by Rosemary Redfern

Created on: May 04, 2008   Last Updated: September 24, 2011

Racism and sexism are forms of discrimination, even torture. Neither makes the victim feel good. I voted for sexism, but I believe both are equally evil.

Your race and sex, gender, are givens. Possession of either makes the owner neither superior or inferior.

Acts of racism and sexism hit both receiving groups equally hard and it is not possible to say how someone can react. Reactions are personal to the individual and what might devastate one person might fuel someone else to fight back. If the person is of the group against whom racism is practiced and is also of the sex which is discriminated against they are being abused twice. They get double discrimination. Who can tell which makes them feel worse.

Racism and sexism are matters of perception. Perceptions come from experience, environment and personal preferences.

Experience is a personal reaction to events. How we are affected by life. Ask a three-year-old boy who is the strongest in the house and he will reply I am'. He cannot conceive that his father is stronger, but he will learn over time, with loving parents, that strength is a variable.

There is a basic need of animals, humans included, to be at the top. The three-year-old believes he is the center of the world. Someone who doesn't have caring parents will only learn that by putting someone else down on to a lower category they rise. Feelings of inadequacy can be assuaged by putting someone else below you. How the victim feels is immaterial. Most of us learn with time that we can do well in somethings and less well in others. We also learn that this variety gives the community strength.

The environment we grow up in influences our belief systems. It takes strength and education to get us to look at whether those systems are just. It also takes courage to challenge strongly held belief. There is safety in not changing anything.

Personal preferences vary with the types of people we are and how we react to others. If you feel you have been treated badly by society, you are more likely to make life difficult for others you perceive as weaker then yourself or those you wish to punish. It makes you feel better. It's easier if you can believe that someone else is not the same and therefore does not have the same rights or needs. An example is the man who claimed the roads were too busy now because women had learned to drive.

The recipient of discrimination suffers. How badly the person reacts depends on their inner resources and belief systems. Victims of racism and sexism may be very angry at their treatment, but they can begin to believe it is something about them that is inferior. That is the objective.

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