Racism Pros And Cons

Although interracial marriage has been legal in America since 1967 racism continues to be quite apparent. Because it wasn’t legal until 1967 Multi-racial children were considered to be illegal however their now growing number shows society’s need for understanding and social supports. Multi-racial children are subjected to three types of racism; aversive, people don’t know they are being racist, overt people are blatantly racist, and institutional, there is a lack of support in the institutional front. Aversive Racism is arguably one of the most harmful types of racism. A study completed at York University brought to light the prevalence of aversive racism by showing various pictures of black and white faces to more than a thousand test subjects.
The young biracial girl featured in the commercial was a victim of hateful comments that hopefully would not be said in person. The internet was the reason tis commercial was able to have such a racist backlash and many children are subject to online bullying. While overt racism is blatant institutional racism may be hard for some to recognize. Institutional racism occurs when government, private, and public institutions do not consider multiracial individuals when composing standardized forms. Astrea states “Many schools do not permit multiracial students to choose more than one race on demographic forms. This lack of control in being able to properly self identify has been shown to affect one's mental health. (Greig 2013)” Multiracial children’s lack of identity can lead to children not knowing where they belong and acting out. Because many multiracial children do not have role models they may feel alone, since there is no box for them to check they begin to think they are alone and no one is like them. Institutional racism may seem harmless but can lead to estranged youngsters feeling that they don’t