What
is racism according to Oxford Dictionary? It is the unfair treatment of people
who belong to a different race group. According to human kind it is any form of
unfair treatment received from a different race, either on school grounds, in
an office environment, public places, playgrounds and on social platforms. Unfortunately
racism has dominated throughout the globe, and it does not only exist in our country
but it is a worldwide disease.
As
it is said no-one is ever born with hate, it is a behaviour issue that is
installed either by your parents, family or your peers, and it grows to mature and
outline any normal behaviour. Racism starts by differentiating the difference in
colour leading to identification of Black, Indian, White and Coloured that is
why it is upon parents to breed their children by installing love and the
importance of treating people the same way regardless of their skin colour. Parents
play a vital role in their children's upbringing, they should educate their children
on the importance of solidarity, humanity and unity, because no-one is more superior
than anybody in the eyes of the law and God. It all starts with simple things
in life, such as a smile, conversing, loving and respecting a person of different
race and then relationships will be easy to evolve. Building any form of a
relationship with someone of a different race should be a culture that is
practiced on a daily basis. Most people ignorantly blame White people of being
racists whereas even Black, Coloureds and Indians are also racists. This
contagious disease lives inside, most people of all different races. People are
oblivious to the fact that racism starts with the minor actions such as arguing
over who was first in the queue at the store, who bumped literally your
shoulder at the stadium and who's child has brighter grades at awards. I mean
typical examples are endless and every individual is responsible in making a
change.
Through
unity all signs of racism can be eradicated, because there would not be any
excuses to create room for such behaviour. With the influence from our leaders
in our communities, counselors, priests at church, chiefs, kings, teachers and
government racism can be fought against. The target in fighting racism should
be the youth, which should be taught about the history of colonialism and the
impact it brought upon our country years ago. They should understand how
freedom came about and the meaning of peace. It is through the knowledge of our
countries history we can achieve a racism free community, a racism free society
and a racism free country. It becomes something that people are oblivious to as
they cannot realize their racial acts, because it is what they were taught and
how they were brought up to be.
However
social platforms too sometimes promote racism with the messages, statuses,
videos and pictures they post, and this all comes back to the youth. Most
people do not realize the emotional abuse racism carries and the disturbance it
brings in the mental well-being of another individual. No human being is ever
okay with being classified, especially because of the colour of their skin.
Racial acts discourage people, they demean – make them feel worthless, because
of being classified, and never recover from that.
Racism
is experienced by everyone, there is no specific race that can be held
accountable, funny enough or ironically even Black tribes have racial acts
amongst each other which is called tribalism. People feel they are superior
more than others, because of the educational level, family background, family
status, financial status, position at work, because of the influence social
platforms and social media. Most individuals believe or were taught that White
people are the only race that practices racial behaviour, because of the
history in our country (South Africa). Individuals should stop being ignorant
and start making changes first individually before pointing fingers. Races
should identity racial behaviours within their races, before blaming or
accusing other races and the change we would achieve would be very tangible.
The
law can only try to govern the country in the public eye but not on the
internal behaviour of an individual. Laws can be drawn and set but if our
leaders do not practice them there is really no change being done. Racism is
more than spoken word, it includes invisible barriers which can be a very
serious issue whereby people are ignorant about or turn a blind eye towards it.
That is why it is evident that racism is a choice one makes, because no-one was
born with hate in their heart or colour to their sight, proof to this can be
seen in the behaviour of infants as they play gratefully with each other, the
love they share and the warmth they give one another, despite their race.
It
is time that we as a country, as a community, as a society to unite together
and practice the culture of living together as humans. Despite where each racial
group comes from, we need to be taught how to love, how to respect, how to care
and how to live with one another. There should be no room for any comments of
any particular ethnic group, name calling, intimidation, bullying and verbal
abuse. People should not be silent about racism, they need to voice their opinions
and let it be heard. It is in the actions that racism can be fought against.
Let’s stop racism, it does not suit us.
