Racism Is A Negative Influence On Today's Society

In today’s society, it does not come as much of a shock that racism is a negative influence on our personal lives, ideas, and opinions. It seems as if every day many new trending articles appear explaining a controversial situation involving racism, such as riots or a shooting. I believe that if more people understood the underlying concepts of racism, there would be less debating and arguments that cause even more issues. There are varying ideas as to what racism is, but to many people, racism is the belief that a race can be superior or inferior to another one. Understanding the nature of racism can be crucial to having healthy relationships with people of different races. It can help you to establish closer bonds with them, which can enable …show more content…
People of color can see their own race being violently murdered or discriminated against in the media, which can cause hatred and paranoia. Things such as seeing white people being the reasons for the deaths can cause people of the race targeted to think that all Caucasians are against them and racist in some way. This can cause tension or arguments or increased sensitivity related to things that could be seen as racist. Caucasians might even sometimes feel like other races are being racist towards them because they assume that they are purposely being discriminatory. Most of the time we might not even know that people of other colors are possibly feeling frightened because of the things they think that we might …show more content…
Many parts of racism are generally overlooked, such as the different types that exist and the social actions that people are doing. Institutional racism can be defined as the network of instructional structures and pattern of social institutions that creates advantages for Whites, and disadvantages for people of targeted races. Most people are not aware that things such as institutional racism exist, and can be oblivious to the fact that they have more rights or privileges than it seems. Institutional racism can take place in schools, businesses, neighborhoods and communities, and organizations. Another type of racism is individual racism, which includes the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of people that support or perpetuate racism. This can happen without people realizing, and can be active or passive. This is commonly done through things such as racist jokes or by using racist slurs that could possibly offend someone of a particular race or races. Some people can argue that they have the privilege of freedom of speech, and that their ideas are not meant to be racist because they are their own personal opinion. Active racism includes actions which have the explicit goal of racism and oppression of a targeted racial group, while passive racism includes beliefs, attitudes, and actions that contribute to racism without openly advocating it. I believe that if more people understood