My First Experience With Racism

Racism is for the most part defined as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human characteristics and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority or inferiority of some particular race. It is a form of discrimination and usually carries with it an attitude of prejudice. Discrimination can be based on many characteristics: a e! sex! hei ht! wei ht! s"in color! clothin ! speech! income! education! marital status! sexual orientation! disease! disability! reli ion! and politics. When the basis of discrimination is someone#s perception of race! it is "nown as racism $%enslin &&'(. When one thin"s of racial tension between )merican *aucasians and )frican+)mericans! the thou ht is enerally that the *aucasian is probably the one doin the discriminatin a ainst the )frican+)merican. ,his is due to the fact that )frican+)mericans were once a minority and it is an example of the -common sense. that sociolo ists warn us about. I can spea" from personal experience as to the inaccuracy of this myth. When I was around /0 years of a e I was incarcerated o1erni ht for undera e possession of alcohol. While there! I witnessed a youn er white male in another cell bein bullied and beaten by se1eral )frican+)mericans due to his race. ,he blac" uys would ta"e his food and blan"ets and say thin s li"e -2ou don#t need these white boy. 2our family has plenty of money.. ,hey would then start lau hin and eatin his food items. ,his an ered me and shamed me at the same time. I was an ered because of the idea that one of -my "ind. was bein ta"en ad1anta e of and I could do nothin about it. I was also ashamed about someone of my race not ta"in up for themsel1es. In reality! I came to disco1er that the boy came from a 1ery financially challen ed bac" round and a couple of the )frican+ )mericans came from families that were upper+middle class. ,his is what the symbolic interactionists refer to as selecti1e perception and it was totally inaccurate. ,his e1ent helped to crystalli3e a feelin of racial prejudice within me so that the actions of one roup create a firm line of di1ision between itself and another. ,his sociolo ical soccer oes bac" and forth eneratin mutually exclusi1e character traits and becomin a self+fulfillin prophecy for all parties in1ol1ed. 4o this experience definitely shaped my perceptions about life. 4o much so that I stru led for se1eral years tryin to ain bac" the ability to 1iew people objecti1ely.

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