Racism: Its for everyone, but luckily something we can combat

Racism is something that anyone who’s ever taken a history class knows has been apparent in the United States for hundreds of years. However, what most people don’t know is that profound racism has been a problem in every part of the world for a long time, and that our neighbors to the north and south are no exception. In Canada, many of the textbook cases of racism against blacks, jews, and other minorities have taken place over the centuries. On top of that, there has been much tension at given times between Anglo-Canadians and French Canadians, since both groups are very prominent in the country yet in some ways very ethnically and culturally different from each other. In Mexico, racism against the indigenous Mexicans was of course prominent when the whites first arrived (in fact, all three countries have long histories of terrible treatment of indigenous people) and later the tables turned and whites were discriminated against. To some extent, racism still exists in these countries, much stronger in some places than others. What can be done to extinguish racism or to a greater extent hatred of certain groups on our continent?

First off, this is not going to be a “pick on whitey” post. African Americans in certain communities in the US are well known for racial tensions with Latin American. Asian people in some places are known for tensions with African Americans. Don’t even get me started on Jews and Muslims from the Middle EAst. The fact is, since there are so many walks of life to be had in North America, racism exists to some degree in all of them. So what can be done if anything? Personally, I think the answer lies in education. I’m not just talking about education on race; I’m talking general, traditional education. I do not believe it is a coincidence that the parts of the country with the worst education systems (regardless of the racial majority in that area) have the most racist groups. States that rank higher in education such as the New England states typically do very well, and the number of hate groups in those states is usually less than 10. States in the Deep South which typically do poorly have dozens of groups of this type. There is a lot to be said for the fact that people who are simply more educated have less of a chance of being racist. Personally, I believe it has to do with the byproducts of a good education. You’re taught to examine things, think for yourself without following blindly, and research things (or people) for yourself before passing judgment. Also, I believe in tolerance programs. I believe that funding should be given to all schools for them and I believe that we need to step them up a bit. It’s easy to talk about loving everyone and not stereotyping when you’re living in an area where everyone is the same race as you. Should urban and suburban schools combine these programs? I don’t know, just a thought.