Summary Of Understanding Human Differences By Kent Koppelman

People have always divided each other based on their physical appearances. According to the book, “Understanding Human Differences,” by Kent Koppelman, racism “involves the creation of racial categories of human beings with one group superior to others…” Back then, it was not accepted until the nineteenth century and today, even younger children learn the differences between others. There are different types of racism that is still used today. For example, there is cultural racism, individual racism, and institutional racism that is shown in American society today.
The first one is cultural racism. Cultural racism “is the practice of recognizing activities and contributions of one racial group in preference to others within a multiracial society,” (Koppelman p. 186). Cultural racism can be taught at a young age in school. Unfortunately, at time racist messages are communicated in ways that some people do not catch at the
Institutional racism is defined as “established laws, customs, and practices that systematically reflect and produce racial inequities in American society,” (Koppelman p. 193). We all rely on institutions in America. Institutional racism is more devastating than individual racism because of the wide institutions have on people. In other words, this has the power to negatively affect people that belong in a racial group. For example, lower income students, or sadly, students of color go to the same school as white students and they receive the same type of education. However, if we can fast forward to the summer time, those students of color , or students that have lower income students, may not have the money to go to a summer “STEM camp” or to see a tutor to keep up with their school curriculum during summer break, while white students can. This happens around our neighborhood a lot because there is not much students that have the money to be in school in the summer. This is one example of individual