The Ideas Of Racism Eradication
Racism is a phenomenon that has been and continues to be a critical issue of concern for societies around the world. The concept emerged in the Western thought around the 1800 and it is mainly aided by ideological and cultural factors. The earliest usage of racism can be traced to the 1902 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary that describes the U. S policy towards the Native Americans (Benjamin, 2017). Different books have described racism as incidents in the world community where there has been animosity between groups based on the visible or physical differences. Racism was popularly used in the early 20th century and it was popularized by two majored developments. First is the use of propaganda that was against the anti-Semitism and the racial issues that targeted the Jews in Germany (Fredrick, 2015). Second were the U.S. civil righted activists in the 1960s. Intrinsic to the notion created by these activists was the interaction that existed between cultural, institutional, and individual levels of racism.
The race is still a relatively recent concept in the western societies. Identity in Europe was still distinguished using religion and language until the later part of the 1600s. Racism refers to the discrimination towards an individual on the basis of race. Psychology views racism as a term used to refer to the attitudes and practices that are explicitly hostile and denigratory towards people who are defined to belong to another race (Tyson, Jones, & Elcock, 2011). It implies that there is some level of emotional, psychological involvement in the racist part. It is viewed as a social action or sometimes political in incidences such as apartheid where discriminatory activities are allowed in a particular society. Racism is like a stool and for it to stay upright it needs the support of three legs. The premises of the theory of racism include cultural, institutional, individual racism.
Cultural racism refers to the presumption of the white supremacy and the black inferiority and it proceeds and preconditions the institutional expressions of racism. Institutional racism is an element that is necessary for the perpetuation of the white privilege and dominance. It keeps racism going on across the generation. Individual racism is regulated by the cultural racism and institutional racism. If an institutional racism is increased, the acts of individual racism will be increased.
Racism or racial discrimination in all insidious ways are forms of human rights violation and can be transmitted across generation and can be manifested in the cultural values and norms, as well as the daily behaviors of individuals and groups in the society. Eradication of racism is one of the most technical problems that has not been achieved over the years. Different programs and techniques have been applied by a psychologist to deal with racism but have faced numerous criticisms. In my one view, eradication on racism should go beyond the psychological application. I could four major approaches that include; increased contact with the members of the social groups experiencing racial discrimination, making people aware of the inconsistencies in what they believed, gaining public support and awareness for anti-racism and passing laws and regulations that require the fair treatment for all groups of people Blackwell (McGettigan & Smith, 2016).
It is important to encourage an increased contact between people of a particular race with others. Increased contact helps improve the positive racial attitudes and reduce prejudice. When people from different groups interact, all the members have common goals; there are an intergroup corporations and equal status. Interracial contact mostly in the early life is likely to make racially different groups make friendships (Belgrave, & Allison, 2009). The fact that we, as a group, tends to think that a member of another group is the same while members of our group are unique affects a view of racism. It is important to establish our consciousness and open our eyes to the reality of the impact that our beliefs have on others. The process can begin with training children who are highly susceptible to racial influences to embrace children from other racial groups. We should be aware of the consequences of racism to both the social and political spheres of life.
I also propose that awareness is created for the anti-racial social norms. Creation of awareness and gaining public support is highly critical. The public should be made aware of the impact that racism has on our society. It can be achieved through the use of campaigns and involving youths who possess a huge driving force in the society to educate their peers and adults on racism and how to avoid it. Finally, I think that the fight against racism requires ongoing revision of both the institutional and intergovernmental corporation efforts.
