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A Critical Essay About Racial Discrimination

By: Juan Dela Cruz

When the world began, humans were made, and every human has their
characteristics and color, in short, they have their race. However, one of the problems in
this contemporary world is the perspective of people about the different races which
causes social hate and inequality, in other words, discrimination. But what discrimination
really is? According to the Oxford Dictionary, discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial
treatment of different categories of people, particularly due to ethnicity or race, age, sex,
or disability. In the early times, slavery was popular, its popularity and high demand
caused many people, specifically Europeans to prove that slavery was a need. As a
result of curiosity and justification, scientists and philosophers looked for physical,
non-religious explanations about why people from Africa looked different than white
Europeans and why slavery was acceptable. Their study resulted in a racial hierarchy
that put white people at the top and Black people at the bottom (Huberty, n.d.), the idea
made from their study evolved which made discrimination worse. But should slavery be
still accepted? Is discrimination a need? Despite the many ideas and questions people
have, there is only one common truth–racial discrimination does more harm than
“good”.

People from the early times tended to have slaves to ease the burden of
responsibilities. Since slaves helped their masters in their everyday business, slaves
contributed to the financial growth of their masters’ lives. However, this is only the
positive thing about slavery. The act of slavery is against the rights of humans to live on
their own, have their freedom, have their privacy, and be free from any mistreatment
and abuse. In addition, according to Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms.” (End Slavery Now, 2023). Therefore, slavery, the root of
discrimination, is immoral and should not be accepted anymore.

Some people tend to think about their rights without thinking about their limits
which can lead to mistreatment, degrading, and stepping on other people’s rights. Some
people also tend to maintain their superiority which can only be done by discriminating
others. These acts show that discrimination has a positive impact on people who do it,
but this impact is only positive for them, not for others. In the United States, 57% of
black Americans reported discrimination in pay and consideration for promotions, while
31% of all women say they have been discriminated against when applying for jobs due
to their gender 2. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States experience higher rates of illness
and death across a wide range of health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension,
obesity, asthma, and heart disease, when compared to their White counterparts. Once
more, discrimination is against human rights and it harms people, therefore,
discrimination must not be a necessity.

Racial discrimination does more harm than “good”, people can say that
discriminating against others can make them maintain a good life status and superiority,
but if one looks at it critically, it just has a positive effect on one side, which is wrong
because people should not be one-sided. Everyone should have a holistic perspective
on everything. Every person on earth is very important regardless of color. In this world,
no one should think about who is superior, instead, people should think about equality
and harmony. White people are not more important than black people, nor black people
are not more important than white ones, because we are all important regardless of
race.

References:

Discrimination in America. (2018, June 22). Harvard Public Health Magazine.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/discrimination-in-ameri
ca/

Human rights and slavery. (n.d.). End Slavery Now | Resources to End Human
Trafficking - End Slavery Now.
https://www.endslaverynow.org/act/educate/human-rights-and-slavery

Racism and health. (2023, September 18). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/racism-disparities/index.html