The word ‘racism’ is not one that goes too often unrequited and unknown. Racism can be a very touchy and sensitive subject for most who talk about it and most likely every person you talk to will have a different variation of an opinion. Our law states that every person is entitled to all rights and freedoms regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. but regrettably, many countries still have many biases towards people of different races because they haven’t necessarily been taught that those beliefs are unfair and demeaning.
Racism — Global Issues: www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism This link dictates numerous amounts of information on racism all over the world. Racism from different countries and of people with various backgrounds is good knowledge to at least know of. Various people are going to believe many different things and it’s beneficial to be aware of that.
Although we, sadly, all succumb to having biases in our lives one way or another, it’s easy to overlook them. It is true, I’ve had many biases over my life-time but I can’t say they were ever based on such issues as race.
Our biases affect the way we address almost every aspect in our lives, from tasks as simple as going to the grocery store to as more complex as bringing up a child. Our biases are going to cause us to treat that cashier at the store differently than we otherwise would. They’re going to cause us to teach our children to have these same biases. If biases can affect circumstances so ordinary as those, it’s no question that they can affect the way we address social justice issues. We’re not going to want to help out with causes in which we think have no real benefit or are assisting those who we think don’t really deserve the assistance. And because we would already have these biases we would keep from educating ourselves further on the issues. And it’s precisely because of these probable situations that it’s important that we are aware of our own biases. If we know that what we think isn’t necessarily true we can eventually encourage ourselves to dispense of our ignorance on the topic. Being aware of our biases may not be a quick fix but it has it’s advantages. One who knows of their own biases can learn to overcome them and stop them from becoming predominant over their way of thinking. Just because the biases are there doesn’t mean they have to rule our lives.
