Racism And Prejudice

Racism and prejudice has affected almost everyone at least once in their life. Whether people are aware of it or not, most people are judged by strangers every time they walk into a room. They may not be judged only by their skin color but also by their appearance, sexual orientation, social class or even religion. Those affected by this problem know the harm and humiliation that results from it. Not only does it cause harm to the person being judged but it could also ruin their public perception to people they have not even met yet. In a recent poll held by CNN to see what percent of people agree that racism is a problem in our society today, 66% were blacks, 64% were hispanic and 43% were whites. Using these statistics, one could argue
that this problem affects people of color the most but, this does not mean that whites are not victim to racism and prejudice as well. At the root of racism and prejudice is fear of change and progression. There is not a certain population of people that are solely responsible for the problem; those who fear change could be of any ethnicity or background so it would be unfair to call out a single race or group of individuals. Caleb Rosado, who is a professor in the department of urban studies at the Eastern University of Philadelphia, says that, “at heart of prejudice lies two concepts: ignorance and fear.” This ignorance and fear isn’t something that is new to this nation but lies deep in the roots of our country’s history so this problem isn’t one that can be fixed quickly but over years of integration and compassion amongst all people