Synthesis Essay: Racism
Racism is an abuse where people discriminate against others based on their race and colour. In most of the countries, racism occurs when the citizens discriminate against people in the country or foreigners due to the colour of their skins. Racists are the people who believe in discriminative thoughts that innate, inherited characteristics biologically determine the human behaviour they possess. Various scholars have presented diverse views regarding the subject of racism that ranges from the ancient beliefs that racism can function positively for the development of the economic society (Hutton 453). However, modern socialists believe that racism is a virtue that undermines the dignity of other people and polarises the society. It divides the people according to their colour, a discriminatory factor that discourages most of the people. Moreover, some literature underlines that racism is characterized with both positive and negative consequences. This paper analyses the different points of view on racist behaviour presented by various writers with the view of explaining the contingencies that surround the behaviour.
Hutton highlights in his essay that racism appeared in the ancient western states where the black people worked for the white people. Racist abuse occasionally functioned to make the black people feel demeaned and disgraced hence, they would accept to work for the white people with little resistance. According to the sources, the racial discrimination aided the economic development in the European countries and the Americas without interfering with the political stability in the areas affected. Similarly, the racial discrimination put the white people at a higher status in society than the black people. This makes the black people to respect the whites, which created a relaxed society according to the scholarly sources (Hutton 454).
Alex et al. essay argues that racism is a practice that people can use for the better or for the worse depending on the intentions that people have and the situations under which the racist words are applied. The author claims that racism can bring unity and prosperity in an area when people of the same race gang up to perform productive activities. However, when the people gang up to oppose another race for negative reasons, racism becomes an impeccable barrier to success in the society (Alex et al. 151). Back & Solomos essay argues that irrespective of motive behind the racial abuse, racism affects the people negatively and that it should not appear in the society (Back & Solomos 59). The author insists that the racist people make their counterparts feel disgraced and low in their lives. Concisely, the author insists that the racist people should shun their racist means and adopt means that facilitate peace.
I agree with the facts that racism is bad irrespective of the reasons why the people practice it. Racism leads to the victims being rejected and feeling low in the society despite the fact that they have equal dignity to the other people. Several points agree with my view on the racist behaviours. Firstly, scholars insist that people resemble God from the creation time, a fact that moves my mind to concur with the author in totality. This means that the relationship between perceived racist behaviour and self-reported depression and people’s anxiety is quite robust. It provides a reminder that experiences of racism may play an important role in the health disparities phenomenon. Many people experience health issues arising from depression and the treatment that they receive due to the widespread racism across the world. Racist treatment comes as the first factor that causes depression to most of the health victims on the face of the earth.
According to Back & Solomos (29), racism leads to violent scenes in some places in America and Europe. In some minority areas, working men, women, and their children cannot even leave their homes at night for fear of falling victim to endemic violence, which results from the people’s racist views. Such situations make the people live in fear and in most cases, the victims attempt to revolt against the racist treatment, which leads to bloodshed in most of the places. The author moves the beliefs in my minds about racism in a number of ways. Firstly, my attitude about racism moves from bad to worse because racism comes out clearly as a bad act.
As much as some people claim the ancient people used the vice positively, I believe that the mistreatment meant the same negativity because the people faced rougher and tougher treatment that we see today (Alex et al. 151). Racism affects the education of the children in most of the places where the children face abuse. Some children sit in lasses alone simply because they come from a different race with the rest of the people. At the same time, some students undergo harassment because of their races, which discourages them in a great way. This leads to a drop in their standards hence they do not achieve their full potential. In this view, the author convinces me to accept his suggestion that racism cannot have any positive effects irrespective of the roots that the vice traces.
Some authors challenge Alex et al.’s work on various fronts, mainly emanating from the fact that he takes a holistic approach in dealing with the matter. Initially, some people claim that the scholar lacks regard for the economic conditions of the universe. According to the opponents, the economy of the world must advance and the countries must get people to work on their farms ad in most of their stores. They argue more that the people whose races rank relatively lower must take care of the lower jobs such as the field jobs, meaning they must provide labour. However, the scholar responds by indicating that all people bear equal rights and personalities, which make the wellbeing of the whole society imperative and not just a race (Alex et al. 151).
Some scholars claim that racial superiority brings peace and peaceful coexistence among the people in different continents. They claim that people have unity because some races obey and respect others while the later rules over the former. The complexity of the obedience channel creates a reliance chain, which makes the people have a harmonious life throughout their existence. The author responds to this by stating that racism presents the worst ways for people to seek respect and obedience from other states. They should device better methods of making the people respect them other than racist views.
Racism cannot help the people in any way irrespective of its nature. Sports people, students, the society, families, regions, and even continents feel the negativity of racism in a number of ways. Some people die because of the racial segregation yet others lose important relationships because they come from the wrong races. It is apparent that racism creates more harm than good to the society.
Works Cited
Alex L. Pieterse, Nathan R. Todd, Helen A. Neville, and Robert T. Carter. Perceived Racism and Mental Health Among Black American Adults: A Meta-Analytic Review: journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 59, No. 1(2011). Print
Back, Les, and John Solomos, editors. Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader. London: Routledge, 2000. Print
Hutton, Christopher M. Race and the Third Reich: Linguistics, Racial Anthropology, and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk. Cambridge: Polity, 2005. Print
