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The Socialization of Racism
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Racism was born of Slavery. Slavery was not born of racism. Caucasion people were
slaves before the move to the America's, but when the ability to by African peoples, who were primarily dark colored, became
easier and cheaper the new North American occupants jumped on the almost free labor. Contrary to the popular belief that the
Europeans would steal people from Africa and bring them forcefully to North America, most were sold "legally" by other African
people, and often by their own families to settle debts. Some were stolen by a rival tribe and then caravanned
to the coast. Many of these people were treated very poorly and hardly fed before being sold to the Sailors who would
ship them to North America. This only added to the high death rate on the ships, in which the people were crammed in
as tight as they could get and chained to one another. They were unable to move around and had to excrete their feces
and urine in the same place as they slept. When arriving at their destination the African people were dirty, smelly,
hungry and scared. Thus begins the socialization of racism and ethnic prejudice against the African peoples. ( http://www.newint.org/issue145/keynote.htm ) These reasons, however, are not the only reasons that caucasions and negroids were separated into supposedly superior
and inferior races. The African people had different ways of living, in which the Europeans thought savage.
African people were not educated in the ways of the Europeans, therefore they thought the Africans unintelligent. The
combinations of all these things, that were unconnected to their humanness or intelligence, made the almost aristocratic new
world peoples feel the negroid people were inferior to the white man. Of course the longheld fables and stories
from their homeland about the people of other geographic locations only stood to strengthen these beliefs.
http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/race.html
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As generations have passed we have made great strides in changing the thoughts and ideas surrounding race and
ethnic prejudices or so we think. Racism is still alive and well today, and often tears into our lives when least expected.
How has so many years passed and people still feel these things are true? Why are so many
people still falling into the same patterns of racial bias of our ancestors? The answer is Socialization. People
are socailized to believe these ideas. Not only Caucasion Americans but African Americans as well.
Today the dominant group is allowed to ignore the racial biases because of the socioeconomic distance
that has inevitably separated the two groups. The segregation of the caucasion and negro peoples was banned by
law but in reality ethnic pluralism is a rarity. Even in large cities where there are large populations of both
negro people and caucasion people their neighborhoods are still largely separate. Through role-taking and the expectations
of the socialization agents the individuals in society have reinforced these problems.
Socialization of racial bias has been shown to begin in very early years of life, toddler stage. By the
time the child is school age he/she tends to have a full set of biased ideas, perpetuated by the parental and societal stereotypical
in group messages. ( http://www.tolerance.org/hidden_bias/tutorials/ ) Stereotypes are needed in order to allow for quick organization of ideas and thoughts. It will take the
joint effort of all people to change our beliefs enough to not encounter racial stereotypes. Though North America is
a melting pot of ethnicity, an everchanging society of multicultural people, our minds are still set to stereotypically define
people by the color of their skin. Society expects young black men who are born in poverty stricken areas to be loud, aggressive, angry, even violent. Black
men are not expected to fight through the adversity and become a buisiness man, a doctor, or a lawyer and if they do
they are often seen, by others of their own race as a sellout. Someone who is forsaking their heritage
for the white culture, leaving behind the ethnicity of the African American peoples. Caucasions often
wrongly believe that the African American people choose to live in masses in the poorer areas, convincing themselves
that nothing can be done to change things, least of all by the white community. This only adds to the continuing
segregation, prejudice, racism, and stereotypes survival. http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/publications/monogra/mono3_e.htm
http://www.bepress.com/ils/iss2/art16/
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Conclusion
The way we have been taught as
children carries through to our own children. The smallest inuendo or slur finds its way to the child ear. As
racial lines are harder to draw, you think so too would be the sharp tongue, and cruel actions. The only way to
overcome these stereotypical problems is to teach those who we have not blinded that race is only the color of your skin,
not who you are, or who you are meant to be. Only time will tell if people will learn that life is precious, Black,
White, Yellow, or Red.
The White Problem
Hidden Bias
Understanding Stereotypes
The sociology of Race and Ethnicity
Black and White in Brown (abstract)
Essay By Masey Bonnell
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