Racism is the belief that a certain race is the sole determinant of human traits. It is a crucial problem that has dominated the world in the past and is still a problem in our global society today. There have been ideologies based on racism and that one group of ethnicity is superior over another. Thanks to educated institutions to reducing racist attitudes in individuals, the problem is significantly less than what it used to be. That is not to say racism does not exist in the world today and infact, racism can be seen happening all over the world. In New Zealand, Asian immigrants as well as international students have been the subject of many racist cases and this is unacceptable social code. It is said that Asians are the ones who have been victimised in terms of racial harassment.
It all seems to stem from one common root, and that is the upbringing of the family’s values on notion of the importance of one’s race. Children are not by nature, racist. They are not born with assumptions in their minds about what the minority race of a country is. It is the parents who are responsible for implementing the racist attitude into their child’s mind. It is influences at home that children learn racist beliefs from. An example of this is seen in America where the child is home schooled and has been continuously exposed to mass supremacy of its own race, such as the display of swatistika symbol and taught religiously that their race is superior to all. These children who have been taught these values have taken them from home, to public areas like schools. This becomes a major problem when families are the ones who are actually implementing such thoughts into children’s minds.
A lot of playground bullying actually stems from racism. This happens in the form of children throwing racist comments to other children of an “inferior” race. Children at such a young age are vulnerable and do not know what is morally acceptable and what is not. They only have a sense of what is right and wrong in relation to how it works at home. If it is alright for them to have a belief and act a certain way at home without being punished or corrected, it is automatically assumed that they can continue this belief and act a certain way in public towards others. Sometimes, this behavior in children is even promoted by parents who enforce their children that their race is superior and there is nothing wrong in having such a belief. It is so disappointing and somewhat shocking to see that there is so much racial tension in schools. These issues need to be addressed immediately because if not corrected at an early stage, these wrongful attitudes will stay with the individual through their adolescence years, until their adulthood, where racism is often depicted in a much harsher way.
As children, only racist remarks or playground bullying are capable, not to undermine the harmful effects of such conduct, but as the individual grows, the extent of racist gestures can only worsen. The form of abuse gets stronger, often resulting in street violence towards one another. This kind of attitude or conduct should not be tolerated in society as people should be able to walk around freely to do whatever they please, so long as it is lawful. The colour of their skin should not be a factor to limit the places they can go or the level of safety they are in. It is as much their neighbourhood as it is others. These so called “minorities” should not be picked on and be in danger and exposed to possible racism attacks. This is evidenced in relation to President Obama being the first black American African President of the United States. Such actions only degrade those who portray themselves in such light. There is no need to make personal attacks at an individual’s success or failure in relation to their race, there is no right to accuse an individual in relation to their race and there is no reason to overt any form of attacks to an individual in relation to their race.
What happened to world peace and equality and international human rights? We are no longer living in a world where there was only one race. We are no longer living in a world where there is a superior and an inferior. We are now living in a world where there are multicultural ethnicities living amongst us and there should be no tolerance to differences in individuality. Many countries around the world have adapted to a multicultural diversity and cultures are often shared amongst each other. New Zealand for instance has the Pakehas, the Maoris, the Asians and the Europeans. The Australians have the Australians, the Aboriginals, the Asians as well as the Europeans. All races contribute to the economy and the growth of the country. The numbers may differ in size, but there is no reason this should relate to a race being superior or inferior to another.
In order to correct the racist attitudes of people, I am of the view that it should be enforced at an early stage, before the minds are tainted by racism The English govemnment is trying to implement schemes where toddles should be taught about racism and be taught a lesson if they have diplayed racist attitudes. This will definitely be of benefit to the community as it reduces the negative attitudes in people, starting off at the start of the chain, when one is still young, before they are tainted with unacceptable attitudes. Schools should also encourage children to work with other children of another race to reduce racists views. In the bigger picture, the media should also be careful with the form of advertisements it uses and not encourage any detail of racism. This is because media has one of the biggest influences in the human race, especially children and teenagers. We do not want our kids to think it is ok to segregate or differentiate others based on race.
Generally, racism is a problem globally that needs to be corrected. Families should not be stuck in a mindset where they are teaching their kids not to integrate with other individuals of another race. The world is one planet, the same of which many different cultures subside together. The media and government should work together with families and the communities to reinforce subsiding together as one and promoting equality. Individuals should not be differentiated based on their race in the school playground, workforce or public streets.
