Ranvir singh

Writing 001

Mariana abuan

4/27/2019

Causes of Racism

Racism. What do you first think of when you read this word? The first thing that comes to

my mind is the discrimination of African-Americans In United States. This discrimination has

been seen since the time of Martin Luther King, who valiantly tried to stop it. Little to my

knowledge, racism expands beyond the discrimination of African-Americans in 60’s to every

culture and religion around the world. This constant discrimination occurring around the world is

what propelled me to write this essay. I came into writing 001 with a little knowledge about racism,

but this course has broadened my scope, yet also left me with some questions. How did racism

begin, and what causes racism to occur? Is racism expanding. All these questions are important to

understand the roots of racism in United States. The first question, which asks how racism began,

and what causes racism to occur, leads to three main causes: Racial profiling, hate or fear, and

subconscious bias.

First, Let’s discuss very common cause of racism: Racial profiling. To begin with, what is

the meaning of the term Racial profiling? Racial profiling means suspecting someone for

committing an offence based on their race or ethnicity. It is not a recent issue because the issue of

discrimination of black men in America has been very controversial in the previous century. But

this issue took a new turn after 9/11 in 2001. Since that incident this issue has become global and

now extends to religious profiling. The most prevalent example of it in United States is the

religious profiling Muslims due to tragedy of September 11th. I’ve heard many people stereotype
Muslims as terrorists because they think Muslim descent has a greater chance of performing an

unlawful or terrorist attack. Is it right to think like that? Perhaps, our perceptions are skewed since

the tragedy of 9/11. In an article written by Anup Shah on Racism, he refers to the bombing

incident in 1995 in Oklahoma city, USA which “triggered anti-Muslim sentiments, even though it

was not an Islamic group at all” (“Racism”). Moreover, this incident resulted to a surprising 60%

increase in discrimination of Muslims in the USA. (Shah, “Racism”). The increase of racism

against Muslims was a result of the perception of them being involved in terrorist activities. The

fact that this perception was a result of racial profiling Muslims as terrorists strengthens my claim

of racial profiling being the cause of racism. Apart from Muslims, people from other religions also

become the target of racism because they are racially profiled as Muslims. Most people can’t

distinguish between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims because of the similarity in their turbans and

beards. As a result, minority groups like Sikhs become a target of Racial profiling. For example,

Anup Shah mentions, “In the early aftermath of the attacks of 9/11 some Americans that were

understandably outraged and horrified, even attacked some members of the Sikh community where

at least one was even killed, because they resembled certain types of Muslims, with beards and

turbans.” (shah, “Racism”). This particular example indicates that tragedy of 9/11 caused fear and

hatred in the minds of people who then used racial profiling as a means of protection against such

incidents in future. Where it acts as a shield to protect us from attacks such as 9/11, it can also

cause violence and take life of an innocent man just because he was racially profiled as Muslim

due to his turban. So, it is really hard to tell that whether racial profiling is good or bad but it sure

is the one of the causes of racism in United States.

Next factors for causing racism are hate and fear. First of all, there is no denying the fact

that hate and fear exists in everyone. In fact, I consider racism as ever growing because hate and
fear are two emotions of human beings and they will keep on existing always presenting an

opportunity for growth of racism. According to me, they are also the primary factors for causing

racism. In the previous paragraph, both incidents indicate that racial profiling was ignited by

primary factors such as hate or fear. So, in order to understand cause of racism we will also have

to understand cause of hate. In her article “The Psychology of Hate,” Allison Abrams explains that

hatred can be caused by fear of others. To strengthen her argument, she cites the in-group out-

group theory by Behavioral researcher Patrick Wanis, which posits that “when we feel threatened

by perceived outsiders, we instinctively turn toward our in-group—those with whom we identify—

as a survival mechanism.” (“The Psychology of Hate”). This would indicate that fear and hatred

are depended factors as hatred is caused by fear. And racism originates from the hate that is

produced by the fear. This all creates a cycle of racism which starts from fear then comes to hate

and finally racism. This cycle even repeats itself. For instance, consider an incident mentioned by

Abrams during which members of a hate group called “Respect the Flag” terrorized birthday party

of 8-year old girl by pointing guns at guests and referring to them as racial slurs (“The Psychology

of Hate”). Violence of this kind again causes fear in the people which can potentially turn to hate

and racism completing the cycle. Moreover, hate groups like “Respect the Flag” also encourage

the formation of more hate groups. According to a recent study, there are at least 917 organized

hate groups in the United States and SPLC found that the number of likes and comments on hate

group accounts grew by 900 percent in the last two years. (Abrams, “The Phycology of Hate”).

These evidences suggest rapid increase of racism in United States due to formation of new hate

groups. On one hand, hate can cause racism and violence; on the other hand, it is also a very

essential emotion of human beings through which they are able to channel their anger. It can be
only kept in control through compassion towards other people. This compassion can also eliminate

the fear of an out-group and help you belong in a diverse society.

Third and last cause of racism is subconscious bias. One of the ideas that really struck me

was the concept of subconscious bias, if not all, people have a subconscious bias that essentially

makes them racist. Many people believe that they see every race or religion as equal but the truth

is they tend to ignore the implicit bias while saying that. We know there is bias and stereotype in

this country. We see unintentional discrimination everywhere. Andrew Sullivan said in his essay

“What’s So Bad about Hate”, “Much of the time, we harbor little or no malice toward people of

other backgrounds or places or ethnicities or ways of life. But then a car cuts you of at an

intersection and you find yourself noticing immediately that the driver is a woman, or black, or

old, or fat, or white, or male.” (Sullivan, 349). These beliefs are very spontaneous and almost

involuntary. Incidents such as this occur due to our subconscious thought process, something that

is impossible to control and extremely difficult to change. Another fact that adds to our biased

thinking is that we tend to judge people by their first impressions often knowing very little about

them. This is why “first impressions” are such a big deal. In his essay, Sullivan mentions that he

has some conservative friends “who oppose every measure for homosexual equality yet genuinely

delight in the company of their gay friends” (Sullivan, 351). The problem is that we are unable to

control our criteria. In some cases, it is created by our religion or culture, and without even

realizing it, we hold negative stereotypes against people. So, is it right to refer bias as racism? One

might say that subconscious bias contributes to racism, but the person involved in it may not be

aware of his racial bias. However, that is no excuse. People should learn to control their bias

because it has negative effects on society. First of all, a person should never make generalizations

about a group of people and second he should never judge people on their first impressions.
 In conclusion, Let’s come back to the second question I mentioned in the introduction: Is

racism expanding. For the expansion of racism, I was almost completely sure that racism was

diminishing, but after researching into it, I found that it wasn’t always the case, and racism is

technically still a growing problem in the world. The quotes from Anup Shah and Allison Abrams

provided concrete evidence of growth of racism in United States. Anup implied that people

profiling Muslims as ‘terrorists’ was the reason of increased Anti-Muslim sentiments, and Abrams

gave the evidence for increase in number of hate groups in United States. With subconscious bias,

I can say that although it is involuntary, it spreads racism and should be controlled. Police Officers

and government officials should have a training program to reduce their subconscious bias.

Without question, however, racism exists in America. Whether it’s racial profiling or subconscious

bias, racism exists and through what I’ve found in my research, it is difficult or even impossible

to completely abolish.
 Works Cited

Shah, Anup. "Racism — Global Issues." Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and

Environmental Issues That Affect Us All — Global Issues. 08 Aug. 2008. Web. 06 Oct.

2011, http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism

Abrams, Allison. “The Psychology of Hate.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 9 Mar.

2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/nurturing-self-compassion/201703/the-

psychology-hate.

Sullivan, Andrew. “What’s So Bad about Hate.” Language Awareness: Readings for college

writers. 12th ed, edited by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. Bedford/ st.

martin’s, 2018, pp. 347-362.