What is Racism Essays - Social Constructionism, Kinship And Descent

What is racism? What is racism to me? Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person?s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain segregated and apart from one another. In Power and Difference, Allan G. Johnson talks about the belief that privilege and oppression are not inevitable features of human life and that the choices each of us make matter more than we can ever know. We can look back at our own history and see what our choices has cost us. Is safe to say racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person or group by another with the belief that that particular person or group is less than human because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes. One important feature of racism, especially toward Blacks and immigrant groups, is clear in attitudes regarding slaves and slavery. Jews are usually seen by anti-Semites as subhuman but also superhuman: devilishly cunning, skilled, and powerful. Blacks and others are seen by racists as merely subhuman, more like beasts than men. If the focus of anti-Semitism is evil, the focus of racism is inferiority directed toward those who have sometimes been considered to lack even the ability to be evil. All of these arguments are based on a false understanding of race, contemporary scientists are not agreed on whether race is a valid way to classify people. What may seem to be significant "racial" differences to some people - skin color, hair, facial shape are not of much scientific significance. In fact, genetic differences within a so-called race may be greater than those between races. One philosopher writes: "There are few genetic characteristics to be found in the population of England that are not found in similar proportions in Zaire or in China...those differences that most deeply affect us in our dealings with each other are not to any significant degree biologically determined."