The effects Racism has on the world | Teen Ink

The effects Racism has on the world

March 29, 2021
By henrymr2 BRONZE, Parker, Colorado
henrymr2 BRONZE, Parker, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

People and the world today have been majorly affected by racism. Systemic racism is a mixture of institutions and factors. This allows white people more advantages and for colored people there is a lot of harm and disadvantages for them. This is an important topic because recently in the world there have been many things going on in playing a role in racism. Racism is applied to many different aspects. Things like political, econimic, legal institutions and other things that maintain discrimination for race or other inequalitys. Other inequalities meaning wealth/income, education, civil rights, health care, and many more. The election, Black lives matter movement, and protest also play a role in having to do with racism. The significance of this is that racism has been around for many years and is affecting people and the world we live in today and many people are not aware of what's happening around them. 

 One of the main things that is going on is the Black lives matter movement. The Black lives matter movement is to protest against incidents of police brutality and racial things against black people. The Black lives matter movement was founded in 2013, it has changed some things including the way the nation now talks about race. T. Sheri Amour Dickerson, who is an executive director and core organizer of BLM Oklahoma city, says that “The conversation around race didn’t exist in a vast capacity until we saw the BLM movement this surge.” Many white people in America don’t care about racial equality in the criminal justice system, police brutality against black people, and this is because they think these issues don't affect them but they do. From recent polls, a data science firm says that about 15 million to 26 million people have participated in some way for the Black lives matter. According to interviews with scholars and experts these recent protests have made this movement one of the largest in the country's history. A professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill named Neal Caren who studies social movement in the United States said “I've never seen self-reports of protest participation that high for a specific issue over such a short period.” The Black lives matter movement is mainly peaceful protesting but not all. Some have caused rioting and this has caused major destruction to things. Because of the rioting downtowns of many states have had to board up their walls and buildings. People have started to vandalize buildings and statues, started fires, graffiti, breaking glass, and many more things. 

Racism has also impacted America a lot as a whole because everything that is happening. Many black workers are a lot more likely to be unemployed than white workers are and they face large pay inequality than white workers do. Over the past 40 years there has been an extreme growth in wage gaps between black and white workers. The black and white wage gaps have expanded a ton with the rising wage inequality from 1979 to 2015. Minimum wage keeps the lowest wage for black workers from getting even lower wages. A quote from a Raisin In The Sun says “Them houses they put up for colored in them areas way out all seem to cost twice as much as other houses. I did the best I could.”-Mama (Act II scene i). Mama in a Raisin In The Sun made this very harsh observation to her kids. This quote is saying that the houses available for most African Americans are very expensive and in inconvenient locations that are far away from town. Not only has Racism has affected people that way it has also affected their well being and mental health. Mental health has gone down a significant amount due to racism. Many studies have shown that mothers that have experienced discrimination are more likely to have a baby with low birth weight. Even now in schools students are starting to talk about their thoughts and feelings about race and racism. A school held a Civil Conversation Challenge for students. In this students could discuss what they thought of racial equality and justice. A teenage girl named Naomi Georgia says “As a black girl, I have experienced a lot of pain because of the color of my skin.” Many young kids are having to deal with racism towards them and it makes them feel like they're different. Youth and even younger children experience different lives and realities because of the way they are treated by the color of their skin. Racism affects people's well-being when they are denied equal access to jobs, education, and many other things.

With racism in America it gives countries different views on the United States. America's reputation has declined a lot more over the years between key things like allies and partners. Many other countries share the views over polls and over the past two decades the favorable view of the United States has been at the lowest it's ever been. A main event that sparked many other countries and nations to start an anti-racism protest was the killing of George Floyd. It set off many nations to protest to support Black lives. This included places like London, Berlin, Toronto, and recently Paris. When the 13th amendment was abolished slavery in America, U.S. adults said that settlement of slavery still has an impact on black people in American society today. Studies have shown that more then four in ten say that America still has not made much progress for racial equality and other things among black people. “About six in ten Americans (56%) say race relations in the U.S. are bad, and of those, few see them improving.” Many people in the public have negative views on America because of the country's racial progress. According to a Pew Research Center survey they said “There is some skepticism, particularly among blacks, that black people will ever have equal rights with whites.” That is because of the racial inequality between blacks and whites. Countries have released that America has been on the wrong side of history because of race. With the continue of racism and as it has been getting bigger and more extreme it has included now genocide, slavery, and the colonization of indigenious people. 

Racism has impacted many things in America today and even impacted the way other countries view the U.S. The purpose of doing this research is to make people more aware of what is happening around them and in the world today. It's important to research because there are many things happening in the world that are playing big roles in racism. The effects that racism has caused are very serious things one including mental health. Mental health is a very big thing for everyone and being put down by things like racism and discrimination do not help your mental health to be good. Racism has gone on for many years now and the progress to making it stop hasn’t proceeded to work. If people know more about the things going on in the world and can try and help by spreading awareness then the country can continue to try and stop racism and become a better place.


The author's comments:

Something that inspired me to write about this is that I knew racism has been going on for a very long time and has not been able to be stopped. Something I hope to get out of this is that I hope more people understand what racism has caused for many people and the world we live in today. 


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