Racism Essay, Research Paper

Racism

Is racism getting better or worse? In the 50?s and 60?s racism was a way of life. You had the white people who thought that they were superior to the black people. The blacks on the other hand were trying to fight the ignorance of whites and gain equality. Through all the emotional and physical pains that the blacks dealt with, they started to develop a sense of hatred towards many whites. The reason the black people started and continued to hating of whites is because the black people started to feel useless, meaningless, and totally inadequate. As we know it life without meaning, hope, and love breeds a cold-hearted, mean spirited outlook that destroys the individual and others who he/she come in contact with ( Cornel West p.23). As it stands during the present time, in the 90?s, racism and discrimination have indeed gotten better but, there are still those certain black people that have the emotional scars of racism and will never be able to forget what has happened to them in the past. Even though racism has bettered itself over the years there are still those generations of grandparents and parents who are passing their hatred of blacks or whites onto their children. These kids grow older with the same negative, ignorant, and hateful beliefs as their parents had. As these generations of children get bigger so does the cycle of passing on racism through generations.

As I stated previously, racism is better then it has been in the past but it is not great. Racism could get worse because of the parents within today?s society. You see there are people out there that still believe that the world should be segregated. That black people should not be allowed the same rights as white people. Then these ignorant and uneducated people bring children into the world, and of course the child is going to base his/her opinion on whatever the parents might think. So now we have another generation that thinks that all blacks are stupid and that they should have equal rights just because their color of their skin. As the cycle continues throughout many generations the hatred builds and builds. The stronger the racism gets, the more radical the people become. When you are radical you are most likely going to do things at extreme measures. This is scary because these types of people are so blinded by their own views and they start to not even see that blacks are human beings. All of this starts with the parents and how they raise their children. Another way that racism may worsen is through what is called the Symbolic Interaction Theory. This theory states that people will only be racist because that is the way the people they are around act. The only reason they would be racist is because the so called ?group? they are in discriminates against people and are racist. This theory alone could be the beginning to its own racial war due to the fact that everyone is acting how everyone else in their social group acts because it is socially excepted, not because it is how they feel. Ignorance and a lack of education are a major detriment to today?s society. Eventhough more and more people are being educated there are still people out there that aren?t able to get a good education. The less education you have the more likely you are see passed the stereotypes and bigotry. You also resort to violence and what else more do you need to start a racial war. At this point it isn?t likely that our nation would have a racial war but if we keep ignoring that there really is a problem with racism then we are increasing our chances of such a war.