What is racism? I'm sure everyone can wikipedia that quickly and find a cookie-cutter definition. Racism to me has always been the idea that individual qualities, actual or perceived, are the direct effect of the race of the individual. It sounds pretty diabolical on paper, but racism can present itself in any number of ways. The word 'racism' evokes thoughts of police brutality, discriminatory legislature and struggles for civil rights. We can all agree that these are caused by pure and simple racism, which, in about third grade, we were told is bad and awful concept.
Then we were told that everyone is the same.
That's seems like a nice idea, and certainly a step in the right direction, but this notion of racism isn't all black and white (pun intended). In America, we tell a room full of white kids that they should treat people of every nationality in exactly the same way. That means, that if you see someone who has a different ethnic background than yours... ignore it.
Does this seem wrong to anyone?
Envisioning everyone in the same way causes people to completely ignore another person's culture or heritage that may be different from their own. This 'everyone is the same' attitude is exactly what breeds our hallmark American ignorance.
When Americans take their 'treat everyone the same' mantra abroad, they find themselves walking into cultures of which they know nothing about. A limited understanding of a language and a lack of knowledge of the differences in cultural social graces can set Americans up to like an ethnocentric group of idiots.
This argument begs the point that race and ethnicity are, of course, two entirely separate things. I do not encourage anyone to ask their neighbor who looks kind of like an American Indian about their most recent pow-wow or try to speak to their black friend in Swahili. Treating someone differently based on their skin tone or genetic background is racism, which is bad.
Now, if you know that you are hosting a dinner party during which people from India will be present, it might be a good idea to serve an alternative to hot dogs and hamburgers. Approximately 80% of India's population practice Hinduism, a religion in which eating beef is frowned upon. Almost third of the population is vegetarian. This is a judgement made regardless of appearance, skin color or any factor except the cultural qualities of the area in which the grew up and thereby not racist, which is ideal.
Alright, I get it. This concept is probably too complex to teach to nine-year-olds that are trying to wrestle with the idea that skin color doesn't make a person inherently different, but the notion that everyone is exactly alike is still a terribly polarizing theory to pass onto the next generation. It tells them to ignore thousands of years of beautiful and unique human culture as they remain uninformed about everything outside of their own cultural bubble.
After that brief tangent, allow me to return to original question. How do we define racism? Something along the lines of making assumption about an individuals traits based off of their genetically defined race. Whenever someone makes a judgement about a person based on their skin color or genetic heritage, that is racism. When someone is unaware of ethnic backgrounds outside of their own, that is cultural ignorance.
Racism is inhuman, but let us not forget that cultural ignorance still a disgrace for humanity.
I really think you make some great points here talking about the cultural ignorance that is taught in the sense of children being told that we are all the same. I definitely can agree with you on the fact that it could definitely create some cultural ignorance.
ReplyDeleteI feel though that when we are told to treat everyone the same, I personally do not believe that it automatically means that people are going to treat everyone like they are American, or like they are just exactly “like us,” especially when there are so many differences between people even that look the same as us. I think that when we are told to treat everyone the same, it is not meant to treat everyone in a cookie cutter fashion, implying we are all the same. I think it is more just meant as a way to look at the basis of where racist ideas come from, looking at the color of our skin as being a “race” which is a socially constructed idea, and being able to realize that even though we are a different skin color, we are all essentially the same-as in we are all human beings and all deserve to be treated with respect, no matter what we look like, as we all look different.
I agree with you that as Americans we can often be culturally ignorant, and that is a very dangerous thing, but I do not think it comes from us being told that we are all the same, because when people look around, even at people from the same “race” as themselves, they can see that there are even differences among them. Like I said though too, I do think it is a good thing to be conscious of those differences, and to learn about other cultures in order to not be so culturally ignorant, so we can have an idea of how other cultures work.
I really enjoyed reading this post, it really made me think and I thought you brought up some good points, especially about children and how telling them we are all the same could potentially teach them to be culturally ignorant.
I really like your example of the room full of white children basically being told to treat everyone the same regardless of race, to basically ignore their differences. I hadn't really thought of it at all like that in my post. It really is probably too difficult at that age to teach children that really they should treat people fairly no matter their ethnicity, not just all the same. Its better to just have them treat them like they would like to be treated until when they're older then can begin to realize that we should not only acknowledge differences, but respect them. That is why I also liked the example you had of perhaps preparing an alternative meal if you know that people of different races are going to attend. That is acknowledging their difference while also respecting then by letting them decide how to proceed with what meal to eat.
ReplyDeleteLike Emily's comment, I also agree that we should think about how much we're telling children at that young age, and how they could end up being culturally ignorant and that could be just as harmful as them stereotyping someone because of what color their skin is or their ethnicity.
Your definition of racism is simple and straight to the point. You’re right about not treating every one the same because different cultures take things in different ways. For example, the handshake, this can be offensive in some cultures or be considered dirty. Looking someone in the eye is offensive to some cultures too, while here it is a sign of respect. Every culture is different and therefore we once again would have to try to learn every culture to truly understand how to treat them the way they want to be treated and treat them all differently.
ReplyDeleteThis topic seems to have struck a nerve with your because you talk pretty passionately about this. Even the food thing is an interesting topic because it is not common knowledge about cultures different beliefs with animals and eating them.
It is good to be different sometimes also, so like you say treating everyone the same isn’t the best idea either. It is good to keep your culture unique and to remember your history. For people to all try to be the same and treat everyone the same it would just make everyone seem boring because their wouldn’t be that uniqueness added from each culture in America.