Racism

            Racism is a prejudice or discrimination directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief. Some think that racism is not around anymore and we live in a country full of peace and harmony; these people are wrong and are thinking of racism in a very general and vague way. Racism is a major issue in America today and many people are being discriminated against for their race, color, religion, sex, and weight. Wikipedia explains the term "racial discrimination" as:

“The belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. It is any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”  

This is a great definition but is racism really just a belief or is it a way of living? My purpose through this paper is to argue that racism is a far greater problem then people make it to be, especially those who have this general and vague view of it. Those are the people to which I am writing. Many of my friends do not even call themselves racist yet it is so evident. A major problem is that some people think that being “funny” is not being racist. My friends are always making fun of how cheap Jews are, how Chinese people can not say a single English word correct, and even how Muslims pray in public. Yes, maybe these thoughts aren’t the most racist but when it comes to actually associating yourself with someone, maybe through work or school who is Jewish, Chinese, or Muslim, you already have predetermined racist thoughts about them which causes you to judge and hate them simply for their race. I will redefine racism into a definition that is updated and accurate. Racism is something that is not just a belief but rather an action and behavior that is ignored in the lives of children, the institution of work, in the behavior of students, and in the center of our homes.

When people think of racism the first thing that may come to their minds are the problems, back in the day, between blacks and whites. When the colored people were not allowed to do many things that the whites were allowed to do, such as drinking out of the same water fountain, sitting at the same table, eating at lunch counters, or even sitting in the front of the bus. This is the outdated view of racism and it is not all that racism consists of. The reason why people do not think racism is around is because they can drink out of the same fountain as a colored person without any problem, but racism is more. Especially with all that is going on today with the Middle East and showing how far racism has gone in America through all this turmoil. It’s not a joke; just search the word “Nigger” on Google and the search engine is filled with links to Nigger Jokes. People do not understand the seriousness of racism and the problems it has been causing.

            Home life is an essential point in racism because children will do what their parents do. Children are constantly learning and exploring new things. I have a nine year-old sister, she literally copies everything that I do from the way I joke around or even the way I talk. Sometimes we do not realize our behavior around children. For example, in order to calm a yelling and crying child sometimes we yell at them back. This gives them the incentive to think that yelling is okay if my mom, dad, older brother or sister are doing it. What children see, children do. So in the home, if parents and family members are cracking jokes about Arabs then the kids will think that Arabs are dirty people and it is okay to make fun of them. They do not know better because the first school is in the home and whatever they learn in the home is what they take out into the world when they are at school, on the playground, when they grow up, and when they have their own family. As I stated above some people think that telling a racist joke is not being racist but in fact it is. I know many of my uncles and aunts who sit around a table and tell racist jokes specifically about blacks. We are sitting in the home; there are children playing and what if they hear this? These kids will see a black kid at school and think immediately of the joke they may have heard at home and then may even begin to hate this kid for no reason just because they heard this racist joke at home. As you can see, many think that their homes are racist free yet a simple joke is allowing it to enter into their homes and ruin not only their own lives but the lives of their children.

            A Class Divided is a video about a teacher and her class. The teacher is Ms. Jane Elliot; she is trying to show her class what racism is all about so she divides her third grade class into two groups, the blue-eyed kids and the brown-eyed kids. The first day she tells the blue-eyed kids that they are better and smarter than the brown-eyed kids. She gives the brown-eyed kids a blue collar to wear so they can be distinguished from afar. The brown-eyed kids are not allowed to drink out of the drinking fountain; they have to use paper cups. The brown-eyed kids cannot play with the blue-eyed kids and the blue-eyed kids have five minutes extra of recess. A student exclaims that Ms. Jane should use her yard stick just in case the brown-eyed people get out of hand. Ms. Jane explains, “I saw innocent Children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating third graders in the space of fifteen minutes.” The second day she tells the brown-eyed kids that they are better then the blue-eyed kids. So she switches the situation around and has the brown-eyed kids place their collars on a blue-eyed kid. The brown-eyed kids have all the privileges now and they are better and smarter than the blue-eyed kids. Ms. Jane is working on the math phonics cards with the brown-eyed kids. She comes to realize that they got through the cards today in two and a half minutes while yesterday when they were the dumb folks it took them 5 and a half minutes. She goes along and does the cards with the blue-eyed people, these kids take four minutes and eighteen seconds while yesterday when they were smarter and superior it only took them three minutes. She asks these blue-eyed kids, “What are you thinking about?” And they tell her they are thinking about the collar and how they are insuperior to the brown-eyed people. She then brings the class back together and tells them about what they just experienced. You can see the kids loosen up after she tells them no one is better than anyone else in this room. She tells them that we should not treat people in a nasty and vicious way just because they are different than us.

This video brings up great points especially in racism. It shows how children are affected once again the children see, children do aspect is true. They will do whatever their authorities tell them. Just as these kids treated each other differently when they were told that they were better than the other group. Why were the blue-eyed people treating the brown-eyed people differently when yesterday being brown-eyed was okay? Ms. Jane clearly showed a difference between the brown-eyed and blue-eyed people, for those who were the “bad” people she made them wear a blue collar, they weren’t allowed to drink out of the fountain, and they couldn’t play with the kids who had a different eye color then them. She made them feel different; she made them feel lower then the “better” kids. When we see someone who is different we tend to stay away, we don’t like different people and Ms. Jane clearly shows that in her simple experiment with the difference of eye color. Imagine all the differences in the world; if we constantly pay attention to the differences whether this person or race is better than that person or race than this world would be nation against nation, city against city, people against people. We can take this and look at it through the Middle Easterns, why are we so afraid of Middle Easterns today when before 9/11 there was nothing wrong with sitting next to one an a plane? This is why racism is still around today because people cannot look past the issues and differences and they think that since they aren’t like me then I must be better.

How do we end racism? Morgan Freeman is talking on 60 Minutes to a Jewish Man and that Jewish man asks him how do we stop racism? Freeman asks the man, “Do you have a Jewish History Month?” Of course the man says no and freeman goes on to explain that he doesn’t want a Black History Month. He explains that in order to stop racism we must stop talking about it! He says, “Stop calling me a black man and I will stop calling you a white man” (Yogerst n. pg.). This is so true because when we say that black man or that Asian man we are differentiating each other and placing a barrier around each other. When we stop talking about it and stop thinking about it we will no longer look at each other in that way and rather look and see that we are all one and the color of our skin and our nationality does not matter because what matters is our actions and how we love.  

            The workplace has a great amount of racism from people talking about others because of their nationality or race to people forming little cliques and groups and excluding “different” people. A former technician form Fox News, Harmeen Jones, is an African-American. “Two of his coworkers said in front of him that they wouldn't feel comfortable having a black president. Jones alleges that one of the men looked at him, saw he was uncomfortable and said, ‘Am I offending your blackness?’” (Huffington Post n. pg.) Harmeen was also told things like, “you look like a gangster" or "like you're ready to shoot someone.” Harmeen is now suing Fox News because when he went to Human Resources to complain they turned him away. After he complained about these racist situations Harmeen was fired. This goes to show that Fox News does not know how to deal with these situations and to shut someone up they get rid of them. But sometimes getting rid of someone does not always solve the problem because when someone knows that racism is wrong they will get up and do something just as Harmeen did.

Racism in the workplace has been a great problem for me. My dad owns grocery stores in Detroit and most of our workers are African-Americans. I have always had this hatred towards the black people. I always thought of them as lazy, dirty, and disgusting people. The things I saw in my store made me hate them. One day I was working on the register and I was ringing this lady up and she bought a box of chicken wings, which totaled to $9.99. She left and came back an hour later complaining that the box was priced $9.98 and she threw a fit that she wanted her penny back. I did not want to give it to her simply for the disrespect she had shown me. She slapped me; this big, black, dirty, disgusting woman slapped me. I cussed her out and gave her a piece of my mind. My father than made me leave and go home because if I stayed I probably would have been shot. I did not work at my dad’s store for two years because I simply hated these people ever since that situation. After two years I returned and the second I walked into the store a black man fell flat on his face in the front of the store. All I could remember was a woman crying over him and people screaming. My dad rushed me into the back and told me not to come out. I soon learned that this man suffered from a heart attack and died on the spot. This black man died right in front of me. It made me realize that these people are not dirty and disgusting people. They are human beings with a soul and it was very weird how it occurred the day I returned to work after two years of not being there. I knew God had a reason for it because it changed the way I thought, it changed my life.

It opened my eyes to get rid of the racism and negative thoughts I had towards them and to simply realize that having hatred towards a group because what one person did is nonsense because whether someone is black, white, Mexican, Asian, or even middle eastern should not matter because what matters is the person, the individual. It is how this person acts and how they portray themselves. Maybe this woman who argued about a penny was really just having a bad day; always give people the benefit of the doubt. You never know what someone is going through until you have walked a mile in their shoes and then when you have that is when you can say whatever you would like. Racism is destroying this world. It is tearing apart our families and our homes because this is where it starts. If we want our lives to be peaceful and live a life of love then we must teach our children and our families that everyone should be treated the same because we are all different and if we weren’t and if we were all the same then we wouldn’t be unique and this world would be a very dull and boring place. So we must teach others that being different is okay and love is what will unite us together and will truly make us one nation under God.