Racism and Prejudice Effects

Black people are known to have been marked as unequal. And those who are white and think of themselves as being supreme, are the very ones that make their life a living hell. The white race perceives itself as being the privileged one, living a life full of richness, mostly at the expense of black people. Racism and prejudice lead people to behave in a harmful way. It seems that colored people are simply born to suffer. Injustice and scorn are believed to have been with them forever. But, is this going to change? If so, when?

Racism and prejudice are the worst issues facing any society. Racism may affect a whole society in many ways and it might spread over the citizens like a virus. Consider how this manifest and seen in “Time to Kill”, when Pete Willard and Billy Cobb rapped Tonya Hailey; Jack Brigance has to fight against the entire society just to help Carl Lee. Jack tries to make justice for the black people for the first time in history. White supremacy has existed before and still exists in the present day. The U.S Bureau of Justice Statistics conclude than an African American male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of going to jail in his lifetime, while a white male only has a 6% chance.

Since the medieval times and through the XIX century, in Europe a wrong and poor interpretation of the Bible, has been spread. It is believed that three human races exist stemming from the descendants of the three sons of Noah: Shem, Cam and Japheth. From Shem comes the Jews and Arabs, from Cam colored people of the earth, and from Japheth come the whites. Canaan, son of Cam, has been condemned by Noah: “Cursed be Cannan, a salve of slaves shall he be to his brothers”. The racist interpretation of the Bible, said that the curse of Canaan has been a course to serve the white race. And since then racism has become a transmission between generations. A clear example of this can be seen in the “Short stories of Apartheid”, where it tells about the injustice of Apartheid Law and how innocent people have suffered from the horrible consequences of racism and prejudice. That system has killed the ideas and hopes of the colored race under the dominance of the white race; injustices that have been made by people who are convinced to be superior race.

In 1859 a scientific work by Charles Darwin is published, “The Origen of Species”. His theory of evolution has created a problem. People who have accepted his ideas began to talk of advanced and inferior races. So the people who were colonized became recognized as an inferior race. It can be seen as racist and can be so pretentious to believe they have been the superior race. Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mocking Bird” was punished because a white girl accused him of raping her and everyone believed her just because she was one of them, a human who belongs to the superior race.

The humble, the poor ones are always discriminated. The people who have to work to survive have always been discriminated. Once again teachings of the Bible can be found as a wrong and incorrect concepts. It has been believed that work is an obligation imposed as a result of divine punishment because of original sin. God told Adam “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread…”Then and especially in the medieval time, the manual work has been considered as something unworthy and dishonorable.  Even present day beliefs and conditions of people who work hard might exclaim “I work like a nigger”; showing differentiation between beliefs of a superior race.  In “Apartheid”, “Time to Kill” and “To Kill a Mocking bird”, we have clear examples of the colored race working for the whites. Examples like, cleaning houses, cooking, or doing any kind of service, that a superior class cannot or should not do for themselves.

On the whole, it is clear that in actuality there is still insufficient tolerance for human diversity. There are many examples that show how much suffering it is caused each day against minorities groups as a result of racism and prejudice. Racism and prejudice lead people to behave in a harmful way, but it seems apparent that the lesson is never going to be learned.