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Racism In America Today

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Racism is a controversial topic in America today. As an international student, I came to the United States for the first time in 2013 for educational purposes. Prior to coming to the United States, I had never experienced any form of racism. This is because back home in my country, Kenya, black people are the majority and white Kenyans are not racist toward other Kenyans who are black. However, my stay in the America has made me realize that someone can be discriminated against because of the color of their skin as at times I have also experienced this discrimination based on my race. In America, for the first time my life, I identified as black. While living in Kenya, I had the privilege of not always thinking about my racial identity. Moreover, …show more content…
She added that racism is a social construct that is implanted in society to enable a specific race to keep on holding on to power and wealth. Their two definitions are somewhat similar to our class definition of racism as we defined it as “ A system of advantage and /or disadvantage based on race and supported by individual, institutional and cultural structures that create and sustain benefits for a dominant group that influences decision, institutions and cultural norms around race” Because their definitions were somewhat similar to our class definition of racism, I concluded that they understood the concept of racism and this made me feel confident to ask them the follow-up …show more content…
Instead of allowing people’s actions to hurt them, they view the experiences as a form of education as this prevents it from turning into hatred and anger. Another similarity was seen on the questions of whether there are punishments for racism and how racist people should be punished. Both interviewees said that there is no real punishment for racism because it is very hard to prove racism. One student jokingly used Xavier as an example by saying that the way Xavier punishes people for racism is, “they send you to bed for two days to sleep, and then say you have been punished and that they cannot disclose of the form of punishment due to federal regulations”. In addition, both interviewees said that they do not think that racist people should be punished because racism is not a civil or a criminal crime. The African female interviewee added that Instead of punishments, racist people should be willing to change and this can be done by providing them resources such as education that teaches them a different

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