Racism-Causes+and+Consequences

My Topic is racism. I want to study more about racism because even though we talk about it at school, I don't think that we fully understand the true meaning of it, wether it's good or bad. I want to go into depth of why it exists, when it started, and why it still exists.

Racism can be part of you without you consent. It can grow inside you even if you don't want it to. Situations around you can affect the growth even more. Racism also consists of differences. Many people are not very open to new ideas and grasp their own very tightly. They may even do unbelivable things just to protect what they believe and stop the spread of the new idea.That's why the church wanted to execute Galileo because he said the truth. They were scared of DIFFERENT ideas. Looks are also considered "different" in some people's eyes. If you see a person from your color and race sitting next to a person who "looks" completely the opposite of you, who would you talk to? You could end up finding out that the person from the different race and yourself share many more things than the person who looks like you.
 * Why does racism exist?**

There are many people who have gone through situations in which the people around them have mistreated them and the person receiving the mistreatment begins to dislike those individuals. It doesn't stop there. The person who developed these "disliking"s, not only develops them towards those individuals, but their whole race. They feel as though all of those people are the same. In this podcast, a man who is a soldier fights at a war in Iraq (The Devil In Me: This American Life). After seeing how many Muslim people were killing his own people, he began disliking all Muslims. He was afraid of them and could be near them even in his own country. He didn't want to be racist and he tried very hard not to be. He was successful at building tolerance towards them by learning to be around them peacefully.

SURVEY ANSWERS: //"It exists because people are scared of acceptance of each other. They segregate themselves into their own ethnic groups, which causes prejudice over other ethnicities because all they know is themselves & don't want to know about others. Reality is, we are all the same"// //-Anonymous// //"History has a lot to do with why racism exists. It starts as the belief that one race is superior to the other, then there's segregation, and finally when that's past, racism has existed then."// //-Anonymous// //"Racism exists because there are people that maintain a conservative point of view"// //-Anonymous// //"People may think that their ethnicity is better than others, or through experience (i.e. bullying, people that they see everyday, news etc.)// //-Catherine Kim (9th grade)// //"I think racism exists because as humans we have a need of survival and we see things as survival of the fittest. So, naturally feeling superior is common which eventually led to racism because of people feeling superior towards others"// //Alyssa Nguyen (10th grade)// //"Because usually we're products of our environment. When it becomes your world-view, you see everything from that perspective. It's hard to "'unlearn"' and usually it gets passed on to the next generation before people realize how wrong they are - if ever."// //Miss Crystal "Pru" Reardan (WAIS C/O 2005)//

Quote: It was after listening to the Grey Squirrel culling to protect the Red Squirrel it occured to me that Racism could just be a natural instinct and we have to train ourselves or force ourselves not to be racist. Its not just Squirrels either, Monkeys stick with their own kind and so do birds (Calvin Cliff)
 * Is racism natural? Are they thoughts that develop in your mind?**

Is this natural in humans? Aren't humans all humans regardless of their skin color? Humans are all the same and we should not be treated differently just because of the way we look. Saying it is natural in humans is just an excuse for some people's unacceptable behaviour. If we look deeper, all humans have their hearts, lungs, bones, and organs in the same place. Monkeys ARE NOT like squirrels. We are all the same no matter "the color of the fur".

There's not an exact way in which racism started. People see differences in other people and without even thinking much about it, they stay away. In a way, it is natural to hang out with people of your own "type". It is NOT natural, though, to discriminate and create a hate for certain people. We are all humans and even though we have our physical differences, it does not mean that we are not all the same inside.
 * How did racism begin? Is there actually a beginning to it?**

SURVEY ANSWERS: //"No one is "born" a racist. It is a social concept, meaning it's not innate - it must be taught wither directly or indirectly"// //-Miss Crystal "Pru" Reardan (WAIS C/O 2005)// //"I feel like racism is more of something people learn. Maybe from experience or how they were raised"// //-Alyssa Nguyen (10th grade)// //"Because people are not open minded"// //Catherine Kim (9th grade)// //"They learn it over time, like they see their parents not like a specific type of person and they think they are bad because of what their parents said."// //-Anonymous// //"Mostly because of your parents + the way you're raised"// //-Anonymous// //"It depends. Racism can be born in a person because maybe they grew up with it & that is all they know: criticism is that reason. Other times, and event can trigger a hate for a specific ethnic group. They could have been humiliated, robbed, etc. & it causes for a paranoid prejudice that everyone is different even if they are the same"// //-Yansi Arevalo (10th grade)//

For bizarre reason, racism still exists in our surroundings. There are many people who believe that they are in a society where they are the superior race. They dislike people who are not like them. For the smallest reasons, they begin to mistreat people because they think that what other people believe is wrong and what they believe is right. [] [] []
 * Why does racism still exist?**

SURVEY ANSWERS: //"Just continue to practice tolerance and understanding yourself, teach it to your children and stand up against racist so they'll know it's not socially acceptable"// //-Miss Crystal "Pru" Reardan (WAIS C/O 2005)// //"Teaching the future generations could possibly stop racism. As long as we keep teaching tolerance."// //-Alyssa Nguyen (10th grade)// //"I don't think so. Many would agree that racism should get to an end point, but not many would do what it takes to stop it."// //-Anonymous// //"I don't think you can stop it once it exists, but you can decrease its existence"// //-Virginia Pineda (12th grade)// //"Completely stop it? No, I don't think so. People will always be intolerable of others who are different."// //-Anonymous// //"I don't believe we will ever e able to get rid of racism. That's trying to stop people's judgement, and we can't stop that. We can make racism decrease by having people become more tolerant, but we cant change everyone's mind."// //-Anonymous// //"Yes, by teaching the generation to come that it's not right"// // -Anonymous //
 * Is there any way to stop racism?**

// "NO there is not, but that doesn't mean that we can't try." // // -Anonymous // // "No, unless Jesus comes back, and saves the world. :)" // // -Anonymous //



BUILD TOLERANCE BY TRYING TO BE PATIENT AND TRYING TO UNDERSTAND OTHER PEOPLE. ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT NOT EVERYONE SEES LIFE THE WAY YOU DO AND HAVE NOT LIVED THE WAY YOU HAVE.TOLERANCE IS VERY IMPORTANT, AND WITHOUT IT, WE WOULD NOT BE HERE.


 * Citations:**

BloodRedSoul. Racism is Wrong. N.d. JPEG file.   Calvin, Cliff. "Is racism just a natural instinct?" //sheffieldforum.co.uk// Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. ©2000 - 2012 Copyright ©2002-2010 SheffieldForum.co.uk, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. .   Hachiih. "Egg Racism." Cartoon. //9GAG// N.p., 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. .

Slaven, Sam. "340: The Devil In Me." Interview by Ira Glass. //This American Life// This American Life. 7 Sept. 2007. Radio.