Answer ONE of the following questions: - Assignment Example

Sources and causes of racism and are deeply embedded throughout major aspects of many societies. The sources and causes of racism can be delineated as colonialism whereby the intrinsically racist process of colonialism availed the basis and continued presence of systematic racism within most societies (Back and Solomos 2000, p.58). Other causes of racism include pervasive ignorance, fear and lack of appreciation of cultural diversity, power and privilege. Racism is functional in that it is employed to sustain structural inequalities within the society that are skewed against ethnic minorities.

It is ironical that the lack of jobs, housing, or other resources has led to minority scapegoating whereby ethnic minorities are increasingly becoming a scapegoat for prevalent social problems within the society. Historically, racism has been employed to validate the conquering of ethnic minorities to obtain key resources such as land, strategic military outposts, or forced cheap labour. The resultant system of inequality is then sustained and perpetuated via social forces (Hutchinson and Smith1996, p.3). The impact of racism within the society are widely manifested in poor health and health services, low wages, substandard housing, high incidences of school dropouts, high unemployment and under-employment, and reduced access to higher education opportunities, as well as other institution maladies.

Forms and Modern Manifestations of Racism In equality in access to critical resources within the society such as health across ethnic groups may not be necessarily reducible to socioeconomic arrangement. Research indicates that racial harassment and perceptions of prejudice possess significant impact in disadvantaging ethnic minorities within the society. Political Sphere In the contemporary society, there is an increase and support gained by political parties and entities that that openly express racist, bigoted, and xenophobic views.

This has placed ethnic minorities, who are marginally represented, at a disadvantage mainly through exclusion policies. Minorities are also underrepresented in decision-making and administrative positions and the instituted affirmative programs have only yielded conflict and polarity among the employees. Employment Racism has been widely reported in the arena of employment, which leads to economic depression for members of the oppressed racial and ethnic groups (. The experience of majority of ethnic minority within the job market has not been always pleasant or positive with some individuals from minority groups and recent immigrants earning relatively lower pay than their white counterparts despite being sometimes well qualified and highly educated.

In some cases, racial discrimination is reported within the workplace centring on an individual’s appearance, denial of career advancement opportunities, and ascription of cultural stereotypes to individuals Giddens and Sutton 2010, p.148). There is a continued absence of employment opportunities for ethnic minorities, although the general agreement cited mainly details lack of skills on the part of the ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, in most cases structural barriers hamper access to the labour market, plus other economic opportunities (Yuill and Gibson 2010, p.91).