Racism History And Shaping A Better Future

Racism is the practice of giving people of different races unequal chances and results based on systems, policies, behaviors, and attitudes. Discrimination in words or deeds alone does not constitute Racism. It happens when the ability to discriminate against, persecute, or restrict the rights of others coexists with this prejudice, whether it be institutional or personal.

Background

Since the beginning of European colonization in 1788, race and racism have played a significant role in the structure of Australian society. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, considered the First Peoples of Australia, have suffered the worst effects of European colonization and are particularly vulnerable to Racism. The colonization process and the underlying ideologies still influence Australian culture today.

Racism evolves and develops over time, having varying effects on various societies and escalating toward multiple groups at different points in history. The rise in bigotry against Asian and Asian-Australian individuals during the COVID-19 outbreak illustrates this.

Racism encompasses laws, regulations, philosophies, and other restrictions that impede people from enjoying justice, dignity, and equality due to their race. It may manifest as intimidation, violence, verbal or physical abuse, or harassment. Nevertheless, Racism also occurs in systems and institutions that function unfairly and unequally.

Historical Origin

Racism occurs when one historical or ethnic collectivity strives to control, exclude, or eradicate another due to distinctions that they perceive to be innate and unchangeable. During the contemporary era, an ideological foundation for overt Racism had a singular culmination in the West. There is no conclusive proof of Racism in other civilizations or Europe before the Middle Ages. Perhaps the earliest indication of a racist worldview was the association of Jews with the devil and witchcraft in the popular imagination of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. When Jews who had converted to Christianity and their descendants were the targets of a pattern of discrimination in the sixteenth century in Spain, such sentiments received official legitimacy.

During the Renaissance and Reformation, Europeans began interacting more with individuals with darker skin tones in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and began passing judgment on them. Slave traders and enslavers occasionally took a verse from the book of Genesis as their justification for enslaving Africans, even though the official rationale for doing so was that they were heathens. They claimed that Ham’s purported black progeny would be “servants unto servants” due to a sin he committed against his father, Noah.

Black servitude moved from religious status to something resembling race when Virginia decided in 1667 that converted enslaved people might be maintained in bondage, not because they were heathens but because they had heathen ancestry. Laws prohibiting the union of whites and blacks and discriminating against the mixed progeny of sham unions were enacted in English North America beginning in the late seventeenth century. Such regulations implied that Blacks were inherently alien and inferior without explicitly declaring so.

A humanist or scientific notion of race emerged during the Enlightenment, moving the conversation away from the Bible’s insistence on the fundamental unity of the human race. Humans were categorized into three to five races in the eighteenth century by ethnologists who started to view them as a component of the natural world and generally regarded them as variations of single humankind.

Fight Racism And Shape A Better Future.

In addition to influencing worldviews, education significantly brings together previously unconnected community members and helps us imagine the kind of world we want to live in. Education is vulnerable to manipulation by those who aim to divide and rule due to its ability to mould values and ideas. Therefore, we must rely on this strength to combat injustice and prejudice. The UNESCO worldwide commission headed by Jacques De Lors issued a report outlining the four purposes of education in 1996. This document is popularly known in the education community as the “De Lors Report.”

1. Gaining knowledge – a wide general understanding with the opportunity to concentrate in-depth on a small number of issues

2. Acquiring skills – To develop professional abilities and the capability to operate in teams and handle a variety of scenarios.

3. Developing oneself – To grow as a person and to be capable of acting with increasing degrees of autonomy, judgment, and personal accountability.

4. Acquiring cohabitation skills – By increasing one’s capacity for empathy and awareness of interdependence.

Conclusion

National political figures won’t take the initiative in this. Still, every educator—teachers, principals, school administrators, and parents of students—can contribute to ensuring that education plays a role and helps us all learn to live together.