SOC3033 Cultures Of Race And Racism

The term species is associated with animals, to categorize them on the basis of their genetic make-up. While for human being, to differentiate on the basis of ethnicity, physical attributes, culture, the appropriate term is race. Any attitude that emanates from the feeling that a particular race is inferior, and the resultant violence and discrimination that entails, accounts for racism, or racist attitude. In this particular essay, reports on race and racism compiled from two online newspapers The Independent and The Telegraph shall be discussed and summarized. The following sections shall be highlighting various aspects of racism from various angles to show that it is a multi-faceted issue.

It is surprising these days that islamophobia has taken such a shape in the United States of America that even speaking in Arabic at a public place and remembering the name of Allah could land an individual in trouble. As Chris Baynes (2018) reports on behalf of The Independent, that a 26 year old student of Political Science, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi was forcefully evacuated from Ryanair and made to bear a humiliating session of search and interrogation. His fault was that he had uttered “inshallah” before disconnecting the telephonic conversation which he was having with his uncle. According to him a lady had expressed disgust over the conversation which was in Arabic, and no sooner had she alerted the authorities, than the forces appeared and he was escorted by policemen for undergoing a humiliating session of interrogation. In an interview with Mr. Makhzoomi following the incident, he had opened up about how racism is rampant in the entire country in other forms. He had expressed deep concerns about how places of socialization like coffee-shops across the United States of America, especially Starbucks, have become hubs of racial abuse. He pointed out to the incident whereby two black men were arrested at Starbucks on unjustified grounds. He even expressed deep concern about visibly muslim women, who prefer wearing the niqab and the hijab, and how they become soft targets of verbal violence, and sometimes physical as well.

Radhika Sanghani (2018), reporting on behalf of The Telegraph brings out a shocking fact in her article on racial abuse in Britain. Perhaps the perverted expanded form of the acronym meant to denote the Queer community, LGBT, could not get worse than “Let’s gas Blacks too”, it seems by what she has revealed. Such amount of hatred emanates from a call for total domination and representation of the whites in various governing bodies at universities. A black student had also been held captive to prevent her from being included in the law council of Trent University. She had even hinted at the incident when a black woman who had featured as the poster girl for the Scotland Yard had to go to the extent of filing a lawsuit against the forces for racial abuse. The victim had even undertaken such steps against her new employers. It is indeed a matter of concern that to whom the general public look up to for help and security have been engaged in unlawful activities. Sanghani cites the incidents in her article to show how the amount of atrocities in England had increased and to what extent it has reached to jeopardize the life and liberty of black people in the country. They are being treated as second class citizens by the machinations of the social forces, despite being given the right to equality by the law of the land.

From the above incidents it becomes clear that the scope of the definition of the term race takes in its ambit, the colour of the skin, one’s religious and cultural background and even ethnicity. The antipathy is rooted in social attitude which can be violent or non-violent, but are humiliating of equal proportion. A sense of threat based on false grounds propels human beings to resort to such violence in societies which are considered to be free and all-embracing. In the two countries hinted in the above instances prove that it could be very dangerous being a black skinned person, or a person who can easily be perceived as a Muslim by faith on the basis of what one chooses to wear and the language one speaks. The amount of hatred that the masses in the so-called free, tolerant, democratic, all embracing and liberal part of the world espouses for persons belonging to a certain section of the population residing there, who are not racially or culturally western, that too in today’s world is indeed intriguing and a matter of concern which demands immediate attention. This goes as far as summarizing the above incidents is concerned.

Of the two shocking incidents of perpetration of racism from two different angles and perspectives, the first article, written by Chris Baynes on behalf of The Independent deserves a little more attention. The reason behind it is that, his reporting very blatantly strikes at the fact that the definition of racism that is appropriate for today. Once it was limited to only being an act of aggression deliberately waged by a self-proclaimed white supremacist over a Negro individual. In today’s world, people from many under-developed parts of the world go to the West in search of better opportunities for earning livelihood or for pursuing education, and not all are necessarily black, some are brown a well. The immigrants belong to a various cultural backgrounds, but they also try to assimilate to the culture of the West either fully or by balancing Westernization with their native cultures. However nothing seems to earn them the status equal to a white-skinned individual. The white-skinned people have developed the feeling that they are superior to all other races, and their attitude explicitly conveys the fact that the scope of racism is expanding to include biological traits as well as cultural expressions of non-white ethnicity. The intention is not to generalize that all white individuals are bad, and by laying more stress on just one aspect of racism an attempt to nullify the gravity of other forms of racism is not being made. With due consideration and empathy for all victims of racism, it must be made clear that the attempt is the demonstrate the fact that if racism is not checked now, then it can prove disastrous for future generations.

References

Baynes, C. (2018). Muslim man sues after being 'thrown off plane for saying inshallah'. [online] The Independent. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/muslim-man-removed-flight-arabic-speaking-sues-southwest-airlines-racial-discrimination-a8210636.html [Accessed 20 Aug. 2018].

Sanghani, R. (2018). Millennial racism: the other side of snowflake culture. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/millennial-racism-side-snowflake-culture/ [Accessed 20 Aug. 2018].