RACE, ETHNIC GROUPS, AND RACISM. Social Sciences. Research Paper

How Racism is a Social Problem
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How Racism is a Social Problem
Introduction
Racism can be described as the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that an individual's social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her intrinsic biological characteristics. It can also be defined as the hatred of one person by another or the belief that another person is less than human because of language, skin color, place of origin, customs, as well as other factors that describe the fundamental nature of the individual. The history of racism around the world is dated back in the 19th century when the western power countries believed that that more civilized than any race including Asians, and Africans. Slavery is considered the landmark of racism in the history of man across the globe. The western countries believed that Africans were less human than the white Europeans and their descendants. The racist belief came about when Africans lag behind in civilization after Portuguese explorers landed in the African continent. Major European powers such as British, Germans, French, Spain, Belgians, and Italy started to plunder the continent and launch the slave trade, which forced Africans to work as slave laborers in the new colonies of the so-called superior race. In the history of racism, black Africans as subhuman, which is a public concern requiring participation from the media, politicians, advocacy groups, and the public to address its impacts.
Racism has always been a public concern because it affects the lives of individuals in many ways. Racism brings about discrimination, health disparities, and residential segregation among communities in the country, thus creating hatred, which results in violence as well as deaths. Racism causes pain in people's lives, though some individuals fail to acknowledge how they are being oppressed and humiliated, both socially, economically, and politically. For instance, blacks are shot dead by white police because of the hatred that comes as a result of racial discrimination in countries. Racism causes damage to the development of any given country because it causes racial injustices legal systems, racialized police violence, as well as induces police misconduct (Garcia & Sharif, 2015). According to Garcia and Sharif (2015), the definition of racism has evolved from time to time because people have different opinions and views on the concept of racism. They suggested that interpretation of racism is not drawn from the race of individuals because race is not racism. Racism can be seen as a social system that is responsible for reinforcing racial group inequality, whereas race is a social construction with no biological basis.
Racism is a social problem that causes negative social, psychological, educational, and economic impacts throughout the life of an individual and contributes to mental health problems in the community. According to an Australian study, young people who experience racism cases in their lives, usually undergo a feeling of anger, sadness, and depression because of being left out socially (Trent et al., 2019). Racism is a social problem and causes enormous negative impacts on the lives of people in society. Examples of adverse effects include birth and mental challenges. It is the fundamental cause of illness and health inequalities in the community, especially among the racially discriminated groups (Trent et al., 2019). The impact of racism includes birth and mental health problems in children and adolescents in society. The occurrence of birth disparities and psychological issues is a result of exposure to a stressful environment. Studies have shown that women from the racially discriminated community have overrepresented in the complications of low birth weight due to racial discrimination and maternal stress (Trent et al., 2019). Racism in educational institutions affects the course of academic achievement for young in society. Racial discrimination in the learning institution creates unsafe environments, thus induces absenteeism behaviors which literally affects the academic performances (Trent et al., 2019). Despite the fact learning should be enjoyable by students, racism makes students be less interactive through their educational years.
One of the critical roles played by the media in addressing the racism issues is crime reporting. Despite the crucial role played by the press, still, there have been accusations of media professionals being biased. The media gather stories that have a direct reflection of racial groups in society, which brings about critics for how they depict racial groups as well as how racial groups became targeted in crime reporting. According to the investigations carried out, targeting bias in television news stories, it reveals that accused black criminals, most of the time are broadcasted on television by footage of them being led to around in handcuffs as their arms held by uniformed White police officers. None of the indicted violent white criminals were in the physical custody (Kulaszewicz, 2015). Media play a significant role in ethnic emphasis. One of the ways how media impact on ethnic importance is news coverage, especially in topics relating to politics, social dilemmas, education, researc...