Essay, Research Paper: Racism In The Past, Present And Future

Racism in the Past, Present
and Future.

By Archana Ganapathi
One of the major issues of the past and
present is race relations. Racism has
affected the lives of many people from
various countries. In the past, there has
been a lot of racial tension between the
non-whites and the whites. For example,
the blacks were not allowed to go to the
same public parks or churches that the
whites went to. The non-white workers
were treated like possessions rather than
people. They were never given any
respect or consideration.
Even in other parts of the world, such as
Germany, there was racism during the
Holocaust. At that time, Jews were
tortured and incinerated to death in
concentration camps. All this suffering,
in those days split the Nazis from the
Jews which resulted in war. This war,
later, split Germany into two.
Today, racial discrimination still exists.
It has just taken a different form. There
are also many issues that involve racial
discrimination. For example, in the
Rodney King trial, Rodney accused the
white police officers of beating him up
because he was black. Actually, they
treated Rodney in a harsh way because
he was drunk. In the O.J.Simpson trial,
instead of accusing Simpson as a man
killing his wife, people thought of it as a
black killing a white. The jury was mostly
black. Consequently people considered
the jury bias. Sometimes, movies are
filmed based on racial tensions too.
“Mississippi Masala” and “A Time to
Kill” are some examples. In both of these
movies, people of different races love
each other while their family is totally
against inter-racial relationships. All
these have a bad influence on children.
Some children who have watched these
movies seem to like the idea of
discrimination. Many issues involving
racial discrimination are taking place in
schools. A few months ago, a school
teacher in South Carolina wrote on a
black child’s face using a permanent ink
pen. The child had forgotten her glasses
so in block letters, the teacher wrote
“where are my glasses?” on the child’s
forehead. Another event that took place
in a school in Santa Barbara was more
offensive. Some white girls wrote a note
that said “ Every class should plant a tree
and here’s ours”. The note had a picture
beside it showing a black girl being
lynched. They left it on a black girl’s
desk. If this type of influence on children
continues to grow, pretty soon, there will
be no unity in this world.

As far as I know, grudges have been
passed down from our forefathers all the
way down to us. For example, if my
grandparents decided they disliked
someone, my parents wouldn’t
communicate with them and neither
would I. If this chain continues onto our
future generations, it only increases the
possibility of war and diversity.
Personally, I think we should forget
grudges of the past and look into the
future. As the population of the world is
increasing the amount of prejudice will
also increase. This increases the chance
of discrimination and war. As the years
pass, I hope that someone figures out a
way to stop diversity where it is.


Word Count: 529