Race And Racism: Essay, Research Paper

Racism? What is racism? Why is there racism? And how can we get rid of it? These are the three questions that are important when talking about racism. In order to understand racism you must understand why there is racism. The author, Gloria Yamato, says that the main reason why we have racism is because people want to have a sense of power and privilege over another group. I think this is true not only in the human race but in most species. Everyone wants to be able to have power and in order to have power you must defeat or overpower others. This is why there is racism. ?Racism is the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of one group of people by another based on racial heritage.?

In this article the author starts out by saying that racism is difficult to eliminate, but some people think it can be dealt with in a workshop but she thinks that it will take many years to deal with since it took a few hundred years to grow. This article?s main topic is oppression. The author talks about the oppressors and the oppressed. Oppression is starting to be familiar in society and therefore it starts to feel comfortable and natural and also right. This is called internalized oppression. The reason why racism is so hard to beat is because, like a virus, when you come up with a cure or answer, it has a new problem or takes a new form.

Racism can be separated into four different types. The first type is aware/blatant racism. This is when racists just come out and say to a person that they are being prejudice on the basis of they?re skin color. The second type of racism is aware/covert racism, which is when racists are being racist but just not saying it. For example, having a ?Now Hiring? sign up and then saying that the position was just filled when really they are just being racist. The next type of racism the author talks about is unaware/unintentional racism. This is when the racist tries to apologize for all the racism that has happened in the past and in doing so is being racist by feeling so guilty they never deal with it. Then the racism just continues to happen. The last type of racism is unaware/self-righteous racism. This is when the racist attempts to tell people of color what issues they have to deal with in their communities. This still leaves the people of color to deal with racism. The author then talks about what racism is and then goes on to say what white people have to do and what people color must do to try and end racism.

I think that the author is correct about what racism is. I also believe that she has the right approach to ending racism, but I think that it is impossible to completely put an end to racism because there will always be someone who is prejudice or wants to have power. As the author says some whites want to be allies to people of color and no matter what we do we can?t change their mind. All we can do is try and lower the amount of racism that happens and also try and educate people more about life. If we do this we might be able to change some peoples views on the matter. The reason I think why there is racism is because it is human nature to try and better than another person for the mere fact of self-pleasure. Racism I think over time will become less and less of a problem and someday we as a nation will be able to get along in a peaceful, tranquil way.