Racism is Unacceptable Essay examples -- Racial Prejudice Discriminati

Racism is Unacceptable From the beginning of recorded history, possibly before then, humans have found a necessity for classifying and categorizing every aspect of life. This need for order has been used to efficiently organize and clarify the endless details on Earth. This arrangement of objects in groups has also created a very sinister and volatile mindset that some people live by. This associative manner of classification has lead to the formation of beliefs in race identities, stereotypes, and superiority in the form of racism. Racism is contempt for people who have physical characteristics different from your own (Nanda and Warms 1). This concept is often combined with what is called racialism. Racialism is an ideology based on the following suppositions: There are biologically fixed races; different races have different moral, intellectual, and physical characteristics (Nanda and Warms 1). This is the ideal that many people engage in consciously and the way some people think without even realizing i t. The only way to overcome this derogatory belief system is to define the meanings and misunderstandings of racial differences. Race is the term for classifications of people based on opinions about physical characteristics and differences between groups of individuals. The problem with this is that these differences do not really provide distinctions between ancestral lineages. In fact, these subtle differences between so called races, like broadened noses, physical structure, and skin color, are the results of environmental circumstances encountered by early nomadic human groups as they moved and settled in new territories. These traits are the products of many thousands of years of genetic hit or miss. Some of these... ... not curious about the skin colors, hair textures, bodily structures, and facial features associated with racial background (Rensberger 57). As a result of this, we can only hope that by not tolerating this type of thinking in our children and not being part of it with our associates we can help make racism an unpopular and unacceptable way of life. Works Cited 1. Keita, S. O. Y. and Kittles, Rick A. â€Å"The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence.† American Anthropologist. 99 (September 1997): 534- 542. 2. Nanda, Serena and Warms, Richard L. Cultural Anthropology. Belmont, CA: West/ Wadsworth, 1998. 3. Rensberger, Boyce. â€Å"Racial Odyssey.† Science Digest. (January/ February 1981) Reprint. 57- 63. 4. Wachtel, Paul L. Race in the Mind of America: Breaking the Vicious Circle between Blacks and Whites. New York: Routledge, 1999.