Race descrimination and its effects

Race Discrimination and Its Effects
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Race Discrimination and Its Effects
Racial discrimination occurs when anyone is denied something, forced to do something they do not want or treated unfavorably because of their skin color, ethnicity, descent or nationality; one is not treated the same as majority. Racism is a serious social issue that involves practices, beliefs, social and political systems that make different races to be ranked as superior or inferior to each other based on actual or perceived traits, abilities or qualities of a race. One’s apparent race is included as a major factor in public decisions like in politics, taxes, employment, crimes and access to public facilities. This has a lot of depressing negative effects like slavery stress, segregation, crimes, trade imbalances and seclusion from the superior race in a country. The inferior populations feel like they have second class citizenship as they encounter race-based prejudice, violence, oppression and harassment. Racial discrimination is still present today in our society; measures to eliminate it should be put in place as it violates Human Rights. Racial discrimination is cruel and has deadly effects on people hence we should strive for racial equality and universal social cohesion to promote greater understanding between people of different races.
Segregation is part of racial discrimination where there is a policy of separating people from different groups according to their race. In south Africa during the Dutch rule, apartheid( meaning separation) was introduced as a policy and the country’s population was divided into four racial groups- black, white, colored and Indian (Nancy and William,2013). The racial groups were used to allocate the residential areas to a specific race based on superiority. The black race was the most inferior and most oppressed like they had to carry passes day in day out as they moved about their own country. There was reservation of separate amenities to a different race to ensure minimal or no racial mixing; such amenities included separate beaches, buses, hospitals, municipal grounds schools and universities. The whites took the highest rank in the country, the Indian and colored people were treated slightly better than the blacks. Several Acts were passed in the parliament pertaining to the segregation of people in the country; there was the Act that prohibited mixed marriages between persons of different races and an immorality Act that made sexual relations with person of a different race a criminal offence. Experiencing this racial discrimination inculcated bitterness and hatred in the oppressed racial groups. After the anti-apartheid rule struggle and the election where all races vied, the apartheid was buried and racial segregation outlawed. That victory has made South Africa excel in many sectors today. Racial mixing is now practiced in South Africa; this was a perfect solution f...