Racism: A Social Problem

Explanations that justify the use of racism directly relates to differential treatment of minority groups and contributes to racism’s existence as an unstoppable social problem. The foundations of these explanations are based on the common misunderstanding of the definition of race. Thus, problems that tend to concentrate in one race are mistakenly judged as “race problems”. This judgement leads to the establishment of a system of inequality between a superior race and inferior races. However, the logic behind these explanations don’t account for the true reasoning behind minority individuals value status. In fact, these explanations contribute to minority individuals’ further struggle in life.

One reason for the existence of racism is the belief’s about group inferiority. Many belief this is due to the result of flawed genetic traits. Thus claiming African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are biologically structured to be inferior to Caucasians. Their different genetic traits explain their differences in social success. However, the National Geographic’s Genographic Project helps to further explain that all of these so called “races” actually came from one single group of people as they stated that “all humans today descend from a group of African ancestors who—about 60,000 years ago—began a remarkable journey”. By way of migration and adaptation, races were eventually and unintentionally formed. (Genographic Project) Over these thousands of year, people have come to live in a world that is defined by the way they look, their skin color, the way they speak, and their learned culture, among many other factors. So in actuality, there is no such thing as biological races, and races are socially defined. A second explanatio...

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...the minorities over all deficiency of income, education, employment, type of occupation, and health. It is sad to say, but the society that has been created makes it harder to be an individual whom differs in appearance than those of the race which is considered superior. Now where would the higher viewed races be if the tables were turned and they were in fact the minority that was discriminated against?

Works Cited

Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard F. Taylor. Sociology, The Essentials. 5th. Wadsworth Pub Co, 2008. 234-243. Print.

"A Landmark Study of The Human Journey." The genographic project. National

Geographic, 2011. Web. 28 Nov 2011.

Lauer, Robert H. "Race, Ethnic Groups, and Racism." Social Problems and the Quality

of Life. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. Print.