What Triggers Racism ?
“Don’t trust him… He’s a Muslim.” or maybe “If you touch her, you might get the germs.. I’ve heard that black people are full of germs.” Why is this generation a victim of severe racism? Why were the previous generations racist?
Racism means that a particular person, let’s say an elderly Sikh, who survived the partition of India and Pakistan but their house was taken away by a set of Muslims is perceiving another person, let’s say a Muslim, who caused them no harm, as an enemy and a social disturbance to the whole Sikh community. Why? Because since a group of Muslims hijacked their home, in his eyes, he’ll think all Muslims are the same. And that mindset is passed on to the upcoming generations.
What triggers racism? The following points are the reason racism occurs in society.
1) Personal Experiences.
2) Unnecessary Stereotypes.
3) Faulty Media Representations.
The reasons above are some of the main causes of racism. As said before personal experiences are the most vital cause of racism but let’s see how unnecessary stereotypes and faulty media representations contribute to racism.
Unnecessary Stereotypes are an “outdated” concept but people still stick to them because they don’t want to disrespect the “traditions”. But sometimes these stereotypes become the major reason for a person getting harassed and bullied due to their race and ethnicity.
Media, as we all know, is what runs the world nowadays, correct? It almost seems as if the world would stop revolving around the Sun if the media stops. But sometimes we fail to notice how racist the media can be. Let’s just think that a white person got into an argument with a person of color and the media covers the whole situation in an article, where they are being fully racist towards the person of color. Now if a kid or a developing brain reads the article, they’re obviously going to think that a person of color is always wrong, because they’ve seen a number of articles stating that people of color are wrong.
But what should we do to stop it?
To stop racism, we simply need to stop seeing everyone from an eye of constant suspicion. We shouldn’t think that every Muslim is a terrorist and ever Black Person is dirty. Only with equality and genuine trust, this world would be a happy place to live in.
#STOPRACISM
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
#MUSLIMLIVESMATTER
#ALLLIVESMATTER