HISTROY OF RACISM.
Racism also called racialism, any action, practice, or belief that reflects the racial
worldview the ideology that humans may be divided into separate and exclusive
biological entities called “races” that there is a causal link between inherited physical
traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural and behavioural
features; and that some races are innately superior to others. Since the late 20th
century the notion of biological race has been recognized as a cultural invention,
entirely without scientific basis.
Following Germany’s defeat in world war1 that country’s deeply ingrained anti-
semitones was successfully exploited by the Nazi party, which seized power in 1933
and implemented policies of systematic discrimination, persecution, and eventual
mass murder of Jews in Germany and in the territories occupied by the country during
world war 2.
In north America and apartheid era South Africa, racism dictated that different races
chiefly blacks and whites should be segregated from one another; that they should
have their own distinct communities and develop their own institutions such as
churches, schools, and hospitals; and that it was unnatural for members of different
races to marry.
Historically, those who openly professed or practiced racism held that members of
low-status races should be limited to low-status jobs and that members of the
dominant race should have exclusive access to political power, economic resources,
high-status jobs, and unrestricted civil rights. The lived experience of racism for
members of low-status races includes acts of physical violence, daily insults, and
frequent acts and verbal expressions of contempt and disrespect, all of which have
profound effects on self-esteem and social relationships.
Racism was at the heart of North American slavery and the colonization and empire-
building activities of western Europeans, especially in the 18th century. The idea of
race was invented to magnify the differences between people of European origin and
those of African descent whose ancestors had been involuntarily enslaved and
transported to the Americas. By characterizing Africans and their African American
descendants as lesser human beings, the proponents of slavery attempted to justify
and maintain the system of exploitation while portraying the united states as a bastion
and champion of human freedom, with humans rights, democratic institutions,
unlimited opportunities, and equality. The contradiction between slavery and the
ideology of human equality, accompanying as philosophy of human freedom and
dignity, seemed to demand the dehumanization of those enslaved.
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By the 19th century, racism had matured and spread around the world. In many
countries, leaders began to think of the ethnic components of their own societies,
usually religious or languages groups, in racial terms and to designate higher and
lower races. Those seen as the low-status races, especially in colonized areas, were
exploited for their labour, and discrimination against them became a common pattern
in many areas of the world. The expressions and feelings of racial superiority that
accompanied colonialism generated resentment and hostility from those who were
colonized and exploited, feelings that continued even after independence.
Since the mid-20th century many conflicts around the world have been interpreted in
racial terms even though their origins were in the ethnic hostilities that have long
characterized many human societies e.g Arabs and Jews, English and Irish. Racism
reflects an acceptance of the deepest forms and degrees of divisiveness and carries the
implication that differences between groups are so great that they cannot be
transcended.
Racism elicits hatred and distrust and precludes any attempt to understand its victims.
For that reason, most human societies have concluded that racism is wrong, at least in
principle, and social trends have moved away from racism. Many societies have
begun to combat institutionalized racism by denouncing racist beliefs and practices
and by promoting human understanding in public policies, as does the universal
declaration of human rights, set forth by the united nation in 1948.
In the United States, racism came under increasing attack during the civil rights
movement of the 1950s and ’60s, and laws and social policies that enforced racial
segregation and permitted racial discrimination against African Americans were
gradually eliminated. Laws aimed at limiting the voting power of racial minorities
were invalidated by the twenty fourth amendment to the US constitution, which
prohibited poll taxes , and by the federal voting rights act 1965, which required
jurisdictions with as history of voter suppression to obtain federal approval
preclearance of any proposed changes to their voting laws the preclearance
requirement was effectively removed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. By the
2010s more than two-thirds of the states had adopted varying forms of voter id law,
by which would-be voters were required or requested to present certain forms of
identification before casting a ballot. Critics of the laws, some of which were
successfully challenged in the courts, contended that they effectively suppressed
voting among African Americans and other demographic groups.
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Despite constitutional and legal measures aimed at protecting the rights of racial
minorities in the United States, the private beliefs and practices of many Americans
remained racist, and some group of assumed lower status was often made a scapegoat.
That tendency has persisted well into the 21st century.
Because, in the popular mind, race is linked to physical differences among peoples,
and such features as dark skin colour have been seen as markers of low status, some
experts believe that racism may be difficult to eradicate. Indeed, minds cannot be
changed by laws, but beliefs about human differences can and do change, as do all
cultural elements.
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CULTURAL RACISM.
Cultural racism, sometimes called new racism, or differential racism, is a concept that
has been applied to prejudices and discrimination based on cultural differences
between ethnic or racial groups. This includes the idea that some cultures are superior
to others, and that various cultures are fundamentally incompatible and should not
coexist in the same society or state. In this it differs from biological or scientific,
meaning prejudices and discrimination rooted in perceived biological differences
between ethnic or racial groups.
The concept of cultural racism was developed in the 1980s and 1990s by West
European scholars such as Martin barker, Etienne who were influenced by American
critical race theory. These theorists argued that the hostility to migrants then evident
in Western countries should be considered racism, a term that had been used to
describe discrimination on the grounds of perceived biological race since the 1930s.
They argued that while biological racism had become increasingly unpopular in
Western societies during the second half of the 20th century, it had been replaced by a
new, cultural racism that relied on a belief in intrinsic and insurmountable cultural
differences instead. These scholars, for instance, argued that while the notion of a
white race that was biologically superior to other races had fallen out of favour, its
place had been taken up by a belief that Western culture was superior to other
cultures.
Three main arguments as to why beliefs in intrinsic cultural differences should be
considered racist have been put forward. One is that hostility on a cultural basis can
result in the same discriminatory and harmful practices as belief in intrinsic biological
differences, such as exploitation, oppression, or extermination. The second is that
beliefs in biological and cultural difference are often interlinked and that biological
racists use claims of cultural difference to promote their ideas in contexts where
biological racism is considered socially unacceptable. The third argument is that the
idea of cultural racism recognises that in many societies, groups like immigrants and
Muslims have undergone racialization, coming to be seen as distinct social groups
separate from the majority on the basis of their cultural traits. Influenced by critical
pedagogy, those calling for the eradication of cultural racism in Western countries
have largely argued that this should be done by promoting multicultural education and
anti-racism through schools and universities.
The utility of the concept has been debated. Some scholars have argued that
prejudices and hostility based on culture are sufficiently different from biological
racism that it is not appropriate to use the term racism for both. According to this
view, incorporating cultural prejudices into the concept of racism expands the latter
too much and weakens its utility. Among scholars who have used the concept of
cultural racism, there have been debates as to its scope. Some scholars have argued
that Islamophobia should be considered a form of cultural racism. Others have
disagreed, arguing that while cultural racism pertains to visible symbols of difference
like clothing, cuisine, and language, Islamophobia primarily pertains to hostility on
the basis of someone religious beliefs.
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SCIENTIFIC RACISM
Scientific racism is a belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism
(racial discrimination), racial inferiority, or Racial superiority. Historically, scientific
racism received credence throughout the scientific community, but it is no longer
considered scientific.
Scientific racism employs anthropology (notably physical anthropology),
anthropology, craniometry, and other disciplines or pseudo-disciplines, in proposing
anthropological supporting the classification of human populations into physically
discrete human races, that might be asserted to be superior or inferior. Scientific
racism was common during the period from 1600s to the end of World war II. Since
the second half of the 20th century, scientific racism has been criticized as obsolete
and discredited, yet historically has persistently been used to support or validate racist
world-views, based upon belief in the existence and significance of racial categories
and a hierarchy of superior and inferior races.
After the end of World War II, scientific racism in theory and action was formally
denounced, especially in UNESCO early ANTIRACIST statement, the race question
1950 The biological fact of race and the myth of race should be distinguished. For all
practical social purposes race is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social
myth. The myth of 'race' has created an enormous amount of human and social
damage. In recent years, it has taken a heavy toll in human lives, and caused untold
suffering. Such biological fact has not reached a consensus as developments in
evolutionary genetics showed that human genetic differences are often gradual.
The term scientific racism is generally used pejoratively as applied to more modern
theories, as in The Bell Curve 1994. Critics argue that such works postulate racist
conclusions unsupported by available evidence such as a connection between Race
and intelligence. Publications such as the Mankind Quarterly, founded explicitly as a
race-conscious journal, are generally regarded as platforms of scientific racism for
publishing articles on fringe interpretations of human evolution, intelligences,
ethnography, language, mythology, archaeology, and race subjects.
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RACISM IN INDIA.
Despite what people think, India is a very racist country, recently there were news
reports that some African students who were studying in India were beaten up by
drunk Indians. Unfortunate some of the attacks did happen in the South. This issue of
racism is compounded by the media obsessions with the fairer skin. Movies, TV
series, news anchors and every Billboards are biased against the Dravidians. There are
even advertisements for skin creams that will help people get fairer skin. One of the
Advertisement even shows how the girl picks a white skinned boy over the Dark-
skinned best friend and the guy retorting Switch to a cream which will make your skin
fairer Here in India there, is a structural nature in the racism. In a society where
marriages are arranged a darker skinned groom or bride will always be at the bottom
of the list. Even when it comes to cinema, the south Indian movies are never chosen
for an international accolade because the Indian film control board is in the North. All
the while, it is the south Indian movies which get all the critical national awards.
The LGBTQ community in India are also victims. They are either forced to hide
themselves or are forced to beg on the streets. It is only in the south where they are
treated as humans. In Kerala, there was even a public kissing day where gay and
lesbians were kissing on the streets as a protest against the north of India’s bigotry.
And then we have the cow business. The north of India is predominantly Hindu which
make them all cow worshipers. They have an intolerance to the slaughter of cows for
beef. This intolerance has gotten so bad that just accusing someone of eating beef is
enough to get them jailed or even lynched. The burden of proof doesn’t exist. While
the south is more secular and accepting of the different beliefs.
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2.2 HYPOTHESIS OF STUDY.
Hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the problem to be discussed. The hypothesis
is framed in such a way that the objective of the study is satisfied. Framing of
hypothesis is an integral part of research project as on the basis of hypothesis can be
framed i.e. null and alternative hypothesis. Null hypothesis states that there is no
relation between two variables being studied and alternative hypothesis states that
there is no relationship between both the variables.
The hypothesis is designed in such a way that it helps us in finding out if there is any
relationship between the variables being studied i.e. whether the variables affect each
other or not. We can also say that the following hypothesis was framed to find out if
the variables are correlated or not. The study of the topic is based on the following
hypothesis
Hypothesis 1.
H0: There is no significant relationship between demography and pattern of racism.
H1: There is significant relationship between demography and pattern of racism.
Hypothesis 2:
Ho: There is no significant relationship between the factor and racism.
H1: There is a significant relationship between the factor and racism.
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2.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
• The idea that racism is largely over or dying out over time.
• People of colour are obsessed with race.
• Alleging discrimination is itself racist and divisive.
• Claiming discrimination is playing the race card opportunistic, hypocritical
demagoguery.
• Civil rights are a crutch for those who lack merit or drive.
• If we can address class inequality racial inequity will take care of itself.
• Racism will always be with us so it’s a waste of time to talk about it.
• Embrace and communicate our racial and ethnic diversity.
• How racial bias and discrimination hold us all back.
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2.4 RESEARCH GAP.
The BME Attainment Gap project was conducted as studies show that there has been
a gap between the degree attainment of white and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic)
undergraduates at SOAS the report found that white students are twice as likely to get
a 1st class honours degree compared to their BME counterpart. These gaps cannot be
attributed to differences between students at entry at SOAS, thus suggesting factors
within SOAS contributing to this finding. The gap is not attributable to a deficit in
BME students: any intervention must target institutional factors and not BME
students themselves.
The Students’ Union project, of which this report is the final output, investigated
institutional factors contributing to the ethnicity attainment gap (as the largest
persisting gap already known to exist), and ways to address these factors, based on
students’ lived experiences. It was designed to complement the Widening
Participation project, which analysed data on student entry, study characteristics and
exams to identify (more comprehensively and in more detail than has been done to
date) where gaps exist, and to quantify them. This project recognises that while
quantitative data are invaluable for diagnosing the precise locations and sizes of gaps,
alone they cannot reveal students’ experiences of practices, attitudes, behaviours and
systems that create these gaps, or how such experiences are shaped by students’
histories and interests. There is a need also to consider how these issues are framed.
Together the two projects provide a baseline from which the School can design, plan
and implement a strategy to address institutional factors affecting student outcomes.
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2.6 SAMPLE SIZE AND DESIGN.
There are a number of approaches used in this research method design. The purpose
of this chapter is to design the methodology of the research approach through mixed
types of research techniques. The research approach also supports the researcher on
how to come across the research result findings. In this chapter, the general design of
the research and the methods used for data collection are explained in detail. It
includes three main parts. The first part gives a highlight about the dissertation design.
The second part discusses about qualitative and quantitative data collection methods.
The last part illustrates the general research framework. The purpose of this section is
to indicate how the research was conducted throughout the study periods.
The sample size is a term used in market research for defining the number of subjects
included in a sample size. By sample size, we understand a group of subjects that are
selected from the general population and is considered a representative of the real
population for that specific study
SAMPLING UNITS
The sample unit of this survey was the general public
SAMPLE SIZE
Sample size of the survey is 60 random people
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
Convenient sampling
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2.7 DATA COLLECTION.
The collection of objective and reliable data is necessary for awareness raising and for
sensitising the public and policy makers as to the extent and nature of racism,
discrimination, and related injustices. It is often only when data have been assembled
which have not been brought together before, or when specific research has been
carried out, that public attention is drawn to phenomena which until then have not
been easy to see. Data are also necessary for guiding and supporting the
implementation and development of policy initiatives to combat public and private
sector organisations to ensure that their own policies are fair, efficient and comply
with equal treatment laws, and for judicial processes in proving or rebutting claims of
unfair treatment.
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