Racism

There is only one RACE: The human race. Our race is differentiated into many groups by body shape, height, facial features, amount of hair, gender, and color. Because of the differences, people tend to be biased and prejudiced and this lead to the word “racism”.

Racism: To be prejudiced, discriminatory, or antagonistic against a person or people on the basis of their heritage or ancestry of a particular race of people. If against a religion, ethnicity, or ideology, it is not racism.

A race of people is usually classified as follows:

• Color
  • Black
    • Shades of black
  • White
    • Shades of white
  • Brown
    • Shades of brown
• Geographical
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Americas
  • Australia
  • Europe
  • Pacific islands

Ethnicity – the culture and traditions of a group of people. People of different color or from another place can move into a location and be assimilated into the culture and tradition of the people there. Now that person shares the same ethnicity but may not have the same color or origin. Ethnicity is not a race of people.

Religion – An organization having a system of faith, belief in worship of the supernatural. A group of people believing in a type of God or gods for worship. People with different ethnicity or race can belong to a religion. Today there isn’t a religion whose members are solely one type of race or ethnicity. A religion is multi-racial and multi-ethnic.

Ideology – A belief in a system that support or follows a political or economic theory. A manner of thinking or behavior for a group of people or society. Race, Ethnicity and Religion can be embraced by Ideology.

Nationality – Belonging to a particular nation. A citizen of the country.

To be a racist is to be biased, prejudiced and discriminatory of a race of people as mentioned above. Many people automatically qualifies a person as a racist when he/she is prejudiced about religion, culture, traditions, nationality or ideology. Yes the person is prejudiced and biased but not a racist.

A christian black person of the Hutu people from Burundi can move to Somalia and later become a legal resident of that country. A few years later convert into the religion of Islam and belong to the Green political party. He is black (race), Hutu (ethnicity), Muslim-Islam (Religion), Green party (Ideology), Somali (Nationality). As his family gets assimilated into the Somali culture, his descendants become ethnic Somalis.
Only one thing did not change: The race. Still black.

Last Updated on February 21, 2022