Written by: Sonya-Maria Dariya
OMG! She said the R-word. Yes She Did. As it is black history month I decided that this moth I would blog about race and racism in history and now. I wanted to start by explaining the definition of race which I am going to use for the sake of clarity. I will refer to race as ‘a reference to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits’ but you may see it as something completely different. Additionally, I will define racism as ‘Words or actions used to segregate, marginalize or stereotype an individual or group of individuals based on their race’ You may sit there saying to yourself saying ‘But racism is over, why do we still need to talk about it.’ If you think this then please keep reading. Unfortunately, we are subject to racism almost every day. For example, a study done in Arizona revealed that ‘A white man with a criminal record is 3 times more likely to receive a job that a black man with a clean record and the same level of education’ It was also proven that this was not always on purpose and the cause is racial bias that has been strongly engrained into society. Another smaller example of everyday racism are simple racial stereotypes such as: -All Black people like chicken -All Asian people are good at maths -All White people can’t handle spicy food (yeah, you can be racist to white people, too) -All People of an Indian heritage are cab driver -And many more Though the above examples may not be directly damaging to an individual they can still marginalize an individual from a race they are proud of or even taint their pride in their race as they may not abide by all this ‘criteria’. Overall we have learned that: -Racism still exists -Racism doesn’t always have to be directly negative to be damaging -And that we need to talk about race more in order to come to these educational conclusions. That’s all from me this week, if you have any opinions to share with me you can email me at: [email protected] Much Love, Your friendly neighbourhood feminist.
1 Comment
Oleg Tolmachov
14/10/2016 03:54:35 am
Sonya, I totally agree with you that stereotypes should be eradicated in our society. It is very difficult to do though, as much of the stereotyping works at the subconscious level. I think we are lucky in London, where people of so many cultures live together, because it is easier for us to see the prejudices and cancel them out.
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