Racism. Introduction to social science. Assignment.

Running head: RACISM1
Racism
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Racism
Typically, racism appears to characterize current world state of affairs. In politics, populist leaders are on constant rise everywhere. In economy, outdated isolationist calls are surfacing in order to protect national products and secure national economies against external market chaos and distortions. In social life, more and more people are living in enclaves defined by race, social class, education, profession and zip code. In culture, gaps are widening across generational, racial and educational lines. The outdated, or what most believed is outdated, prejudiced discourse against minorities is now hitting back home hard and deep. Indeed, not only differences are no longer welcome but, sadly, differences are now a major cause for conflict, not dialogue, misunderstanding, not diversity, and, not least, a cause for distancing, not for deeper self-understanding.
Generally, racism is understood along racial lines almost exclusively. For millennia, human race has experienced one form or another of so called “racism”. That is, an arbitrary distinction between different human races based, primarily, on skin color. The emergence of racism as a device for colonial control, particularly during discovery and great expansion period as of 1500s and on in Europe, is, needless to say, well documented and still experienced, albeit in subtler ways in 21st century. This conventional racism, so to speak, is one increasingly invoked for all reasons: political, economic, social and cultural. True, lynching, i.e. physical lynching of blacks and lesser races, is no longer practiced. However, modern dynamics of racism are making conventional racism more benign in comparison. Specifically, modern racism could be such that a social structure is designed to “shut out” lesser races from a range of opportunities necessary for social mobility. In contrast to conventional racism, where explicit statements supported by
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clear public policies denied specific races certain political/economic/social rights (e.g. voting, education, healthcare, etc), modern racism has developed a system of social control whereby laws, designed and put into effect by a dominant race, deny lesser races, in an apparently very formal and legal way, all means to social mobility and, ultimately, equality. This shift in characterizing and practicing racism is, indeed, substantial and, more important, indicative of how racism could still be practiced, albeit in much subtler – and, for that matter, damaging – ways.
Then again, racism is a much more complex concept. In addition to historical challenges of social injustices, informed by racial bias and compounded by colonial subjugation, racism is an inheritable state of affairs. By “inheritable” is meant, racism is a concept which, granted arising from a specific set of events in a given period and/or place, could be passed on not only geographically, according to racial affiliation or similarities, but also across generations. That is, whilst racism could be – assuming all, or most, involved parties are willing – minimized, let alone eliminated, in a given period or place by public policies, racism could return, in any given form and in whatever impact and spread, in a different locale and/or period. Needless o say, racism is now robust, so to speak, in most democratic nations, after centuries of anti-racism struggles and sacrifices. The question of how to eliminate racism is, accordingly, at best reductive and at worst misleading. If anything, racism is an evolving concept whose manifestations will continue to inform different forms of social injustices often – and mistakenly so – labeled as “racism”. Therefore, racism should be understood as broadly as possible and given a complex range of political, economic, social and cultural factors not so much to eliminate racism per se but, more realistically, to identify what is at stake for communities and
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individuals when certain groups, not necessarily differentiated by race, exercise social control over groups labeled – and stigmatized – as lesser people.
To put matters into perspective, a closer examination of racism dynamics is required. More specifically, factors at play in so called racism need to be properly understood in order to ensure what is meant by racism initially and, more important, how such factors could be muted,
or minimized, not so much to eliminate racism per se, but to ensure control is not what communities and individuals should practice in order to achieve gains – political, economic, social, or cultural – but collaboration. The proper conceptualization, coupled by a parallel proper identification of underlying factors, is apt to put racism in a proper context whereby inter-group harmony, informed by collaboration, is expected.
The current COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus) is a case in point of how elusive racism is. “The Chinese Virus” is a label used by US President to refer to COVID-19 apparently to blame China for spreading COVID-19 worldwide (Aratani, 2020). The spread of COVID-19 is, ironically, occurring in parallel to a state of global racism against Chinese and more broadly Asian, people. That underlying prejudice in COVID is not so much about a virus per se but about a historical prejudice against Chinese, and Asians at large, in America. Then again, if America has a historical xenophobia against Chinese and Asians, why would most countries now follow suit? Put differently, if Chinese immigrants have always been considered less and prejudiced against since early immigration to US West Coast in late 19th century (Aratani), why would countries, or individuals, have little or no such history would develop a similar racism? This is a question whose answer helps understand how racism “works” beyond a conventional understanding of racism. There are, in fact, several possible explanations.
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First, framing is critical to shape how a given race, or community, is perceived. By “framing” is meant how one or more social or racial groups are characterized (usually by more powerful and dominant ones) in order to project a consistently negative image of such group or community. Consider Asian-Americans, including Americans of Chinese descent. As noted, Chinese immigrants experienced – still experience – racism in everyday life in America. Lumped into one whole, Asian-Americans are framed as a distant, strange, unified aliens without any individual nuances or differences (Poon et al., 2019). Playing on a fairly common human emotional experience, i.e. fear, policy makers, political leaders, and anti-immigration organizations and activists, invoke fear from an “unknown other” against whom “we” – as a community having same values – should unite. The skin color, usually cited as a basis for racism, is, in fact, only an example of prejudice – not a solid proof of any inherent differences. Thus, farmed as “Chinese,” COVID-19 comes as yet another example used and cited by policy makers and political leaders to maintain historical racisms in order to, ultimately, achieve short- and long-run gains. Then again, if COVID-19 is an American racism problem, why would whole countries and individuals follow suit? Once again, fear. True, many communities and individuals might know little, or nothing, about Chinese culture. Indeed, Chinese culture is still inaccessible to many (Jaivin, 2019). However, fear, a u...