Even though America prides itself on being a melting pot where people from different religions, races, and classes have the right to freedom, racism is still alive and well today. There is no one reason why racism is still a factor in this country instead it’s a mixture of different factors, all of which can be absolved.
One of the reasons why racism still exists is because of self-hatred. When people don’t fully accept and love themselves there is absolutely no way that they can fully accept and love others. Because self-hatred is painful people try to heal that pain in any way they can, and even though true healing can only come from within themselves people usually try to look toward outward things for healing, which only covers up and serves as a distraction from the pain.
This outward source of comfort can come in many forms from people pleasing, to over-eating, to adopting a superiority complex. The superiority complex is what racists adopt in order to distract them from their own insecurities. Even those these people find one or several different races to look down there noses at, the truth of the matter is that even if there was only one race that existed on the planet, these people would still find some superficial quality to uphold in themselves such as gender, class, even hair color or height and find a person or group of people who lacked that quality and convince themselves that those people were inferior. Therefore even though racial differences and stereotypes are constantly used in a racist’s effort to demean others, it’s actually a way to distract others from seeing the vulnerability and hurt that the racist truly feels inside.
Another factor that breeds racism in America is the fact that things that are different from the norm are usually viewed as negative. In this America is fairly hypocritical, because all Americans are taught that they can be whoever they want to be, yet everyone has either been the victim of or at least seen people being criticized, bullied, or even ostracized from being “the other.” In order to not face this kind of discrimination many people choose to try to fit in as best they can by either covering or suppressing their idiosyncrasies.
Yet race is not one of those differences that can’t just be covered up with a splash of makeup or hidden like a feeling, racial differences are visible. So because our society as a whole still continues to holds up white America and its cultural values as the right, good, and ideal, this becomes the standard for which everyone else should operate. This holier than thou attitude breeds racism not only within white America but with the other races as well, because it leaves people feeling like they are less than and no matter what they will never measure up, so they wind up carrying around an attitude of self-hatred as well. This self-hatred can lead them to just become frustrated and become racist against white America in order to feel better about themselves, or it can do the opposite and lead these people to side turn against their own race and hate the people within it because they buy into the idea that their own race is inferior. Therefore the cycle of self-hatred and racism continues.
So racism won’t ever be solved by making any race, whether it’s the white race or the black race, superior to another because superiority amongst any race, culture, gender, class or even individual doesn’t exist. Yet it also won’t be solved by pretending that differences amongst the races don’t exist, as some people do when they say they don’t see color. Instead we should see not only the differences in color amongst the races, but the differences in culture, religion, artistic expression, hair texture, etc., and we should accept them, embrace them, and be in awe of them.
We shouldn’t spend our time trying to classify the vast diversity that exists between the people that inhabit this planet as superior or inferior because all we’d be doing is wasting it. We don’t sit around trying to decide why a tulip is better than a rose or why a lion is better than a tiger because it really makes no sense in trying. Yes we notice their differences, but we appreciate these differences because we realize that this diversity is how nature expresses herself. These differences make the world a more interesting and colorful place to live, and every single thing in it has a purpose and brings its own beauty to the table. We don’t hate the rose for being different from the tulip, we don’t ask it to conform and be more like the tulip, so we shouldn’t ask ourselves or others to. We accept and value the rose just as it is, and that’s the attitude we should have for each other and for every race under the sun.
Instead of the races segregating and separating ourselves from each other out of fear, ignorance, and hate, we should make the effort to learn more about each other and the races from which we come. Hopefully by making an effort to embrace each other will we be able to garner the appreciation, respect, and awe for not only the differences we find amongst each other but also for the uniqueness that exists in ourselves. Only when we find the beauty that exists in every single person including ourselves, will we truly be able to see that we are more alike than different, just as the rose has more in common with the tulip, and only after this will racism truly come to an end.
