Racism
Power
Fear
Lack of understanding
Class status
Racism is learned and taught.
As I try to make sense of the common school’s exclusion of races in the 1880’s, I attempted to place the underlying themes in some kind of order. Themes that are immediately apparent are power, fear, and class status. These themes infiltrate every culture of every nation. The question is why? And when will it end? What makes people need to control others? I believe that racism is taught through family and childhood, but also possesses the promise of being erased with education and knowledge. There seems to be an equation of racism to religion. Religion, too, is taught through family and childhood. So, what creates the hatred and views of superiority? How many wars have been fought under the guise of religion? There are too many examples of racism and hate in the history of the world to list. The question remains, why…and what can change it?
I too find the whole prevalence and permanence of racism confusing. With the world being so full of different people with different ways of life; we should be accepting and interested instead of destructive. In the reading it says how English people built churches and schools everywhere they went to preserve their culture. So how could they have such reverence for their own culture, but no respect and total disregard for others. I can't think that any God would have his people kill to spread religion. In the bible religion was always given as a choice, something you should do, but were not forced to. You can't make people believe.
ReplyDeleteI also find it a hard concept to grasp. I also feel as though racism is very much taught in schools; my high school in particular was predominantly white, teachers and staff included. Out of 2000 students, I can count the number of minorities on my hands. The teachers provide their stance in the classroom on racism. If they are learning about Native Americans, the Holocaust, or the Civil War, what are the teachers really teaching? What is the bias? Is the book wrong? Is there a hidden message? Is this done subconsciously? As scary as it seems, I believe that this is all too prevalent with schools.
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