We can all relate to the struggle with waking up in the morning for school or writing persuasive speeches. But can you relate to the struggle of attaining employment due to the colour of your skin; the fear that grips you in public since you wear a hijab, or to be systematically oppressed by the foremost laws that promised to protect you against racial prejudice. Racism is a struggle, particularly when friends, co-workers and our self-acclaimed ‘multicultural’ society cowers into a state of blindness since to acknowledge racism is “uncomfortable”. Racism: a problem that is rendered as invisible today, whilst depriving the youth of opportunities, creating anxiety and depression. Racism: our generation’s silent injustice.
Today, an ideology …show more content…
Most of us, live beneath the surface, who laugh when a friend makes a racist joke, and quickly shuffle away when a Muslim woman is abused in the middle of town. These are the types of passive racism that pervade our generation. From research led by the University of Melbourne, 8% of teenagers denied racism since “as long as it is not visible racism, it has no harm” (Jenkins, et al., 2009, p. 14). At least, with blatant discrimination, such as those featured in the news, social media goes into overdrive. We unite to restore humanity and attain self-absolution. It reassures us that such a person is not us, since we strongly believe that we are not racist, and to consider oneself as racist is a social taboo. We intentionally choose to be oblivious, as it’s the ‘easy’ and the ‘convenient’ thing to do. But our cowardice deprives others of their freedom. When we choose to remain on the sidelines, people that promote racism become more vociferous. To be colour-blind makes us naïve to a systematic racism which will not erase the scars ingrained from slavery, suffering and survival, and it certainly will not cease the unfair treatment of Indigenous people, the demonization of immigrants nor will it resurrect the centuries of cultures that have been purged by bigotry. “The world will not be destroyed by those …show more content…
But, we aren’t moving forward either. It has been 228 years since the dispossession of Indigenous land and 50 years since segregation was abolished. But this is the 21st Century, who cares what people from the past did? The world is different now. I urge you to tell that to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American, who was fatally shot while playing with a toy gun in a playground (March, 2015); or Jarrah Karam, a Muslim teenager stabbed for speaking Arabic in public (Wellman, 2016), and the millions of unnamed people who are repeatedly abused while their perpetrators are excused. Because how dare a child play in the playground? How dare people speak their language? How dare people walk around with the skin that they were born with? We ascribe to stereotypes that dangerously generalizes a group of people into a category and invalidates a person’s identity. But blacks do not equal crime, Mexicans do not equal drug-dealers and Asians are not always Chinese. How can our generation create a proper identity, when our foundation is defined by racial stereotypes? The combination of indirect racism, stereotypes and vilification, traps us in a cycle of fear and racial tension that culminates into a peak, until finally erupting to civil unrest, such as seen in the United States. The ’Challenging Racism’ project led by Deakin University concluded Aboriginal teenagers are more
Today, an ideology …show more content…
Most of us, live beneath the surface, who laugh when a friend makes a racist joke, and quickly shuffle away when a Muslim woman is abused in the middle of town. These are the types of passive racism that pervade our generation. From research led by the University of Melbourne, 8% of teenagers denied racism since “as long as it is not visible racism, it has no harm” (Jenkins, et al., 2009, p. 14). At least, with blatant discrimination, such as those featured in the news, social media goes into overdrive. We unite to restore humanity and attain self-absolution. It reassures us that such a person is not us, since we strongly believe that we are not racist, and to consider oneself as racist is a social taboo. We intentionally choose to be oblivious, as it’s the ‘easy’ and the ‘convenient’ thing to do. But our cowardice deprives others of their freedom. When we choose to remain on the sidelines, people that promote racism become more vociferous. To be colour-blind makes us naïve to a systematic racism which will not erase the scars ingrained from slavery, suffering and survival, and it certainly will not cease the unfair treatment of Indigenous people, the demonization of immigrants nor will it resurrect the centuries of cultures that have been purged by bigotry. “The world will not be destroyed by those …show more content…
But, we aren’t moving forward either. It has been 228 years since the dispossession of Indigenous land and 50 years since segregation was abolished. But this is the 21st Century, who cares what people from the past did? The world is different now. I urge you to tell that to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American, who was fatally shot while playing with a toy gun in a playground (March, 2015); or Jarrah Karam, a Muslim teenager stabbed for speaking Arabic in public (Wellman, 2016), and the millions of unnamed people who are repeatedly abused while their perpetrators are excused. Because how dare a child play in the playground? How dare people speak their language? How dare people walk around with the skin that they were born with? We ascribe to stereotypes that dangerously generalizes a group of people into a category and invalidates a person’s identity. But blacks do not equal crime, Mexicans do not equal drug-dealers and Asians are not always Chinese. How can our generation create a proper identity, when our foundation is defined by racial stereotypes? The combination of indirect racism, stereotypes and vilification, traps us in a cycle of fear and racial tension that culminates into a peak, until finally erupting to civil unrest, such as seen in the United States. The ’Challenging Racism’ project led by Deakin University concluded Aboriginal teenagers are more