Is Racism the Result of Ignorance?
Citizenship Assessment
Luke Warner
The Oxford English Dictionary describes racism as “the belief that all members of a racial group possess the characteristics, therefore rendering it possible to determine whether it is either inferior or superior to other races.” Racism has been around since the dawn of mankind, and caused many genocides (most notably the Holocaust, however less well known was the Armenian Massacre during and after the First World War), apartheids (in South Africa and also in the USA) as well as making some people to ask the question “What causes Racism and unhappiness between people of different ethnic backgrounds?” Many believe the cause is in fact Ignorance and little understanding of other cultures, however, many believe it is much more complex, and there are more than one reasons. This essay shall attempt to ultimately answer the question “Is Racism the Result of Ignorance?”
To understand what causes racism, one must know what the different types of racism are, as well as their effects. Unfortunately for the reader, there are many effects and types of racism that simply cannot be summarised completely, however we shall study the main types of racism, and what effect they have on certain if not all ethnic groups. One of the main types is Institutional or State Racism. This means that the government, the state, or perhaps even educational institutions cause racial discrimination on a large scale, with the ability to influence individuals, and cause them to act in a certain way, whether it be protesting against it, or also discriminating against others because they believe in the cause. For example, if a school only accepted white children, Asians and Latin Americans, but not Black students, this could be seen as a form of institutional racism. The effects are quite obvious in this case, the disallowed families would perhaps form a demonstration against the institution, with or in some cases without result. Another example which is much more famous is Britain’s monitoring of people from an Islamic background. The protests in this case would be much larger, as it would seem that the State generally believes that most Muslims are terrorists, or at least a large amount. This can be linked to the theme of Islamophobia (the belief that many, or all Muslims are in some kind of terrorist organisation. This word was coined after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. Although Muslim Extremists probably performed the attacks, the reaction was foolish. Many scholars see this as a result of ignorance, however we shall refer back to this in the conclusion).
