Definition
Belief in the superiority of one race over another; discrimination against an individual or group of people, based on racial background, usually colour.
Main causes of racism
- Children get prejudice from their parents and peer groups. Racism is learned. We are not born with it.
- Ignorance and Fear: People fear things they do not know much about, e.g. coming into contact with people who have different customs, language or appearance, they might express their anxiety through racism.
- Bullying: People make themselves feel better by picking on a person or group they feel are weaker than them. Sometimes, we all want to feel we belong to an “in group” and “hate” those not in “our group”.
- Poverty and unemployment: Racism can form in areas of poverty or unemployment. People look for someone to blame: “Pakistanis are buying our corner shops, foreigners scrounge our benefits!”
Examples of racism from history
Slave Trade: 16th to the 19th centuries. Blacks were stolen from their homes and families, taken to the USA, Britain and Europe, sold to white families and used as slaves. Often overworked, beaten and killed.
Colonialism: Europeans, e.g. English, French, Germans and Dutch built empires by taking over countries far away. They imposed their own government on these people, took their wealth, made them adopt new customs, clothes, ways of life and religions. Many foreigners died because the Europeans took diseases with them - entire races were wiped out. This was built on the belief that foreign races were savages, not fully human. Europeans thought they were helping to make people civilised.
Colonialism contributed to problems in the Developing Countries. Their wealth has been taken; the world’s trade in gold, oil, diamonds and other resources is still in the hands of white people even though these resources are found in black countries. We are rarely told that the cause of poverty can be traced back to white colonialism and exploitation of black people by whites, e.g. 3rd World Debt.
Racism today – minorities are often given poorer housing, inferior education, not given a job or promotion. Many cities have ‘ghettoes’ where the majority of residents are ethnic minorities with poor living conditions and high unemployment. Recently the police was found to be guilty of institutional racism. The Stephen Lawrence case saw five white youths get away with the murder of a black boy because of the way the police handled the case. Other countries have seen the worst sort of racial violence, with millions of people killed in genocide (an attempt to wipe out a whole race of people), particularly in Rwanda and Bosnia but also in other racially-motivated disputes around the world.
In the UK:
- only 15 Members of Parliament are people of different races. Looking at the diversity of this country, there should be 60.
- only 3 top judges are people of different races.
