racism

racism

America is a nation of controversy and debate. Our country might be one of the richest and most industrialized nations in the world, but the majority of its people are very close-minded and stereotypical towards different races. Racism has become a major problem in American society today. Words such as “hate crimes” have been added to our dictionary as a result of racism. One impact of racism is the rise of hate crimes. In 1995, 7,947 hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI; by 2001 the statistic had amplified to 9,730, an increase of almost 2,000 incidents (Hate Crime Statistics 1995-2001). The American Heritage Dictionary defines racism as the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others; but it is much deeper than that. Racism is a problem that is rooted deep into an individual and has the effect of degrading the person that is having the racist behavior directed towards them. Racism can be has harmless as bullying a classmate or as dangerous as murdering someone; it all depends on how far a person it willing to show it. In my opinion, there is only one cure for racism and that is to stop teaching and spreading hate and fear. Hate and fear make people biased against other people. When people are biased towards other people, they start turning these wrong views of people into facts. Once people start living by these beliefs they teach their beliefs to their children, as most parents do. If a child is raised around these beliefs then that child starts accepting these views as true, like their parents have. However racism only spread through parents, fear plays a very large part. Fear causes people to think irrationally by causing them to jump to conclusion without thinking clearly about their problems. If people would not let fear suppress them and were allowed to develop their own opinions of other people, instead of being taught to dislike and hate someone because of their...