In this world consist of various types of people. We can see different people and different culture everyday especially if we live in the multicultural society like Malaysia. All of human life can be differentiate through many aspects such as gender, language, races, status and so on. In this essay we will narrowed our subject to races problem which become the major problem throughout the world or if want to be more specified can be call as racism. Usually the issues of racism occur in a country or a society which consist of various ethnic, culture or races. Based on David Gillborn in his book “Racism and Antiracism in Real Schools”, racism can be defined as the belief that humans are subdivided into distinct hereditary groups that are innately different in their social behavior and mental capacities and that can therefore be ranked as superior or inferior.
Before we go further lets us see the few types of the racism. In general, racism can be divided into five groups. There are; individual racism, active racism, passive racism, institutional racism and cultural racism. Usually, individual racism suggests a belief in the superiority of ones own race over another. The other definition of individual racism is the beliefs, attitudes and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism. Individual racism can occur at both unconscious and conscious level, and can be both active and passive. Examples include telling a racist joke, and using a racial soubriquet. Second is active racism. Active racism can be defined as actions which have as their stated or explicit goal the maintenance of the system of racism and the oppression of those in the targeted racial groups. People who participate in active racism advocate the continued subjugation of members of the targeted groups and protection of “the rights” of members of the agent group. These goals are often supported by a belief in the inferiority of people of color and the superiority of their own people, culture, and values. On the other word, the active racism can be exist where one people being too fanatic or extreme about their own race. They will think that their race is the best among other races, for example the Malay race think that they are the best or the actual owner of Malaysia, so that the other races must follow what ever the Malays needs. Therefore when a Malays want implement some rules and regulations, the other people from other races must follow and if that people not follow what the Malays said they will face the heavy punishment. So that situation show to us that Malays as the dominant race urged other people from other races to respect the Malays right as the owner of this country. But here I want to emphasized that situation just one simple example and not related with our culture in Malaysia at all.
Third is passive racism. Passive racism can be defined as beliefs, attitudes, and actions that contribute to the maintenance of racism, without openly advocating violence or oppression. To be much more specific the passive racism can be defined as the conscious or unconscious maintenance of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support the system of racism, racial prejudice and racial dominance. Fourth is institutional racism. Institutional racism can be defined as the conscious manipulation of institutions to achieve racist objectives. It is seen in colleges, companies and some specific organizations that admit people of certain ethnic group easier than they admit other. Institutional racism also can be called as the network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for certain race, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantages for people from targeted racial groups. The advantages created for certain race are often invisible to them, or are considered “rights” available to everyone as opposed to “privileges” awarded to only some individuals and groups.
Last type of racism is cultural racism. Cultural racism contains elements of both individual and institutional racism. It is the expressions of the superiority of one s race cultural heritage over that of another race. It is a matter of cultural racism when the cultural achievements of a race are fully ignored in education, this happen mostly with the ethnic minorities. Cultural racism also can be seen as aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to certain people or race and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.
Racism can be found in various forms. Racism can be divided into two biggest groups. There are in individual form and in the groups and organizations form. The example form of racism which can be categories under individual form of racism can be in ethnic racism, geographic racism, epidermal racism, ageism, classism economic, abeism, sexism, genism and specysm. Ethnic racism is the belief that one set of cultural attributes is better than other cultural attributes, geographic racism is the belief that people from other places are worse people than ones from your place, epidermal racism is the kind of racism that believe that the people one range of skin tones is better than other than other that have different range of skin tones. The other forms is ageism where it draw conclusions about people rights, obligations and abilities based solely on their age, abeism is a racism of the healthy to look down the ill and fail to give him solidarity, sexism is the feeling of superiority from one sex over the other one and/or homosexuals, genism is the judging of people based on their genetic environment and the last form of racism is specysm which being the ultimate form of racism and it is the belief that the human race is superior to other species with whom we may not be able to mate.
The example of form of racism which can be categories under racist group and organizations are white supremacist, anti-Semitism, antichristian, and skinheads. White supremacist more known as KKK (Ku Klux Klan) founded in 1866 in Tennessee. They went on night rides in which they would intimidate the empowered blacks of the South from voting. Since this group establish they had gone through five eras. The fifth era has coincided with the rise of the Internet, in this era KKK has associated with other groups like Stormfront, Aryan nations, American Nazi Party, etc. Anti-Semitism is the Nation of Europa Organization that denies the Jewish Holocaust in the WWII. This group tries to fight the International Racist Jewish Mafia by the use of internet. Skinheads also fall into this racist group because the famous group under skinheads such as Hammerskin nation, Skinheads UK, and Southern Cross Hammerskins promote white prode, white loyalty, white heritage and white power. This group just fight for the white race and deny the blacks right, that’s why this group can be called is racist.
In the next paragraph let us see what causes of this racism issue are. The first cause of this issue is the feeling of fear. When we are afraid of something or someone or maybe to other community or other race, we often express this in terms of anger or hatred. On other words, fear can contribute to the racism issues when one people or communities who consist of one race feel threaten with other races. For example, the Chinese in Malaysia fear they will lost to other races from various aspects such as from economy aspects, political aspect and so on. So that, they had being very racist to make sure their race can get what they should get. Usually, these kinds of Chinese will focus or maybe can called as really concern towards their race in many aspects. For example, when an Indian and one Chinese want to work at one company where the owner is a Chinese, we can see the percentage to be hired for that Chinese who come to the interview much higher than that Indian. It’s because the owner of this company more prefer to hired his own race than other race. They prefer to hire their own race because they fear by hiring people from other race; their own race will be left behind from other race.
The other reason which contributes to the racism issues is ignorance and general lack of education. Ignorance and general lack of education can contribute to the racism issue when the youngster is not exposed with other race since their young age. We can see if one people who exposed to various cultures from a young age, that people will less inclined to be racist or intolerant. But sadly to say, people who is not exposed with other cultures or other races since their young age then their attitude towards people from different races is more likely to be a negative one. In Malaysia we can see a lot of school which build up for some certain race only. For example, we can see the Chinese more preferred to send their children to the “Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina”, and for the Indian they more preferred to send their children to the “Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil” and the Malay more preferred to send their children to “Sekolah Kebangsaan”. Normally, a children sometimes become racist when they are misinformed by parents who are themselves prejudiced against one group of people or other race. So that, the adult or parents play an important role to guide or educate the youngster to make sure they are not being racist.
After conducting research, we found out few points that being the impacts of racism towards our life. In this essay we will divided the impacts of racism into two types. There are general impacts and specific impacts. First, the general impacts are; prejudice, discrimination, and bias. In the next paragraph we will see more detail about each impact of racism towards our life. First of all we will see to the prejudice issues. From the books Thinking & Writing Strategies, the author of that book defines prejudice as;
…as the name implies, the process of ‘pre-judging’ a particular person, place or thing for the way it acts, looks, or even who or what it is involved with. In general, it implies coming to a judgment on the subject before learning where the prevalence of the evidence actually lies, or formation of a judgment without direct or actual experience. (Dr. Rahmat Ghazali, 2008).
Prejudice can be classified into three types. There are cognitive prejudice, affective prejudice and co-native prejudice. Cognitive prejudice refers to what people believe is true. This type of prejudice can be seen in our surrounding. Most people who act prejudice towards other people always think that they are always true and other people who disagree with them will be terminated or will be prosecuted through many ways. We can see the existence of prejudice when some people who very fanatic with their races or involved in some association or parties become prejudice with their opponent and just think that everything done by their opponent always wrong. The other type of prejudice is affective prejudice. Affective prejudice refers to how you feel (or your emotion) and what you like and dislike. It seems like you always make the perception or decision closely linked to your feeling rather than your rational thought. This type of prejudices can be found anywhere either at our workplace, classes, market and so on. Its easy to found who using this type of prejudice because it can be found and seen through their attitudes. Commonly, people who practicing this type of prejudice, their attitudes toward members of particular classes such as gender, race, ethnicity, national origin or creed. Last type of prejudice is co-native prejudice. Co-native prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave or to act. Usually this type of prejudice is regarded as an attitude because people do not act on their feelings. the major example where people can be defined as prejudices are most Malaysians believe that skin color and type of gender are show their best of life, the black color cannot success and men are more stronger than women. They become prejudice because they are too proud of their skin color and their gender. They always are on side of them. They do not support with others. Sometimes many people have dislike with others. They do not friends with a poverty person, ethnicity and so on. Nowadays, we can see that our society does not support together. So, this impact has become seriously and is not good for our country.
The other impact of racism is discrimination is practicing anywhere. As we know, discrimination is always a social problem. Some people discriminate other people because of their gender, skin color and of course the races. The personal/individual discrimination is directed toward a specific individual and refers to any act that leads to unequal treatment. It should be that one person makes some judgment to another person. He or she critics the other people attitude, skin color and in the worst cases he or she cannot accept some people as their friends. Besides that, our institutional discrimination also ruined. People are like talking about bad things to other races. This type of problem will contribute to the fall down of our social institution and cannot be recovered again. Usually, the institutional discrimination is about their right. They fight for their right and become selfish. They believe that their institutional better than others. So they think that everything here is belong to them and other group of people is belongs nothing.
The next impact of the racism problem is bias. A bias is a prejudice in a general. Usually it refers to an attitude of having a preference to one particular point of view or ideological perspective. However, one is generally only said to be biased if one’s powers of judgment are influenced by the biased on holds. A bias could for example lead one to accept or deny the truth. Nowadays, in Malaysia, we can see that the government has biased to our economical environment. We can see that, the poverty person still does not get a well accommodation especially in rural area. This situation can be seen in Sabah, Sarawak and other village region. They do not get a proper sanitation, electricity and watering. For races, we can see that other races that Chinese and Indian are always questioning about their right. They said that all Malays get a full accommodation rather than them. The government has given extra money to the Malays and other race does not get anything. So it becomes bias to them.In our society, bias are always happen. Some student in school always said that they become bias. This is because the teachers always treat a clever student rather than them. Sometimes, they do not get attention from the teachers because of their look, skin color or maybe races. Furthermore, the Chinese and Malays student are always gain an attention and always get some praises from the teachers but the Indian student just wait and see. This is deviance for the teachers because the teachers should teach them wisely without make some bias and discrimination. This is important so that every student can study together, not feel lonely and make discussion group that mixing with all races. From that, they can share anything; give some opinion and ideas to make up some conclusion.
The last but not least is the racism had contribute to the riot and chaotic situation. This situation can be seen and the most historical situation and always play in the Malaysian mind is 13rd May tragedy. During that tragedy occurs we can see the spirit of racism is high. If we go back the incident in 13 may 1969, they are more Malays died in that incident. This is because the Chinese want to take some revenge to Malays. The pregnant women and kids died in that incident. Recently, we can see that, there are many demonstrations that occurred in Kuala Lumpur. They do like that because they fight for their right. It causes by a small matter but they like to make this matter a hot issues. This is so embarrassing and makes our dignity ruined. Besides that, it also makes our economy decrease and our politic not stable. There is no more loving, helping and caring with other. So, if this racism problem cannot to stop, there are many criminal cases, demonstration here and there and of course the riot happens again.
From now on we will see at the specific impacts of the racism towards our life. First, we will see the impacts of racism in the workplace. First, the experience of racism itself is stressful. Though it has been found that work conditions such as skill discretion, job demands and trouble with subordinates lead to physiological distress and lower levels of job satisfaction and well being, it is proposed that racism at work impacts well being due to the added stress of racism. Racism at work place or more known as racial bias can be divided into two types. There are; institutional discrimination and interpersonal prejudice. Second, when experienced in the work context, racism poses a threat to financial viability and thus, impacts well-being. Racism at work may be more detrimental in the work context than in everyday interactions outside of the job. Next we will see the impact of racism towards modern society. Few impacts of racism towards modern society are poverty, dehumanization, exploitation, risks of social unrest, injustice, undermining of the principle of universalism upon which most modern democratic societies are based. We can see surround us how many people live in poverty. It’s too many. If we go to the country where the majority of people there are dominated by the white skin, we can see a lot of black skin people live in poverty. If we going to the country which dominated by the Chinese people, we can see the majority of people who live in the poverty is from other races.
The next point is how to overcome this kind of social problem. We would like to suggest few ways how to overcome this racism problem. There are several ways to overcome racism problem. To avoid this problem getting worst, all responsible parties should take an action so that every people realize that this problem can damage our country, nationalism, young generation and so on. So, the ways to overcome this problem include through educational, reducing our prejudices, our thinking and others. This is important because more and more people are becoming aware to the quality of their life. So, if this racism problem cannot to stop, we do not know how to improve our life. The first way to overcome this problem is education. Education plays a vital role in our life. This is because education is our main essential in our life. To overcome this problem, our education must be very well. First, teachers must emphasis their student about the importance of unity. With that, student will know how to communicate with other races, how to join them, how to understand them and so on. They also can study about other races culture such as their festive season, their food and anything. Due to that, our society will become closer among others and many things can be done together. The second ways to overcome this problem is we have to judge other people by their action, not by our perception. When we are thinking about other people, we cannot to judge them just like that. We cannot to discriminate people because of their skin color. We must avoid from have perception that everything other people doing is wrong. Government also must give equal attention to all people and not differentiate them through skin color or what.
Next, we have to accept other people as our friends and family. This is important because through this method we can get closer with others. If we can accept them, we can avoid any chaotic, fighting and riot. Some people cannot co-operate because they are selfish, highly ego, snobbish and arrogant. They do not want work together because they feel they are better than other races. Parents must teach their children to accept other people from other races as a friend. This is important because we can emphasis them how to be friendly with others. If they can work together from kids, they will become friendly and do not hate the rest. They can accept them as their family and be a best friend. No matter the skin they are, if they can seat together, make some discussion group and share their opinion, any riot or demonstration can be avoided. Thus, our country become prosperity and our internal politic can be stable. Besides that, our economy also will increase because we can attract foreign investor to make an investment in our country.
As a conclusion, over to this problem we can see that the racism problem are getting worst. Everyday we can see that every people want to fight their rights. However, the rights that they are fight does not give them anything or meaningless. In addition, racism problem is always happen if the government not takes an action to solve overcomes this problem instead of that, the effects of this problem to our country are very dangerous. This is because our politic stability can damage just like that, our economy become decrease and lots of social problem among youth. So, if we want to achieve our goal, all the parties should seat together, make some discussion to find out the solution about this problem and we should not blame others if we not able to do a good thing or achieve the right decision as what we want.
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