Racism essay

Verónica Ríos
HRE 4M
Ms. De Bellis
May 28th, 2010
Different People, Equal Rights
Racism is the undeserved fear or dislike of people because of their ethnic heritage. It is also the act of not tolerating the differences between each other. These differences can beeither racial or religious or both. The reality of racism is based on the idea that it exist differences between human beings from the different religions, cultures and ethnicities. This concept goes against the declaration of human rights which states that every human being deserves to be treated with dignity regardless of their ethnicity, religion or origin. This also includes the creation of racialprofiling, which is offensive against other cultures. Racism can be based on the fear towards different people and can be stopped through education. Plenty of people that live in the United States are or have been the victim of a racist attack or simple incidents involving racial profiling.
Racism can also be categorized as hatred. People, who are racist, tend to hate and consider other peoplefrom different origin the “inferior” races. The Church rejects racism or the simple act of hatred. The Catechism states a clear definition:
Hatred of the neighbour is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him a grave evil (The Catechism of the Catholic Church 2303).
Although humans were created in the image of God and in one race under God, one can find evidence of racism in the Bible. Someof the main tribes in the Bible were the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Hebrews among others. They were enemies to each other. They both felt superior to the other one. Nevertheless when Jesus came, he changed this racist ideology. He told every tribe that everyone is equal to everyone regardless of where they are from, what their religion and customs are and what their physical characteristicsare. In Galatians 3:28, Jesus announced:
There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free person...for you all are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
While the term ‘race’ is used to classify humankind according to physical surface characteristics and common heritage, this term is not useful from the biological or sociological standpoint as all the races belong to a singlebiological species. Every person in the world is a creature of God. All have the same origin, belonging to the same race: the human race. All are equal and no one is superior to anyone else, thus no one is inferior to anyone else.
Furthermore racism is the feeling of superiority or the hatred towards an ethnic group or race. According to the Vatican document, The Church and Racism, racism is:
Theawareness of the biologically determined superiority of one’s own race or ethnic group with respect to other (The Church and Racism).
Since racism is something that is learned, the only way to eradicate racism and racial profiling is through education, considering that people are not being born racist just as they are not born knowing right from wrong, as many ideologies have been spread throughpolitical, religious or economic influence. This spread could have been avoided through responsible guidance by parents and teachers. Despite all the efforts against racism, society must still raise awareness among media who have promoted the creation of racial profiling and thus racism. Humans tend to fear what is different and/or unknown to them. Hence racism is the reflection of fear thathumans have towards people with different races. This fear can also result into the form of racial profiling. Racial profiling is a subtopic of racism. It is the act of stereotyping an ethnic group for what someone of the same group has done in the past. Some other examples can be seen in the media such as movies like Crash and TV shows like Family Guy. In Crash one can perceive some intense and...