For a long time in human history, racism has been a contentious issue. During the age of slavery, racism was easy to identify because members of Caucasian descent engaged in segregationist practices explicitly. In contemporary times, racism is harder to identify partly because it is hidden in institutional practices. This makes it harder to address because only a segment of the population gets to enjoy a set of privileges of belonging to a particular racial descent while others (commonly the minority) grapple with harsh realities of racial segregation. Other than looking down upon people based on physical attributes, one way in which racism has been exercised in contemporary times is through the placement of races in social classes so that some groups of people are deprived of the opportunity to rise into influential positions or even to work in decent jobs and attend good schools. In fact, as recently as the second half of the Twentieth Century, racial discrimination was practiced explicitly in South Africa in the form of Apartheid. This institutionalized form of racism gave explicit benefits to the white community in the country while denying even the most basic human rights to the native communities. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of race, providing important definitions and suggesting viable solutions for ending racial practices altogether.
According to basic understanding, race is the grouping of people based on physical attributes, including skin color, cranial shape, hair texture, and eye color (Chp. 2 & 3) . Ethnicity, on the other hand, as the concept of belonging to a social group with particular cultural attributes. There are three commonly identified categories of races namely Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid (Chp. 2 & 3) . Contrary to common misconceptions, all races have a common primal pair, as proven by Charles Darwin in his study of the origin of species ( Chp. 2 & 3; PBS, n.d. ). In fact, there is not a single characteristic or gene that distinguishes all members of a single race from another (PBS, n.d.). Even with a significant body of research proving that all races belong to the Homo sapiens species and that there is less to race than meets the eye, racism still exists. This is in part because for a long time, humans have segregated people based on skin color, leading to such practices as slavery, eugenics, Social Darwinism, prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, ethnocentrism, and racial discrimination.
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Even with advanced societies outlawing some of these practices, racism continues to have a grip on people’s mindsets for various reasons. The most common practice that continues to propagate racial discrimination is the institutionalization of racism. In this case, people in positions of power create systems that will provide maximal benefits to privileged racial groups while denying the underprivileged groups. This has been made possible by social stratification systems based on race, income, religion, and education, among other factors (Social Class/Poverty). For instance, the United States judicial system implicitly favors the white community while condemning the black community as evidenced by the discrepancy in incarceration rates across the two communities. Similarly, the grading school system favors the white community in the sense that it is nearly impossible for individuals from impoverished communities (mostly the black) to be classified with the whites. Based on this understanding, it is possible to get a better understanding of the demographic variables used in our societies to discriminate against whole groups of people, such as prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping.
I understand prejudice as the idea of prejudging a group or a member of a particular group of people based on attributes believed to be true about that group. Prejudice leads to the mindset of favoring one’s racial group while being biased against members of another racial group (). In the context of race, discrimination, on the other hand, is the outward expression of prejudice which entails denying members of another racial group certain privileges based on the belief that they are undeserving of these privileges (Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination) . Finally, stereotyping entails holding the belief that a certain group of individuals can be distinguished on a set of attributes and that only that group is capable of exhibiting the said attributes. Stereotyping is responsible for propagating the idea of racism because it gives people false notions about other racial groups.
While race is an abstract concept, the institutionalization of racism has far-reaching consequences on members of underprivileged communities. Institutionalized racism has resulted from immigration – the primary cause of population growth and cultural change throughout the history of the United States (Overview of Immigration History in the U.S.) . Institutionalized racism is the primary contributing factor to discriminatory practices exercised upon minority groups in our societies. As such, dealing with racism from a functional perspective requires that society identifies the loopholes in its institutions and addresses them entirely. Moreover, it is pertinent that people are better educated on the idea of race and that there is less to the concept that meets the eye. By educating children from an early age, it will be easier to deal with racism from a conflict perspective. Finally, it will be necessary for society to get rid of the stereotypes used to distinguish groups. This will be helpful in dealing with racism from an interactionist perspective, as people will get to understand that notions they hold about other groups are not necessarily true.
Conclusion
In recent human history, racism has been allowed to dominate the mindsets of people. This has led to discriminatory practices, prejudices, and even extreme practices like eugenics. As revealed through this discussion, the primary factor that propagates these practices is institutionalized racism. In order to do away with racism, it is necessary that it is confronted from functional, interactionist, and conflict perspectives. In this case, societies need to identify and address the institutional loopholes that contribute to racism. Educating people will also go a long way in helping people to accept that racial differences are imagined. Finally, it will be necessary to do away with the stereotypes that often distinguish racial groups.
References
Chp. 2 & 3 – The Bases of Inequality: Social Class, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender. PPT presentation .
Overview of Immigration History in the U.S. PPT presentation .
PBS. (n.d.). RACE – The power of an illusion . Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm
Racism, Prejudice, Discrimination. PPT presentation .
Social Class/Poverty. PPT presentation .
