Saturday, September 25, 2010

Racism




"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.


I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.


I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.


I have a dream today!


I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." (Martin Luther King, Jr (delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg&feature=related


  Human rights are the rights that it includes nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic group, language, colour, religion, etc. All of us are equally entitled to human rights without any of discrimination.


  Racism is the most unsolved matter in the world. Racism has always been around before and now. There are three main races which are White, Black, and Yellow. There are no countries without racism. It is a very serious problem, so unfair and so wrong. White, Black, and Yellow’s skin colour should not be judged and should be fair no matter what, as the Sun shines through everything in this world evenly.


  People all around the world with different beliefs, different cultural backgrounds and from different homes, it is possible that everyone has their own ethnicity superiority complex. It does not matter who started the racism and where it came from. It is possible that the world where humans live in, racism could have made by all of the human beings in the world by fighting and people being mean to each other.


  European (White) believes they are better than the African (Black). The reason for this is the European made African to be their slaves and thought African's culture was uncivilized and also thought them as a low existence to the Europeans. Different appearances, beliefs, language made the racism stronger, and the idea of slave were already in Ancient Greece. Therefore it was not too hard for the European to succeed what they have wanted.


  Unfortunately, European were not the only one to rule the country and people. Similar problem also happened between Korea and Japan long time ago in a war in 1910. The Japanese began a war to dominate Korea as their country and Japanese brainwashed Koreans that they were the 2nd people of the Japan. Koreans did not have enough power to fight back against Japan at that time and they lost their country. The Japanese even changed Korean people's surname like theirs, but during WWII (1939~45), the Japanese surrendered (1945, 15th of August) against the Allied forces and Korea was able to have their country back.
  Even though this has happened long time ago, the Japanese did not apologize what they have done to Korea and there are rumors saying that Korea used to spell with C, but a letter C comes before J, so the Japanese changed it to K. The Koreans lost so much and was heartbroken. Due to this incident, there still are some Koreans who dislike/hate Japanese.


  There are so much twisted stories between Korea and Japan. This is the same phenomenon with what has happened between the Europeans and Africans. If Europeans apologized and made peace between Africans, today's society would have been much better place. But clearly, because of these histories between Europe and Africa, Korea and Japan, the racism was bound to happen on account of human beings' imperfection. Humans intend to make mistakes and sadly don’t care about it. Therefore, the hate between people grow and this is a barrier that people need to get over, in order to solve such a hard problem and make world peace.


  It is not the only reason that the history could have made racism. Some people from developing country go to overseas like America to work, but they get discriminated by people in America, even though those people were wealthy and had nice reputations back in their country. Few years back, One Korean (South) doctor went to America to become a better doctor/surgeon with his family, but because he was Korean, he could not get a job that matched his reputation. Therefore he had to open a small dairy shop to support his family. It is likely that even though he does not have any problem speaking English, Americans thought of him and South Korea as developing country so the Americans looked down on him. (but now South Korea is one of the developed country.)

  Because the adults are being racist, young people learn from adults and it is absurd that even the primary students are racist. They are not old enough to know what the word racism even mean, but the society makes them to learn and there should be parents and teachers who should set it straight, by telling the students that is wrong to judge people by whatever their beliefs are, where they are from or by their skin colour.
  In general, every human being are equal, therefore everyone should be treated equally. If people are going to judge, it is better rather than what has said above and should be judged by characters. And having said that, hopefully, people will try to forget about the past and support each other and racism will disappear gradually. It is a sad world how humans are destroying each other by being mean, judging and being greedy.


“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” (Martin Luther King, Jr)



References

Shah, A. (2010). Racism. Retrieved August 25, 2010 from
http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism


Marshall, S. Race & Ethnicity. Retrieved August 25, 2010 from
http://race.eserver.org/fight-against-racism-today.html

Gordon, B. (2003), Explanations of Japan’s Imperialistic Expansion 1894-1910. Retrieved August 26, 2010 from
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/imperialism.htm


The Korean War: The Forgotten War. Retrieved August 31, 2010 from
http://library.thinkquest.org/10826/korea.htm

Bethel, N.(2007), A Bahamian Story. Retrieved September 22, 2010 from
http://thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=817

African Slave System. Retrieved September 22, 2010 from
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASafrica.htm

Freeman, A. What Is Racism?. Retrieved September 22, 2010 from
http://www.anitra.net/activism/racism/index.html

12 comments:

  1. Hi there
    I liked your topic because I emigrated to New Zealand nine years ago. fortunately I didn't find kiwis to be racist, but my brother had that situation from some people being racism to him; anyways, I know how much that is hurts when some people or nations are disrespectful to the literature for skin color, language and different religion. your information helped my knowledge to know where racism came from and to know about Japan and Korea war. therefore no matter what nations and culture people came from, we cannot be mean to each other, at the end we are human.

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  2. thank you for your comment:) as you said, i haven't had idea how or where racism started but when i thought of the history of Korea and Japan, i thought, oh maybe this is part of the reason that racism has started. racism is a really sad act that humans could do to eachother.

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  3. Hey Soyoung,

    ^-^ agreeing with Bita, being tongan i get discriminated for my skin colour, the way i talk and the way people think i live based on what others have done. It's such a low blow but I guess thats how things are and you have to get up and move on and not let it get to you. This topic was an eye opener because i did not know about the war between Korea and Japan!! It's true racism exists everywhere but it'll be nice if one day everyone got along without judging another person based on their culture. Nice job well done!

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  4. Racism is a worldwide problem, we will never be rid of it, and when one person has graduated from the ideologies of racism, another is ready to step into their shoes. I posted a comment earlier which discussed the issue between Japan and South Koreas both wanting to claim Dokdo Island, with Japan claiming superiority over Korea.
    In an ideal world, there wouldn't be any racism, in an ideal world there would be no weapons or war, but the world we live in is the one we have today. We can only live and learn from the mistakes of those before us.

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  5. Hey Luseane,
    Your studying Japanese right? Perhaps within the next three years you will study the war between Japan and Korea, else there are plenty of material online, youtube is really good, and yes...the library.

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  6. hi Luseane, thank you for your comment :)
    like you said, people are really mean being racist although 'we' are the same human.
    i guess we just have to ignore the people who are being racist. and someday it will get back to them.

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  7. hello sy this is really good work!
    i agree with this topic. as you know when we are at the high school there was rasicm as well . i was quite sad.....
    i hope by this chance people would not be anymore.! good topic!

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  8. hi belinda, yeah i read you comment but i had some problem with changing the draft, so i had to remove my draft and write it again :(
    like you said, Doko problem is really annoying how Japanese people argue that that is their island. sadly, i think this matter will not be solved ever.

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  9. hi double h kkk yeah i heard about your childhood story, how kids made fun of the hair colour and about korean food. they are so mean. you should have punched them kkkkkkkkkkkkk jokes.anyway thank you for you comment:)

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  10. Hey Soyoung,
    I agree, that fight over Dokdo will NEVER be over, it's like a festering scab between the two countries. My favourite Korean actress 구혜선 considers it to be Korean property ^__^

    Heehyun,
    It sad that children made fun of korean food, it's delicious! I think a majority of the time that kids make fun is because they're scared. Scared of being looked as accepting being too accepting something new and different. Most of the times kids make fun because of the type of click (group) they are in. Either that, of you may have been subjected to school bullying, which is just as equally damaging.

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