JRHS Writing BLOG

Racism is all around us

racism still exists all over the world in various forms.

In February 2006, Hines Ward, a receiver for the Pittsburg Steelers, was named the Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl XL. He did not only receive the title of MVP, but he also finally received welcome from his country of birth, South Korea. Born to a Korean mother and an African American father, he was originally rejected by Korea because of his ethnicity. When he came to the United States with his mother, Ward was ridiculed by kids in school because of his noticeably Asian features. However, he has now became a famous football player, and a patriotic son of Korea.

Now, there are much fewer children who are suffering in South Korea because of their ethnicities as Hines Ward, but still the older generation of Korea is slightly biased against multiethnic Koreans. One of the reasons is because of the culture of Korea. It is widely changing, but it has not been an opened country in terms of different ethnicities. Surprisingly, this is not the only example that shows that racism still exists all over the world in various forms.

One example of this is racial profiling. The definition of racial profiling is “the inclusion of race as a primary determinant in the characterization of persons considered likely to commit a particular type of crime (Wikipedia).” This form of racism was never abolished, but always has been in existence. Especially after September 11, racial profiling against Arabs, Muslims, and South East Asians has been increased for suspicion of terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union says, “Arabs, Muslims, and South East Asians are no more likely than whites to be terrorists.”

Another interesting fact about modern day racism is that by trying to remedy the wrong of past discrimination, it created new discriminations. In Men In Black, the author, Mark R. Levin, discusses the Bakke Case. It is a case related to the special admissions program of the University of California. This separate admissions committee was for minority group applicants. As a result of this system, the respondent of this case was not able to get accepted to the University of California even though he had a superior grade than other minority group applicants. The issue was if this system violated the “equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Levin, 91).” This school established this special program to avoid racism, but ironically, it caused reverse discrimination.

Many people are oblivious of the fact that there is still racism around the world. However, it is all around us. Even though we do know that racial discrimination is evil, cultural background and social issues lead us to this problem. However, if we start to put an effort in understanding and accepting each other, we could learn to appreciate others and live in harmony.

Levin, Mark R. Men In Black. The United States: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005.
Wikipedia. “Racial Profiling”. February 20, 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling.
American Civil Liberties Union. “Racial Profiling: Old and New”. http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/index.html

Is it possible that “racism” can perform a valuable function in a society? Can there be such a thing as just discrimination? If there is, what would you call it?

Do you believe that Jesse Remington High students, as a group, have a better educational experience than students who attend public school? Is this experience open to literally anyone who wishes to take part? What if a 40 year old man wanted to join your student body? Should he be prevented or allowed? Why? If you keep him out, that’s discrimination, isn’t it? What if he does not have a high school diploma, but needs one to get a better job to feed his family. He has some savings, and a benefactor who is willing to provide for his family while the gets a high school diploma, and he wants what JRHS has to offer?

His life experience certainly will bring diversity to your campus. He will certainly enrich the student life by his viewpoint. Would you exclude him because of his age? His size? What if he is a 6’5” white man who has been homeless for the last 5 years living beneath an underpass near Boston? Or...what if he is black? Does that change your answer?

It’s easy to criticize unjust discrimination based solely on race. It’s an easy target. Yet the bigger question we should be asking is when IS it right to discriminate, and on what basis?
Lines must be drawn around some things. An undifferentiated mass is a blob. A society without boundaries is not harmonious. It is chaotic and void. We should not seek to eliminate boundaries so much as we must make sure those boundaries are just ones.

Dubbahdee brings out a good point.  the difference between racism and discrimination.  I believe there is a distinct difference in the racism in this blog, and the discrimination that dubbahdee is talking about.  While I agree with dubbahdee, that some discrimination may be appropriate (as in the case of drawing appropriate lines), I do not see the direct correlation with the original content of the Racism blog entry.  The point that I read, is that racism is discrimination based upon “race’ rather than on something tangible and appropriate, such as age, stage of life, or even practicality.  The case of an older adult wanting to go back to any high school is drastically different than a qualified applicant being disqualified for something because of his or her race or ethnic background. In the end, can we all agree that some boundaries are necessary, but “racial Profiling” and discrimination solely based upon race, is not acceptable?

The correlation between my reply and the original post is simply that, while reading the post, I was struck by the obviousness of it. Does anyone DISAGREE that racism is a great evil? OK, so there are a few shaved-headed souls wallowing in their supremicist fantasies. Even so, in the society at large, this issue is pretty much a given. Almost so much that, while we must be on guard about it, I’m not so sure that it is necessary to go around saying , “Isn’t racisim bad? Bad bad bad??!!”
Since that is largely settled, then it is more useful to begin asking questions that require a higher capacity for discernment. How about some of these:

Is it possible for a member of a racial minority to be a racist? Many say no. I think yes, and it is worth discussing.

What is the connection between race and culture? Is it possible that cultural divisions are much more important than racial divisions?

Can one culture legitimately claim to be superior in one or more ways to another culture, or must we all view all cultures as equally valid in all ways?

Let’s chew on those questions. That will make for some interesting discussion.