Racism is understood as a condition in which a human despises another for some physical characteristic. History indicates that the beginnings of racism date back to colonial times, when African countries brought black men, women and children to work as slaves, in colonies where the inhabitants were white. Because they were poor, slaves, and worked with things that the "upper class" did not do, they were treated with much contempt and disgust.
What is racism
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This word refers to the fact that one human race is better than the other. "Ra" comes from race and the suffix "ism" equals doctrine. It is caused by an irrational feeling of superiority of one person over another. It is the discrimination of an individual or group of people who hate others for having different characteristics or qualities, such as skin color, language or place of birth.
History of racism
Racism in the world has had a significant trajectory in history, it has always been a distinctive point in society, both because of slavery, and because of the discrimination that slaves have been subjected to, when human rights are not granted to Someone, due to their physical characteristics, starts a segregation campaign against those who, without fault, are part of the groups of people of color.
Racism in the world is not only contempt for people of brown color, there is also discrimination against obese people, who due to their excess body mass are distanced from people with more silhouette.
Racism and discrimination emerged in Western Europe to justify the supremacy of the white race over the rest of humanity.
In the America of the 50s, discrimination was so powerful that there were laws to separate whites from blacks, segregation was so great that there was no shame in society to make fun of a person of color, so much so that those who did not they were white, they had a serf labor, their life was considered a waste, they lived in poverty and they were not considered to vote in presidential elections or participate in political events.
However, cultures as time passed were faced and reconciled at the same time, problems arose, wars, many lost their lives, but slavery was abolished, society accepted the black citizen, gave him the power to participate to all equally.
Importantly, racism in America began with black African slaves and people of African descent, and rarely with Native Americans. As evidence of this, different documentaries and films of racism can be observed. However, slavery was outlawed in the United States in 1865, after the Civil War.
In this same sense, "racism in Mexico, as a discourse and ideology, has been operating since the 18th century, giving all negative attributes to the blacks or indigenous people of America," says María Elisa Velázquez, from the National Institute of Anthropology and History. (INAH).
Discrimination was used since the last decades of the 19th century by European countries to verify the legality of movements of colonial domination, jingoism and genocide, in various parts of the world. For this reason, today there is talk of racism and xenophobia, which comes from the Greek xenos, which means "foreigner" and phobos, which means "fear", therefore, it is a rejection only towards foreigners.
Today, it is important to acknowledge the collaboration of institutions whose objective was to defend the rights of discriminated people, thanks to them, we have a mestizo world, of great and beautiful cultures with strong ties and we will say no to racism.
Types of racism
Racism and discrimination occurs when a person or group of people hates others for having different characteristics or qualities.
Consequently, there are several types of racism for which people may feel discriminated against or be victims of inequalities:
Institutional racism
The adjective racist is also used to refer to laws or institutions that discriminate against people based on their roots. This is the case of institutional racism, carried out in forms of organization and distribution of power that have been established in statutes, rules, among others.
Example: preferences to grant positions and promotions in institutions.
Cultural racism
Cultural racism emphasizes a supposed cultural superiority of one ethnic group over another. It should be clarified that this type of racism does not consist in pointing out that there is one culture better than the others, but in establishing a determining relationship between race and culture.
Example: believing that civilizations made up mainly of black populations are incapable of creating good literature.
Biological racism
Biological racism has its origin in the use of the concept of racial diversity applied to human beings, whose objective is to group and classify them based on morphological characteristics such as the color of the skin, the shape of the skull, etc.
Example: observed in cases of aggression by police officers in the United States towards people of color.
Reverse racism
It is a concept that is used to refer to racist attitudes directed against parts of the population that are generally not the target of racist attacks.
Example: attacks on white-skinned citizens also occur.
Racism based on skin color
This type of racism is based on appearance and is very superficial. Basically, it consists of an irrational contempt or hatred towards people, simply because of the color of their skin, which makes them different and they are not considered "normal". In practice, it overlaps with many other types of racism.
Example: violence and prohibitions against dark-skinned people, for no reason.
Causes of racism
Ethnocentric
Its premise is that men who are not in their ethnic group belong to their ethnic group, mainly if their lineage is doubtful or is mixed with other races.
Ideological
It is based on ideological precepts raised in philosophy. For example, during German fascism, considered Hitler's thinker, Mr. Alfred Rosenberg, wrote a treatise in which he claimed that the Aryan race was superior to the Jewish. They can be found with the essay on racism on this subject.
Pseudoscientific
It uses pseudosciences such as phrenology to distort concepts of evolutionary biology, in order to construct models of thought in which eugenics and "racial cleansing" will be promoted.
Religious
In sacred books, it is stated that God stipulates that good men are white, while bad men are black, who are the fruit of divine punishment.
Folkloric
This happens a lot with the ethnic group of the Dogon in Mali, who by oral tradition fervently believe that a child born white is a manifestation of evil spirits, and therefore must die.
Consequences of racism
Victims experience different states, psychological and emotional effects, some in the short term, while others persist in the medium and long term, among them it is possible to consider stress, insecurity, anxiety, isolation, distrust, feeling of not belonging, difficulties and fear. to public speaking, minimization of presence, depression, undervaluation of yourself and your social group, the development of a lonely and withdrawn personality, panic syndrome in situations of social interaction or evaluation, violation and breakdown of identity, endoracism, ideas of inferiority and hypersexualization and, in extreme cases, suicide.
Examples of racism
- Discrimination in employment.
- They make fun of students who have relevant physical characteristics.
- I despise children who have some kind of disability.
- Sexual harassment from a boss to a secretary.
- Obligation to hide the sexual condition of a person to belong to a certain job.
- Breach of labor rights in case of pregnancy.
- Arrested by Baltimore police, while in custody, he suffered a serious spinal injury that forced him to be hospitalized, then fell into a coma and died.
