Racism and Your Community - Essay Example

? Racism and my Community Racism is discrimination of people against other people because of their origin and skin color. This has been experienced over the years, and has been subjected by those people who believe that their race is much more superior to others. It was witnessed mostly during the colonial period when the Europeans made their colonial subjects believe that they were uncivilized and inferior. I have witnessed the undertaking of the racism process from where I go to school. Although I come from an African setting and most of the population is African, there are also ‘aliens’ that live there mostly American, European and Asian. Though there is no difference between us Africans and those ‘aliens’, even though there always seems to be problems in interaction amongst all these groups of people. The Africans tend to be united and keep together and they tend to distance themselves from these ‘white people’ especially Europeans that were involved in the colonization of Africa. Though the world today has changed a lot today unlike earlier days of extreme racial discrimination in countries like South Africa, during the apartheid period, there still is a major problem amongst people regarding racial terms. In my school, the natives, of whom I am a part, receive favor from the leaders of the school. This is because the leaders believe that we are going to be useful to the society unlike the ‘aliens’ who aim at taking back what they get from here to their birth countries. On the other hand, the ‘aliens’ are not directly discriminated but they do pay a lot more for the same services that the natives get. The fact that a person is coming from outside our country in order to receive education, then they will have to pay an extra fee, usually more than the normal price. This is usually an indirect way of encouraging the local people to enroll in the programs and discourage the foreigners. Through this is a system that has been put to benefit the country financially, it also indirectly acts as a reminder to the ‘aliens’ that they are different from the locals. I have friends in my community, who are both locals and foreigners, I have engaged them in racial based conversations and the locals have a different perspective from how the foreigners view the people in their environment. The locals tend to believe that the foreigners pose a threat to them in their own country. This is why even from the government level there is encouragement to the natives to take up education so they stand a better position against the foreigners. The government would not want to have a generation that has no education which be manipulated by foreign people. On the other hand, the foreigners seem to have a different thought of what is their environment. They know of the differences between them and the locals, but still they try to fit in through making themselves aware of the cultures exhibited by the locals. Unlike in earlier days when the ‘whites’ thought they were more superior over all other culture, they now want to interact and get to know each other to form a bigger community. This, according to me, would be a great idea, unfortunately it is not a mutual feeling amongst all the other locals. Sometimes the foreigners may receive special treatment from the locals and this could be in instances of them being tourists and the locals could benefit from showing them around and get money from them, but the locals would not agree to the foreigners actually living amongst them. There have been cases reported in the recent past about murders done by whites against colored and this has been viewed by the locals as a very bad scenario to portray that racism still exists. This has brought about a lot of tension between the locals and the foreigners. Though the segregation that was witnessed during the colonial times is no longer in existence, and the people are using the same facilities equally, it seems that still there’s no unity running through the different races that make up the community. Lack of unity amongst people in a community leads to lack of development in that community since no one will want to do something that will benefit the other. Some companies have gone ahead and involved foreigners as members of staff, others even have senior positions, this could assist the companies in that they could get to market their products to both the locals and the foreigners as this would portray there is no racial discrimination involved. This acts as a boost to the company in its popularity and its financial state. It will also enhance local and international investment and develop the company. This shows that if racism could cease to exist completely, my community would be much more developed than its current state. The media from where I come does not discriminate against the foreigners although it is Made up of mostly local people. This is because of the media laws that do not allow/accept discrimination of any kind. The media assists the locals understand that all people from all over the world, should be considered equal, despite their race. The media makes sure of this by involving news from even where these foreigners come so they can not feel left out and also know what is going on in their countries. This promotes unity and stability in the areas that are inhabited by people that come from different places like my community. There are also people who are legal citizens of my African country but of a different race, mostly from Europe and Asia who remind behind after the colonial period. Most of them only know this country as their home despite their skin color. Though some locals, if asked, would prefer these foreigners go back to their countries, it would not be possible as some attained citizenship through birth, and it would be hard for them to leave their homes. So it would be better if the two groups of people learn to live together as members of one country. I regard racism as a very ‘dangerous monster’ that could eat up not only my community, but also the world as we know it if it is not taken on seriously. So I would rather take up and fight these ‘monster’ and destroy it before it hits us hard and puts us in positions we would not manage to pull out of. This we could do by realizing that we are all equal despite our races and skin colors. We should not consider who heads us in a project if we are dealing, but we should consider what that person is able to deliver in that particular setting that is good for everyone. I believe that my community and any other place would change for the best if we could learn to live together like one people doing things together that would benefit us all to improve our humanity. Racial discrimination is seen as an ancient act that should be left to remain in that past. References BBC News, Racism alive in South Africa. Posted Monday, 28 April 2008. Retrieved on 2nd Feb 2012. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7361258.stm Daniels R. Africa speaks, Racism: Past and Present. 1996. Retrieved 2nd February 2012. http://www.africaspeaks.com/articles/101996.html Read More