Causes of racism
How can racism take place? A statistic that evidences how susceptible racism is, within modern society is stating that 27% of Americans are African American. Studies reveal that 80% of the white population is not prejudiced toward this race. Statistics also reveal that most white Americans do not use racist, slanderous slurs towards the Black race. In my opinion, stereotyping is an acceptable label when used to describe the behavior of others.
Depending on how people think, we can categorize individuals; however, there is always an indicator of hyperbole in our description of people. This makes me believe that it is imperative to reexamine why this term is in the first place.
A case in point is the characterization of African Americans as “criminals” and “burglars”.
Blacks are stereotyped as “clowns, threats, and monkeys”.
History shows us that there are several instances where whites were regarded as and treated as if they were: criminals, comedians, and animals.
At a very young age, I had the experience of being colored by other people. I recall being taught at an early age not to play outside and not to be naïve. At least, for my grade level, black people were not accepted as equals as the whites were.
These days African Americans are not alone in this shame and racism. There is a new wave of bullying. I myself have been bullied at school many times and have also been harassed for wearing the wrong type of clothes.
Unfortunately, we have seen trends in skin color in a television commercial by “Yellow Dollar” a New York State-level school. This commercial, directed towards middle and high schoolers, depicts racial targeting of this education system.
There are very few socially acceptable in this state, therefore, they are of no value.
I understand that children can be very disrespectful in my opinion. School is not the place to do this type of thing to children. With that being said, I was also bullied for the colors of my skin. I grew up wearing black shirts, pants, hats, and pants because it was my preferred look when growing up. There are many famous white athletes out there, such as baseball players Roberto Alomar, Steve Garvey, Ted Williams, and Doug Baldwin, who have switched to wearing black, which then exaggerates the idea that Blacks do not want to fit in. Although, in some of these sports, the players can fit in well.
If you are a Black athlete, like the legendary Michael Jordan, you do not have to suffer. Also, what once was said to us in Africa, is still said in the United States today. In Africa, if you are black, you have to excel in education. This is no different with education in the United States today. My race in America has to lead to my experience.
I was taught not to associate myself with anything white, and, this has molded me into who I am today. It would be easy to blame it all on American society for racism, however, I really can not get rid of what I am, living in a society with a segregated class, segregated race, segregated class, and segregation. Do I believe that, if things were different, then I would not experience racism today? Absolutely not. I am glad that I was educated and I am even happier that I do not live in a society with a black vs white attitude.
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