Why is racism a problem?

To start with, we got to understand what is racism; it is «the belief that all members of
each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially
so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races». Most of the times
it includes the idea that the ‘superior’ has the right to dominate other races. Just by
reading its definition we can realize that it is an ideology based on hate and
discrimination, and history has made us clear that those kind of beliefs end up in major
conflicts that only bring destruction, harm and chaos. We should never forget that every
single person in this world is different. The bases of racism date from ancient
civilizations, and it emerges along with other kinds of discrimination, such as
xenophobia, which is the «dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries»,
according to Oxford Dictionaries and sexism, «prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination,
typically against women, on the basis of sex».

People who stereotype others by racial factors, such as appearance and beliefs talk say
more about themselves than the people they are targeting. We need to define a person
based on who they are by their actions, not what they look think or look. Everyday we
are surrounded by different people with different abilities, origins, histories, knowledge
and likes. Therefore it’s more than obvious that making statements that apply to a
massive group of people just because they have some things in common is ridiculous.
Yet, the problem isn’t much about what people talk, but what people do.

Racism is a type of discrimination, and that means not giving the same treatment or
opportunities to everyone equally on the grounds of sex, age, or as in this case, race. It
becomes a problem when a person capable of getting a job, a social position, a service
or even a human right isn’t given to it because of the different treatment given by the
‘superior’ race, and these superior people are given privileges and are favored on the
same grounds. But why is the dominant race ‘superior’? Some scientists state that it
relates to the competitive instinct in the human, but it can also be justified with the
distinct resistance to certain diseases among races. Africans have a bigger tendency to
obtain sickle cell anemia, while the ones resistant to it have a tendency to get malaria.
Or southeastern asians are more propense to develop diabetes mellitus, and so on
every ethnic group has its strength and weakness, so at the end we are even.

Let’s focus on the republican candidate for the United States presidency, Donald
Trump. We can hardly avoid to see or hear news about him with today’s social media;
and most of these news are about racist and ignorant declarations he has made along
his political campaign, mainly targeted to hispanic people, since a lot of them illegally
cross the border in search for a better life. In his political campaign he has remarked
several times the construction of a great wall in the border between United States and
Mexico in order to prevent the arrival of immigrants into North-American lands, and that
they won’t even pay for it but Mexico will. Along with this, he has promised to — every
illegal immigrants that are currently living in the U.S. on the grounds that they only bring
troubles and cause conflicts with the American country.

He has gained quite a lot of enemies along his presidential campaign, yet he is still one
of the most supported candidates. How can that be? Well, the only reasonable
explanation is that he is the representation of the average unconscious American
ideology: he clearly doesn’t like immigrants (how ironic, the U.S. was funded by
immigrants), he has several times referred to women as objects, he is narcissistic and
self-centered. Not that I’m stating that every American is like this, but the fact that he is
winning the elections talks a lot about the average U.S. way of thinking.

Discrimination means only two things: ignorance and intolerance. Along history, what
has this brought us? Conflicts such as the Crusades, the Holocaust during the Second
World War, the American Civil War, the endless war between arab countries and
countless more. Most of us even believe that it is absurd to fight about things that
should be able to be discussed and agreed with no violence, yet we still have a difficult
unconscious war in the actual world which is discrimination. It is unconscious since
most people don’t realize they have stereotypes deep in their minds about certain
cultures and races, and this is product from exposure to the mainstream media just like
internet, television and movies, generally with ‘comedy intentions’ and mostly is
categorized as black humour.

Racism only appears if it is taught, so the origins of this problem radicate in the early
years of a person, just as education, manners and values. These, very often are
provided in home by the parents or tutors and in school by teachers and classmates. A
common issue that comes up with race is the color of one's skin. Skin color is produced
by the deposit of a pigment, melanin, into skin cells. Around the different areas of the
world there are different averages skin tones, and this is only result of natural selection
or adaptation. People that live in areas nearer to the equator logically have an average
darker skin, since the high concentration of melanin is to protect the skin from sunlight
and it strikes stronger in those regions. Humans with darker skin have less risk of
obtaining skin cancer for the same reason.

So, at the end we can see that racism is a problem that comes from the deep roots of
society, which tend to be education (both from schools and home) and social inequality.
The only way to fight this back isn’t with more violence and ignorance, but with
tolerance and wisdom that comes directly from the family.
References:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/the-emergence-of-xenophobia-and-racism-
history-essay.php
http://www.concienciasinfronteras.com/PAGINAS/CONCIENCIA/racismo.htm
http://www.teenink.com/opinion/discrimination/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_race
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/hamsterjacky/there-dominant-race
http://race.eserver.org/fight-against-racism-today.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-
examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83