Racism is a way of thinking that considers a particular race superior or inferior based on some predetermined notions related to breed, color of skin, place of birth or some other similar factors. The people, who believe in such ideas, discriminate with other people whom they consider different or even inferior. Racism has been emerged as a problem in few societies and Western societies are frequently in such practices. American Anthropological Association, in a short introductory video “the Understanding Race project” recognizes race as a powerful idea and an enduring concept, invented by the society. People from western societies see Africans, Asians and others as inferior race and treat them that way. This paper discusses the racism, several related aspects and also throws the light on a television show which evidenced an incident of racial discrimination.
The incident which we are going to discuss in this paper occurred during the end of the year 2009 and in the beginning of the year 2010. The media which is evident of this incident of racial discrimination is the television. This incident took place in a musical reality show on the Chinese television named, Let's Go! Oriental Angel which is an indigenous version of the American idle musical reality show. There were several participants in the reality show but the show was in the news for a wrong reason which was the incident of a racial discrimination based on the color of skin.
In this reality show, Lou Jing was the girl who faced the racial discrimination. Lou Jing was subjected to the racial discrimination just because she was a black. She was a Chinese but not white unlike other participants and this is why her presence among the finalists of the show was not digested by several people suffering with the racist thoughts. When she entered into the final of the reality show, there was a big debate in the society over her color of her skin and people started protesting her presence in the show. Hung Huang, a talk show host and magazine publisher who is known as Oprah Winfrey of china comments "In the same year Americans welcomed Barak Obama into the White House, we can't even accept this girl with a different skin colour”. She further added "We tend to be biased against those who are darker-skinned, while admiring races that are paler than us. It is a deeply rooted evil within us,"
Lou Jing has faced the pain of racial discrimination when she was subjected to the discrimination in a television reality show not because she was a bad singer but because the color of her skin was not white. Lou, a twenty two year young girl is the daughter of Chinese mother and African father and a participant in a famous Chinese reality show on television. When she entered successfully in the last five of the reality show on the basis of her performance, she became a point of debate among the Chinese. People started talking about her skin color and wondered how she could be a star on Chinese television being a black. Lou Jing expressed her agony on the whole issue and said "I am Chinese, but when I read the comments, I started to question myself. I never questioned myself before. This time I started to think about how I am different from others." Lou is still hopeful about the situation and she believes the things will be changed in the future. Lou talks about the America president Obama who is a source of inspiration for her "He convinced people that he has the capacity to change what people thought of African-Americans. Compared to him, I don't have that capacity for change because the Chinese media is too powerful".
The recent developments and the activism of the media is playing a commendable role in the issue related to the racial discriminations. Such incidents used to be suppressed in the recent times because the old media was not this much technically advanced and also the media in the old times was easily swayable. Now though there are exceptions but usually the media raises the issues of racism very often and whenever any such incident is occurs, media brings it in front of the people.
After having observed the detailed analysis of the racial discrimination and the incident which portrayed the racial discrimination on the Chinese television, it is clear to say that the issue is a big problem for the society. It defeats the purpose of the equality and it is against the rule of natural law and justice. The person who faces such discrimination goes under a series of sufferings and further such discriminations cause negativity in the minds of the people against the society. It is in the interest of the society to eliminate such racial discriminations and help in the making of a society.
Reference
American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race". (1998, May 17). Retrieved January 12, 2012, from www.aaanet.org: http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
