The following short essay is part of a project initiated by The Sociological Cinema to introduce young people to sociological ideas and explanations regarding important social issues. In this case, I met via Zoom with one precocious young sociologist named Halcyeon for about 30 minutes each week from April to December 2020. Drawing from a wide range of resources, including The 1619 Project from The New York Times, we surveyed the history of race and racism in the United States. As the new year and our final class together approached, I asked Halcyeon to write down his thoughts about the cause of racism and what can be done to end it. What follows is his answer.
he root of racism in the U.S. is hard to pinpoint because it is so twisted. But the U.S. is not the only place that is racist. A lot of other countries are racist too. The main source, or as close as I can get to it, is the white slavers bringing black people over from Africa. The root cause of racism is because white slavers started to treat blacks as animals. Over time that started to create racism. Also white slavers beat black people, and to not feel guilty, white slavers thought black people were animals. At first, slavery and racism were not the same thing, slavery was “I conqured you, so you are my slave” and racism was “your black and I’m white, so I have more power than you.” The U.S. brought slavery and racism together.
After slavery when black people got rights, white’s didn’t like it because, to them, giving black people rights is giving animals rights. Whites tried to suppress them again, so whites would not be equal to blacks. This piece of history is how racism started.
Racism is not a one-person problem. Racism is a group problem because people who have racist ideas find other people to back them up. In this way, racist people won't look weird because they are surrounded by a crowd of people who seem to share their ideas. Racism is a group problem so a group has to fix it. One person can’t change all the people’s minds in the U.S. just because he or she said something. That is not how the world works. You have to persuade them. Without the help of others, persuading them would take forever, so you need to have an antiracism group to back you up. So here it is: this is your one easy step to stop racism. Your antiracism group will slowly persuade people to join your group and then you can change so many people's minds at once. As you slowly change people's minds, people will slowly start to dislike racism even more until everyone hates racism. We don’t have to create a new antiracism group because such antiracism groups exist, like the Black Lives Matter group. So, we can jump into the fray and try to help overturn racism. We can all support Black Lives Matter just by putting a sign outside our front lawns. At least racism is not as bad as it was in the past because there was Jim Crow segregation and blacks could not go to the same school as whites. So let's pray that does not happen again. I hope the U.S. and all the other countries stop being racist. If we all work together, one day racism will cease to exist. Halcyeon A. Halcyeon A. is a 12-year-old 7th grader in middle school, who likes to play video games and watch anime. He also enjoys playing the clarinet and the sax while contemplating life during the pandemic.
April Pakulski
1/26/2021 06:36:23 pm
Halcyeon,
Kerry Willger
1/26/2021 07:19:25 pm
Halcyeon’s ideas on the cause of racism and what we can do about it seem well thought out. I agree with his idea that by conquering another group of people who appeared so different and undeveloped from themselves, the whites were able to view blacks, guilt free, as animals. Throughout history, when a group of people were conquered, they usually became seen as animal slaves.
Kelsey
1/26/2021 07:38:47 pm
It's easy to say "I'm not racist" but not actually do anything about it. I liked your idea of trying to educate other people about racism cause they're are definitely a lot of people that think it's not real.
JCA1105
1/28/2021 08:26:18 am
After learning the painful and long history of racism, Halcyeon's idea of working together, one day racism will cease to exist. We all need to fight for the racial equity and work together to create a better and more peaceful world with love, compassion and empathy. Thanks again for sharing!!!! I can't wait to read your next blog post. :)
Tofu-eater
1/31/2021 07:09:34 am
Thanks for sharing the idea of Racism, and provide a solution to the problems. Great Job!
Pickle-Eater
2/25/2021 07:29:57 am
It's always refreshing to see (read) insight from someone like Halcyeon. Although young, the assessment is quite accurate and insightful in the way it speaks to the origination of racism, but also the group/mob mentality of its evolution and spreading. Great job young man! Very thoughtful and well written! 2/17/2022 12:21:29 am
Its easy to say " im not rasicts"but in reality we all are shaming others regardless their caste, colour and religion Comments are closed.
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