Racism involves the discrimination of a group or an individual due to his social class, beliefs, or ethnicity. It has roots from the rational that one is superior towards others and one should be treated differently. Different treatment in the sense that being inferior should not be able to give you the same benefits as those superior to you. This leads to unfair treatment, violence, oppression, and even genocide in some extreme cases. Most native America ns and the Aborigines were subjected to harsh treatment by their colonializers, eventually being left to feel like a foreigner in their own land. They were denied the right to own a land but instead assigned a land by the government. They were not allowed to vote and their basic trade controlled and exploited.
The danger this kind of thinking imposed on individuals is that it adds flame to hate. With hate comes indifference and with indifference a propensity to look away from violence and to normalize it. When violence is a norm, the norm then is death. Ethnic cleansing or genocide such as the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge massacre of Cambodians, Bosnian Genocide, Rwandan Genocide, etc. has led to million lives lost and shows how singular thinking can ruin humanity.
10) India
Racial prejudice in India probably stemmed from cultures divided by beliefs and language. The caste system is also still being observed by many. The caste system was categorized into four groups. The Bramhins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and the Shudras. The Bramhins are usually priest, teachers, artis, and various techinicians. The Kshatriyas which in some cultures are the aristocracy or the military elite. The main purpose is to serve and protect the general public. The Vaishyas are usually landownes and whose trade is in the agriculture. The Shudras on the other hand are those serving the three upper caste. Those who are not included in any of the four caste are called Dalits are the untouchables and are often discriminated and denied rights. India has long since made discrimination on caste illegal but the problem still persist.
9) Pakistan
Just outside the border India is Pakistan. While the country may deemed to be tolerable towards Westerners, there seems to be an extreme prejudice towards non-Muslims and their neighboring country India. Racism can also come from what they call the ruling elite, the Punjabis. The ruling party often have Western ideologies and are reported to act indifferently towards the minorities. In 1971, the Punjabi elite hold to power caused civil unrest and a genocide which lead to the waging of war by a minority group with support from India. Deaths were estimated to be between 300,000 to 3 million people.
8) Russia
There is a great prejudiced by Russians towards those whom they see are not truly Russian. These people observed a Neo Nazi thinking, of white supremacy, of being the ultimate race. In 2004, the Russian public were shocked on the news about a nine year old girl who was brutally stabbed to death by Neo Nazi skinheads. In 2008, two members of a hate group were sentenced to do penal labor for the deaths of 19 foreigners. There was even a bombing of well-known public market frequented by immigrants in 2006. Even at the reports from Amnesty International of hostilities happening in Russia towards other race, the country is only second to the US in terms of the number of immigrants arriving in Russia.
7) Israel
This may be coming from the creation of a separate state for the Jews after World War 2. The land provided to the Israels is from Palestinian natives who also have the same hostility towards the other race after being displaced from the land they were born from. In a study, it is said that two-thirds of Israel youth believes that Arabs are violent and uncultured. Almost 50% who participated in the poll said that they do not want to be associated with any Arab and would not want their children befriending and Arab child. The poll further showed that half of those who participated want the Arabs to emigrate and leave Israel to the Jews.
6) Germany
While the most prevalent manifestation of racism in Germany happened during the Holocaust, the European Commission reports that racism is still present in German society albeit not as widespread. During Nazi Germany, those of other race and religion and all others who are undesirable were shipped to concentration camps. They are considered hindrance to a better society and is inferior to them in every aspect. Unfortunately, this ideology is still carried out by some extremist and skin heads. Among those that shocked present day Germany happened in 2006 when a man of Ethiopian background was beaten after being taunted by two unknown assailants. In 2007, a mob attacked Indian vendors at a market prompting 70 policemen to respond to help.
5) Japan
Not as much as racism but indifference towards those who are considered an outsider. Foreigners are restricted from obtaining certain services and joining in activities. This type of thinking has a historical root in the Japanese culture. During the Meiji era, the Japanese have already shown prejudice towards other Asians. The regime at that time preached superiority and hierarchy above those who are not Japanese. They see themselves as the head of the Asian nation and are destined to be that way eternally. Even the indigenous groups were treated badly during the Meiji Era. The Ainus were prohibited from speaking their own language and restricted to farm on government assigned lands.
4) Rwanda
One of the shocking crimes against humanity in the modern setting happened in Rwanda after a bloody genocide killed 800,000 Tutsi individuals in 1994. Another prejudicial incident with a historical background. During World War 1, Catholic Missionaries arrived in Rwanda to convert the natives. The Tutsi rejected any attempts of conversion and the missionaries looked elsewhere. They found the Hutu tribe and as a form of reward for converting, they confiscated Tutsi properties and gave them to the Hutus. This started the hostilities between the two ethnic groups. By the 1990s civil war escalated between the ruling Hutu military and rebel Tutsi resulting to the murder and attempts to exterminate the Tutsi tribe.
3) Australia
Australia has been a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. Before that, the Aborigines occupied the land and has settled there since 2000 BC. Not until the British colonize Australia did racial prejudice begun. The Aborigines were subjected to unfair government policy and indifference by the new settlers who established residency in the land. They were force to convert and were pushed to land reserves. Fast forward to 1900s, the establishment of the White Australia policy which favored the immigrations of the white Europeans as opposed to Chinese and other Islanders in the Pacific. Abolition of racist policies was done after World War 2 and Australia opened their gates to non-European immigrants.
2) United Kingdom
There has long been a conflict between the British White and its non-white immigrants in the UK. There has been Race Riots across the UK one of which were the Bradford riots in 2001 where in tension from the Asian British and British White grew violent and the Oldham Riot involving South Asian Muslims. Violent incident toward individuals also caused nationwide alarm and outrage. Stephen Lang was an 18 year old Black British youth who was attacked and killed while waiting for a bus in 1993. Suspects were arrested but were not convicted. Further investigation show that the inaction of the Police force was also due to the victim’s skin color.
1) United States of America
Racism in America remained to be a controversial subject to date. Historically, many died because of the attempts to demolish slavery in an early as 1700s which led to the civil wars up to segregation of White and Black in the 1960s. Racial prejudiced continued up to the 1980s where a landmark case against the United States Department of Agriculture earned African-American farmers $1.25 billion of settlement for denied loans. Asian Americans were also subjected to several unfair practices in the US. In World War 2, many Japanese Americans were rounded up with their properties confiscated by the US government. In the 1920s to the 1930s, Filipino Americans were barred from mixing with the whites and marrying Americans. Many were even taken forcibly from their homes. Nowadays, we see the Trevor Martin case and similar cases in the news. Trevor Martin was an unarmed youth who was on his way home and was mistaken to be a misfit and eventually shot and killed by a neighborhood watch.
