An Analysis of the Origin of Racism

Racism is a problem in America today which makes it today's news and not a figment of paranoid imagination. Looking at the news, listening to talk shows, listening to casual comments which people make to each other it is impossible to deny that race cannot be ignored in today's society. The controversy of the affirmative action, crime discussions associated with racial images, the latest racial tinged riots and tinged trial that may come in its wake, and other public controversies within the past decade both highlight the need for a new and a thorough observation of racism and racial relations in the United States. Furthermore, race plays a leading role in various social issues. Race and racism are everywhere in our country.

Racism rose from a quite inclination in the sixteenth century to an epidemic in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The history of racism is necessary for understanding its persistence today, but the history itself does not explain its persistence. The notion that few people are racist today and that races don't exist according to Rattansi (2007) is quite difficult to support given the events that unfold on daily basis fuelled by racial conflicts. Rattansi, however, believes that the unconscious decentres identities so that people can behave in a way that surprises and appeals them.

To Rattansi, this approach allows a focus on processes and a move beyond the impasses that denying racism produces to focus on the way people juggle with different identities and narratives. It takes into consideration different racist identities, various responses to various racial groups; rational argument sometimes dispelling racism, and people change over time. In this regard, the analysis that Rattansi provides takes several perspectives of the individuals subject to and producing racism and those committed to value judgments which can point the way for political actions and recognize the plurality, ambivalence, contingency and contradiction of radicalized identities.

Order custom essay An Analysis of the Origin of Racism with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

Sarich (2018)'s perspective, however, contradicts this approach because he states that racism is not a perspective or belief system suites to rigorous thinking, but the society includes a significant proportion of people who consciously believe blacks to be generally inferior or objectionable as associates. In a different phase of its history, racism has been explained on different levels which accommodate constituencies that have different expectations of what a convincing argument involves.

To some extent, belief paves the way to what is general terms as attitude. Most people have accepted or taken racist perspectives without considering arguments or thinking beyond a point at which they feel comfortable. Rattansi argues that today's new culture is that of cultural racism, which emphasizes on cultural difference and genuine fears of ordinary people and their national character and way of life (Rattansi 2007, pg.98).

This racism based on Rattansi's concept is different because it does not use old racial categories, does not presume intrinsic biological difference, does not explicitly make reference to hierarchal positions of different groups. It can, however, be argued that this not enough to be considered racism. In fact, some would argue that cultural racism is racism only when the group objected of negative feelings or discriminatory behavior is treated as a race physiologically, in that, the membership in the group is considered a basis for rich immutable and so forth (Machery and Faucher, 2017).

The extent and intensity of racism cannot be overstated, because evidence of it is all over and is much further than the everyday event of racial physical assaults. It can be heard in every utterance of the word 'them' and in the hugely disproportionate criminalization of ethnic minorities. Even though ethnic identities are formed and reformed as part of a cultural process (Rattansi 2007, pg.88), evidently there are visible biological differences between groups that make it easy for racists to recognize their opponent.

Based on the concept by Dovidio, John and Adam (2017), there are aversive racists who have negative racial feelings and beliefs of which they don't even recognize or that they try dissociation from their nonprejudiced self-images. The pessimistic feelings that aversive racists have for other races do not show open hate or unfriendliness. Rather, their reactions involve uneasiness, discomfort, disgust and other times even fear. That is, they consider people of other races aversive meanwhile; they assume any implications that they might be opinionated aversive too. The ambivalence that involves both negative and positive feelings which aversive racists experience creates tension and sometimes leads to instability in behavior.

Concluding, there is no simple explanation for why people are racists, and it cannot be concluded that racism does not exist. Several pieces of evidence show that racism is widespread today. Overtly racist behavior and racist attitudes continue to be vicious expressions of what is basically denying human race. While most social psychological research within the past few years has been inspired by the need to reduce the negative impact felt by the targets of racism, those same targets of racism, have rarely been the focus of research. Simply put, Racism is a problem in America today and its extent and intensity cannot be overstated.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer