Racism in North America

Introduction Imagine being hated, discriminated against or harassed just because of your skin colour, race, religion, culture or nationality. You may not think this is racism, but it is. My hope is that by the end of this speech you will try to put an end to racism when you hear it and when you see it. You see racism is a type of discrimination, probably one of the worst. Racism is like a revolting disease being passed down from generation to generation by vicious racists. Unfortunately, most of us will face racism in our lives in one form or another. What kind of world do we live in where we are judged by the colour of our skin rather than the content of our character? We can’t let racism continue, we must stop it, we can’t let it do anymore damage it has already done way too much.

History of racism Racism goes back a long time ago. Racism had happened between first nations and Europeans, the Europeans insulted and made first nations abandon their religion, culture and beliefs and some where even made slaves. Soon after in 1670 the first black slaves were brought from Africa to North America. In the southern United States the ‘One Drop’ rule was placed, that meant that anybody with African American grandparents or great grandparents was a slave, unlike the northern states where it was only if you had coloured skin. Soon even the northern were against slavery like Canada. The Northern states demanded that slavery should be stopped in the southern states, but the southern states refuse, these actions caused the civil war. Many slaves escaped to Canada and the northern states but Canada was not racism free no Canada was actually looked up to in South Africa when they gave United States the idea of slavery, but slavery and segregation was stopped before it was in the United States. But racism was still common and African Americans were still treated unequally. Segregation was finally stopped after the civil rights movement,