Racism has been a problem since the begining of man. Racism is the feeling that you are better then someone else becasue of your race or their race or percieved race. Many people say racism is not as bad as it use to be, becasue we have abolished slavery. Yes abolishing slavery was a big step in helping to end racism, but is it completly gone? of course not, but there is not some dirrect problem to point the finger at anymore. in our history there has been many cases of racail biases. Slavery, Burmingham Alabma, the killing of Martin Luther KIng Jr., the killing of Malcom X, police brutality, the jailing of Mumia Abu Jamal, and the beating of Rodney King. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and just like and ice berg you see the little things above the surface but below the surface contains the meat of the iceberg. If these brutal and horrifically wrong case's are the ones we hear, imagine the ones we never hear. How much worse could they be? one in every 3 black men are in some for of the correctional system. there are more black men in the correctional system then in college. These statistics speak of horrible injustices to me. then you have to ask yourself how can one in every 3 black men be in a some part of the correctinaol system. The answer sadly is not becasue black men perpetrate more crimes. If two men are arrested for the same low level felony such as assualt if one is black and one is white, i bet you can guess which one is getting the jail sentance and which one is getting the community service. To help stem the flow of hate crimes many states have instated hate laws. these laws make a crime commited for racial, gender, or religous reasons a greater crime. Some states make a hate crim up to three times as bad a crime. This would mean for aggrivated assulat instead of one year in jail you could get three years in jail. That is enough to deter even some of the most hardcore racists. One problem with racism is that the men and women who are supposed to protect us against these terrors are sometimes the perpitrators. It is not unheard of police, judge, and lawyer Klan members so a Colored mancaught in this system could very easily be screwed over. In a town next to mine the police were accused of stopping all black men. and after an investigation =some of the officers admitted pulling over any people that didnt belong in this town. so in the words of some police officers, black men dont belong in white suburban towns. so in all something has to be done about this influx of racism in our society.
many people try to use religion as a reason for racism many groups such as the Church of the creator and the Church of Jesus Christ Christian are two of the many religions that try to use religion as the basis of there racism. "jesus was a fighter for the aryan race" Jesus was not even white. Jesus was born in the mediteranin and both his parents were of such backround. when was the last time you saw a white man from the medertarian they all have dark skin. The paitings of jesus all depict him as white for two reasons. Many white people want to say that Jesus was like them a strong white man, and so he is depicted as such. And the other reason is purity. In art and movies white is the color of purity, hence brides wear a white dress, sacrificing virgins ion white. So to show he was a pure and angelic form he was shown as a white man.
"The woman belongs in the kitchen!" What are we stuck in the 40's still, where all women are barefoot and pregnat making us dinner? come on catch up with the times. Women are make helpfull contributions to the world. Starting during the world wars taking over working in the factories, and today holding high level postions. Women can do the job men can just as well as any man can. Some women cant do maual labor becasue of the strength restrications just like i couldent be a seamstress becasue i have no cordination. But there are lots of succsesful men seamstress and plenty of succsesful women manual laborers. A persons sex has nothing to do with the job they can do. Does a high buisness executive really have to have a penis? Thats what it boils down to, man or women. Two equally qualified people, the man gets hired becasue why? The world has been getting signifgantly better in this aspect, there are many house husbands and there are also many high power women workers. so while the gauntylet has been thrown down the battle is far from over in having the sexs equal.
"You're such a fag!" many people do not see how this simple saying helps further and perpitrate homophobia. This small phrase says to many kids and gay men the it is not ok to be gay. But why is not ok to be gay? Becasue its different then you, or becasue you dont understand it or becasue its just plain wrong? these are all pathetic excuses. Being gay is not something you have much control over. You dont catch gay, you dont wake up one morning gay. you are born straight of homosexual. As a straight man can i explain why i am attracted to women? no i cant explain things about women i find attractive but there is no clear reason why i was born that way. This is much like a gay man, he cannot explain why he is that way just that he is. There is a study about gay and staright men. and the people that conducted this study set every one on a scale 1 being completly gay and 10 being completly straight and a five is bi-sexual. and very few men fell on eith a 1 or a 10. almost all men have some sort of homosexual part in them. If a man likes anal sex with women he is not completly straight. most men scored in the eight or 9 region, any number over six and you are considered a straight man. The hate criems against gay men are so horific and gruesome and need to be stopped. A memorible one is the dragging of mathew shepard, where the image "Tied to a fence his face was covered in blood excpet for where his tears ad washed it clean."(new york times). That qoute will stay with me for the rest of my life, it evokes so many pains and emotions that somebody could be so insensitive and ignorant.
"The jews created christianity to destroy the white man."-a qoute of the Chucrch of The Creator. That dosent even make sense. why would the jews do that, and how? Did they just make up jesus and his mircles and pay people to act like they ahd been healed. that would be quite an undertaking back then when you couldnt talk to people acroos countries very fast. The Jewish religion is not trying to destroy us, unlike the nazis think. There is no great jewish conspiracy to bankrupt the world bank. these are all ignorant thoughts. Being jewish is not a cult or secret orgainization its a religion just like any other. There were many Jews that have tried to stop Racism such as Alan Berg. he was a famous radio jockey who arn an anti-racism show. And he was very good at what he did. He could effectivly baffle even the most devote racist and make them hang up baffled. But he was accused of conspiring in a jewish ring. and so for his religious belifs he was shot by a group of racist skinheads in his driveway with a converted mac 10. Did Alan deserve to die? no his only crime was practicing judism. The idea of anti-semitism was brought forth in a nicely handled film called "the Great Dictator" by Charlie Chaplin who is jewish. He tried to show how ludicus Nazi Facism was and that the jewish people were not trying to take over the world.
"Eurocenterism is the tendancy to see european culture and history as the norm and all others asnon-essential or unimportant. Eurocenterism refers to white europian males use of coercion to maintaing their predominate inflence over the leadership and policy making roles in society. The maintnance of eurocenterism is dependant upon the ideological effect, which makes the power of dominate class appear desirable and natural"(pfp 008) these are the feelings that what we do in america or europe is the most important which is clearly not true becasue there are plebnty of important eastern cultures and religions. Many of these religions are just as important as western ones. mayny people view Hindu and islamic as weird and uslass becasue they do not understand them, but they are close to our religions. many people think that islamic is a violent religion becasue of a few isolated incidents where islam is a very peaceful realigion. but people view these things as not importantand basically write them all off.
"We are not enemies but friends we must not be enemys though passion may have strength it must not break our bonds of affection the mystic cords of memory will swell and agin touch like surely they will be by the better angels of our nature." American History X. this qoute explains what is bad about hate. Hate kills, with hate you can never win. Hate can be aginst many things, many of which i have covered already. But basic hate stiffels intellectual growth and freedom. hate has caused many murders and crimes. Brian Deneke was killed becasue he was differnt and did not fit into what society woulkd say was the norm. He was a punk from texas and for the way he looked and the music he listened too he was run over by a local boy. And becasue of this hatefilled society he was let free. Becasue he was a good kid, even though he committed murder 2. Why do we let hate linger in our society why dont we stand up and do something about it? most people are affraid to, or they say other people will do it, or i wont make a difference. But the trutch is there is no reason to be afraid there are thousands of sympathisers like you who can and will help you. And while there are other people that will do it the more people we have standing up in racists faces telling them they are wrong we would be stronger. Racists are cowards, they must be in groups becasue they are afraid of what society will do to them. so to feel strong they like having a big group, and having people be afraid of them. When a big group of anti-racist stand up to them they get scared and flustered. This is becasue they are so used to being unoposed so when they opositin they dont like it. So the best thing to do is to stand up and tell them they are wrong and you wont take shit from them no more.
