Psychological perspectives on racism

Psychological Way of Looking at Racism

Differences have always been good reasons for people to hate one another and across centuries numerous human beings have been oppressed because of their skin color, because of their gender, because of their ethnicity, and mainly because they were different. Racism is still a problem today, with people still suffering everyday because they have a different skin color. It seems that several thousand years of evolution have not been enough to make all people understand that they are equal regardless of the differences which exist between them. It is believed that the reason for having a racist attitude or for having prejudices is purely psychological.

Racism has always existed and it is usually portrayed as people hating other people because of their different skin color. The recent centuries have certainly expressed a lot about how people feel regarding differences in skin color. Slavery has destroyed millions of lives and dreams. Nazism has also put an end to millions of lives. In both cases racists had been motivated either by profits or by intense false propaganda. All in all, it is assumed that mankind has learnt something from the process, and, that such events would be history.

However, examples show that racism is still strong even after people undergo life-changing experiences. Americans, for instance, have abandoned slavery in the 19th century and have accepted blacks as being equal to whites. In spite of this, things have not changed much and in the 20th century black people were still underprivileged. It seemed that black people have become equal to whites only on paper, and, that reality had been different. In the first half of the 20th century, white people were terrified that blacks would destroy their society. As a result, whites would often resort to anything in order to blame black people of a certain crime that they had supposedly committed. The punishment for such an imaginary crime would be terrible, the black people accused being frequently murdered.

During that time, anyone suspected of having had a black ancestry would risk to be falsely accused of something. Whites had been mainly obsessed with keeping their race pure, and, thus they did not agree to any kind of contact that would damage the alleged superiority of their race.

Racism goes way back and it goes as far as several nations can say that they've been subjected to another nation at some point in their history. All people can be racist. The typical racist does not have a stereotype, as anyone can choose whether or not he or she should have racist beliefs.

In most cases, a person is influenced by external factors when his or her personality is being shaped. People that are not likely to develop racist thoughts might be influenced by someone or by some event in their lives to do so. Political, social, or economic changes might be responsible for creating conditions favorable for crime and violence to take place because of unemployment and similar problems. Certain people might blame this on the high number of immigrants coming into the country and working for less money or stealing in order to sustain themselves.

Racism is harmful for both the oppressor, and the oppressed. Racism can be both physical and nonphysical. When people are physically harassed because of a racism-based reason, it results in victims with physical wounds. On the other hand, when people are suffering nonphysical wounds, it means that their lives are being affected through the fact that they are frequently discriminated. Discrimination poses threats like unemployment and poorer education.

People tend to feel that they should be more privileged than others that recently entered their country. Also, people tend to believe that the fact that those of the same color with them are majority makes them better than those that have a different skin color and form a minority.

Evolution has only proved that racism is not justified, and that if two people differ in appearance it does not mean that one is superior to the other. In the recent decades, non-white people have proved to be good at everything that white people are capable of doing.

One of the most effective ways to fight racism is through non-violence, and this has been shown around the world with the method succeeding in making all equal. In their attempt to make everyone equal regardless of their background, people have most probably thought about freedom, and the concepts that it implies. A free world cannot exist as long as racism is present.

The racism expressed by people in the present is different from what it once was. People now use nonphysical racism which is much more advanced and subtle. Despite the fact that this kind of racism is not hurting people directly, it is also very dangerous. For racism to end, those abused have to refrain from trying to fight it themselves and unite in fighting it as a group, together with others that have gone through similar experiences.