Racism: Western or Universal

Race and Racism (Western Colonialism)

So, if racism was supposedly started in the 15^th century, then the founding of America was right along with it since that also happened in the 15^th century. America was discovered in 1492 and the 15^th century was the 1400's. One of the lines I read in the article was about how powerful societies will always look at lesser people as inferior and the reason I liked it was because it shows that history will repeat itself. Also, I do believe that they may be right in the article when they explain how Africans were not Christians and that because of this they were treated like heathens, and that this was the start of racism. Then as I touched on before with America, colonization of the world began. Columbus set out on his voyages and the Portuguese imitated. For colonization, these explorers believed they needed free labor so this is where slavery came in. Then revolutions began and soon it came to the 20^th century. This is where racism takes off again because there is no longer slavery so all every one believed was that they had to be prejudice. This is where civil rights movements started and how we ended up where we are today.

How Racist Are We?

Everyone is racist and some may not know it yet. Everyone is racist but racism doesn’t have to be bad. You can be racist against a group because it is the truth and may make some things more efficient. Anyways, there is racism everywhere and the article states this fact. There is no escape so why not make it better instead of viewing it as an awful thing. Then it moves on to telling the difference between individualism and racism. With racism you judge a person by their skin color and maybe where they and/or their parents are from. With individualism you judge a person by their intelligence and capabilities. Then it moves on to explain how racism is not just a white people problem. The article also says that the human race has much more in common when you are an individual rather than being in a group. When in a group the majority rules and there is no swaying but when individual you make your own decisions. The only problem with this is that as an individual, your voice will not be heard.  This is all saying that racism is the perspective of a group and not of an individual like the world would want us to believe.

Cultural Bias for Racism

Researchers wanted to figure out why people would even be racist, sexist and ageist against their own people. They say that some studies have shown these things to be universal. Then they found out that media and literature could very well be contributing to these stereotypes. The reason they contribute is because they all show the very same things over and over again. By doing this, it just strengthens it in people’s heads about what is right and what is wrong. The research went on to study participants and the answers they gave over prejudice questions. The studied it both positively and negatively. Their response times were also taken into account with the study. They found that the work “black” was used more with words such as lazy and musical but not goofy. The word “white” was used more with words such as greedy and successful. This just went to show that people are now more acceptable of stereotypes than before. People have grown accustomed to sayings and act more upon gut reaction than behavior. A way they say to fix is not to put stereotypes out there as clearly or people are going to latch on to it and quickly.

Opinion

I personally believe that racism is a Western concept and not universal. I also believe that media has played a big part in escalating things very quickly. The third article states, “Literature, movies, TV, radio and the Internet all contribute to the problem by exhibiting the same stereotypes that others work so hard to snuff out.” I believe that racism started in the 15^th century which is the 1400's. During this time period, the mindset to go out and explore was huge. Europe wanted to colonize everywhere but they wanted more man power. The first article states, “In the Iberian cities of Seville and Lisbon, witnessing who labored for whom daily solidified the association between blackness and slavery.” With this the Europeans sought out Africans to enslave, not because they were racist against them but because it was what was accepted at the time. Over time they began to treat Africans badly because of their beliefs not because of their race. The Africans were not Christians so they were treated as heathen. Also, like I said, they were not enslaved because of racism they were enslaved because it would be more efficient. The second article states, “I discriminate in favor of people I think can hold down a job and do decently at it.” I don’t think that racism is everywhere just yet but it will be. Again, I believe it is a Western concept.