Racial and ethnic inequality - Personal Statement Example

Due Racial and Ethnic Inequality Racism and Ethnic inequality is still an area of conflict, tragedy, and terrible abuses all over the world. All the worse, there are ideologies out there that are founded on the beliefs that different ethnicities are, in fact, not equal; they have worked very hard to legitimize these beliefs behind scientific principles. It is those ideals that make-up “Social Darwinism.” Essentially “Social Darwinism” is an ideology that hides behind the logic and early scientific principles of Darwin.

However, the focus of Darwin’s research concerned the physical evolution of living things, not necessarily assuming or stating the research would directly reflect to the social behaviors of human beings as their societies and cultures developed. “Social Darwinists,” as explained in the article, by Peter Amato, in the “Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity” have misused the science of Darwin to allow for and justify, both, racism and eugenics, particularly in the United States in the early 1900s.

It was the ideology of “Social Darwinism” that promoted the practices of eugenics.(Amato, 2005) Many of the acts committed in the name of eugenics involved sterilization to prevent certain “traits,” like mental illness, from being passed on in the society. The entire concept sounds, so very much like, the intentions of Adolph Hitler during WWII. He sought to influence evolution by perpetuating a singular, superior, perfect race. Using the absolutes of science to justify the opportunity to oppress, discriminate against, and, often, mistreat people is a horrific misuse of scientific knowledge.

The ideals of “Social Darwinism” are not hard science. It is discrimination dressed in scientific language that was hardly the intention of Darwin; and is hardly an ideology that a truly ethical person of the modern age should ever contemplate embracing.ReferenceAmato, P. (2005). Social darwinism. In D. L. Shelton (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity (Vol. 2, pp. 968-969). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.