Racism, The Opportunity Killer

By: Mira

Did you know that someone’s appearance affects their opportunities? This is called racism. Twenty million black and Hispanic children attend very poor schools because they have dark skin, which is unfair. This problem occurs especially in the United States of America. Racism isn’t only about appearance and color, but it’s also about nationality and religion. This practice is called xenophobia. These are two of the million of reasons why xenophobia is bad. That is why you need to help raise awareness and spread the word, so racism could be put to an end.

Xenophobia is part of racism, and it is when people dislike you because of your nationality and religion. An example of xenophobia is how Donald Trump banned Mexicans and Indians from his country, and also banned Arabs and Muslims because of previous wars with the Gulf States. Xenophobia also occurs a lot in refugee camps, since refugees from all around the world would be together staying there.

Do you know that racism related to appearance wasn’t invented till the eighteenth century? Back then, everyone was content, and happy to be together as one, but now racism has arrived and it denies the the unity of human kind, which isn’t good. At least blacks don’t have to work as slaves any more, but they are still treated miserably. So racism really needs to stop.

Racism is one of the main causes of inequality. When there is inequality, violence would occur, which then leads to war. You would agree that our world needs to be a peaceful place. It should be a place where people from all around the world come together and work together as one. But sadly, our world is the opposite, and people are still treated in the worst ways possible. So we aren’t united. So if racism doesn’t stop, our world will be a miserable place for whole eternity, and I am sure you don’t want that to happen.

Here are a few things that happen because of racism:

 Infant mortality rate drops, which means that the amount of black women that give birth, or the amount of new black babies born drops, which also causes the world’s population to drop.

 All black women in 2012 were at three times the risk of dying than white women, which also affects the infant mortality rate.

 1.5 million men disappeared because of how they are treated. They just left America to be safe, healthy, and to live a free life.

 Racism also creates inequality and stratification, which leads to violence and war between countries.

 Black children don’t have access to any education, or at least not a good one ( very dark and poor schools where they hardly learn science or math), which will affect what they will be when they grow up, and who they will become. It will affect the next generation.

Racism also affects your health, your self esteem, your happiness and how you feel/react towards others, so only a fool would not think this is bad. It even denies the unity of human kind, and because of racism, people won’t have equal access to things, which also comes from discrimination related to gender, class, and power and causes social injustices. So you would surely agree that this is bad and should be put to an end.

Here are a few ways you can help:

 You can join/volunteer organizations that help black people with providing their needs such as UNICEF Dubai Cares, Red Crescent etc.

 You can donate money to those organizations above so they can use that money to build schools and houses for the black people, and give them health care.

 You can also donate money, food, and clothes to the black people or anyone living in poverty around the world.

I hope you learned lots more about racism and it’s causes/effects. To help raise awareness, please spread the word to inform people about this crisis, and most importantly… sign my petition!