suffering on others because of their attributes. Racism emerged in the early 1800s due to Europeans and Americans attempts to conceal and justify their inhuman acts against slaves. However, the doctrine has evolved with the human race to become one of the most complex social issues on the globe. The theories of conflict that attempt to explain its emergence are classified into functionalism theories, symbolic interactionism, and culture of prejudice. These theories suggest that racism serves a particular function in society, occurs due to the interactions of individuals from dominant groups, and results from a human culture of prejudice and discrimination. However, several other factors including structural and systemic factors contribute to racism and its prevalence. Although racism is a social issue that is difficult to eradicate. The government, lawmakers, parents, and the general public can work together by teaching children the values of solidarity, training educators to curb bias and discrimination, engaging the public, and setting up strict regulations. Eventually, society will tackle the issue from its roots and prevent the next generation from adopting adverse values.
References
Back, L., & Solomos, J. (2020). Introduction: Theories of race and racism: genesis, development and contemporary trends. In Theories of race and racism (pp. 1-31). Routledge.
Banton, M. (2018). The concept of racism. In Race and racialism (pp. 17-34). Routledge.
Groos, M., Wallace, M., Hardeman, R., & Theall, K. P. (2018). Measuring inequity: a systematic review of methods used to quantify structural racism. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 11(2), 13. Web.
Marrun, N. A., Plachowski, T. J., & Clark, C. (2019). A critical race theory analysis of the demographic diversitygap in schools: College Students of Color speak their truth.Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(6), 836-857. Web.
Shiao, J., & Woody, A. (2021). The Meaning of Racism . Sociological Perspectives, 64(4), 495-517. Web.
Walls, L. (2022). A critical race theory analysis of the draw-a-scientist test: are they really that white?. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 17(1), 141-168. Web.
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