Essay Examples on Baptist Memorial College of Health Sciences

The term racism is one of the most Controversial

The term racism is one of the most controversial and ambiguous concepts in the social sciences see Mac Ghaill 1999 Sow 2008 Koller 2009 Fredrickson 2011 Racism is a social relation anchored in material structures and embedded in historical configurations of power Since racism is a complex hierarchical system a structured ensemble of social and institutional practices and discourses individuals do not have actively to express or practice racism to be its beneficiaries Shohat Stam 1995 p 19 There is no generic racism only historically specific racisms each with their own socio temporally specific causes There is no single set of transcendental determinant s that inevitably causes the occurrence of racism be it nature or class formation There are only specific interests and values the cultures out of with racialized discourse and racist expression arise Racisms involve promoting exclusions Goldberg 1993 90 98 Racism is a power relation deployed to maintain domination via hierarchically categorising groups Different accounts of racism in society indicate it is contested and conflicted Racism is no longer about someone's skin colour but culture People are discriminated against not because of the colour of their skin but because of their beliefs and practices Cultural racism therefore happens when certain people perceive their beliefs and customs as being culturally superior to the beliefs and customs of other groups of people Cultural racism in turn reproduces the idea of the hierarchy of cultures Unfortunately racism is very common in our culture both as an institutionalised and systematic system that is used to oppress racially minority groups While legally racism has been illegal for a long period of time now it still happens 



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