causes and effects of racism

What are the causes and effects of racism?

Racism has existed throughout human history. We can define it as the hatred of one person by another, or the belief that a person is better or more “human” than someone else, because of his nationality, language, skin color or any other factor that somehow reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, genocides, slavery and had many bad consequences all around the world. Racism is caused for a variety of reasons. Firstly,it can be said that it is an instinctive reaction for human to protect their selves, as there is the fear of loss and displacement. It is natural to feel comfortable with those that are similar to our appearance and behavior. Humans feel threatened when things they love and protect such as their family, culture and identity are in danger of being harmed. Racism comes as a reaction to protect all these things. Fear of loss and displacement also make people live with prejudices and perceive others as inferior. Humans fear being replaced by anyone who is seen as more appealing and desirable than what they are. …. What makes racism continue all these years is ignorance. People use to grow up by doing a particular thing their whole life and because everyone else around them also does the same things, it seems to be right for them even if it is morally wrong to other human beings that share different outlooks on life. Other main causes are the feeling of unworthiness and the desire to feel superior. People that feel worthless, unloved and insignificant need a easy mark to make themselves feel better and usually this is another person which is weaker than the racist. Racism can have many effects on a victim. Except from destroying a person’s self esteem, victims can become angry and violent, as they are isolated or excluded. Most of the majority of the victims lives with an ongoing psychological stress and anxiety, having an impact to their family life, health, work and well being. Racism can also have a great impact to the society as a whole. It can destroy communities or create divisions within them. People don’t have equal opportunities to better their lives and it’s one of the primary reasons for the unemployment in many countries. In 2009, a Cornell News’s Service study on the effects of racism took place. It was proven that racial discrimination destroys mental health. The study found that black people may have poorer mental health because of two mechanisms: Firstly, continuing exposure to racial discrimination led to more experiences of daily discrimination and secondly it resulted in a collection of daily negative events across several domains of life, from family and friends, health and monetary resources. This tells us that experiencing discrimination can change a person’s whole world and turn him into an anxious, depressed and mentally unwell human being. In conclusion, Racism has affected the world for thousands of years. It is a serious social problem that people need to deal with. As the causes of racism are not social but individual acts, the only way for people to stop this problem, is through education and awareness of their actions and what the consequences may be. Judging people just because they are different than one another, can never lead to a good outcome.