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Why is race so important to us?

We are all human after all
Why is race so important to us?

Race being such a big deal has always struck me as weird, even as a kid. Why should I, as a white kid, hate an innocent black kid simply for the way he was born?

Racism is only ever learned in this world. I think that kids are not inherently born racist or sexist or anything, only ever curious. Meaning that kids may ask their parents why the man across the street is black, but that’s not the kid asking if that man is beneath him, even if it comes off that way. The kid may become racist right then and there if the parent said they were beneath them because children’s brains are like a sponge, soaking up what they are told.

The only other way people may become racist isn’t really racism and more so subconscious racism. For example, if you only see white bald men committing murders on the news, you may stereotype that subclass of people and avoid them on the street, even without thinking about it.

Racism (specifically against Africans, for this example) became institutionalized, and even “manufactured,” or manipulated, to promote dominance over non-Europeans. (Although European were not the only racists or slave owners in history, they are the most famous.) Back when the slave trade just started, Europeans labeled Africans as less than human, more like an animal, in order to justify selling or buying a human being. Thus, being racist in the modern day makes no sense knowing that it was for millionaires to make money. So unless you’re a millionaire profiting off of it, you have no excuse. Even that isn’t an excuse, but racism is so ingrained into our society in any culture around the world that it’s hard to come out of.

In our modern America, racism is at a weird point where no one is really hated for their skin color (unless you’re a minority racist), but there are still race-based systems in play, for example diversity hires, race-based scholarships/grants, charities meant to only help one race. Although this may feel like the opposite of racism, it can divide us as people. If a company hires a black employee over a white one only because they are black, it may make the black employee feel as if they didn’t earn that position and anger others who don’t understand the policies at work.

Another example is Japan; some businesses around Japan won’t even let you in unless you are fully Japanese, even if you are a citizen of Japan. This is another example of racism integrated into their society, with their culture being that they are proud of who they are and almost ashamed that others exist. That being said, there are not many places that are like that anymore (especially in big cities). I feel that most cultures also slowly but surely being less racist.

You may read this and only agree with some points or maybe none at all, but the truth that needs to be realized from this is nothing changes between me and my black friends other than different levels of different pigments in the skin… we are all human, and whether you believe it or not, you have to live with that fact.

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