by Author Name Withheld 231

Created on: October 13, 2010   Last Updated: October 14, 2010

If I could define racism with one word, I would, and my chosen word would be "absurd". Reason being? The word absurd encapsulates every other one-word definition of racism, including "ignorance". There is no such thing as "race". Human beings are one race. We are all descendants of Africans, and this is an absolute fact. Since there is only one race of people, that would make racism obsolete, would it not? The problem here is that it's not obsolete; on the contrary, it's alive, well and unfortunately, raging.

The lack of scientific literacy in much of the world-even in the world power which I reside, America-is one of the main reasons behind racism. Science isn't accepted and taught as widely as it should be. Scientific facts aren't always accepted as facts. We have too many deluded, blinkered fact-deniers. Reason behind this? Religion, but that is for a different argument entirely. If we, as a species, were taught from grade school all the way through High School, that we are all descendants of a common African ancestor and that there is no difference between us, we would accept each other more readily. Instead, lines have been drawn based on the various tones of our skin, textures of our hair, shapes of our bodies/faces. And this is unfortunate. If you were to look at the skeleton of a Caucasian, an Asian, and an African side-by-side, you'd see that there is absolutely no difference between us at all.

Another driving force of racism is people being 'proud' of what they are. People are proud to be black, they're proud to be white, they're proud to be Asian, they're proud to be Arab. This is equally as absurd as being proud of which area of land you happened to be born and raised on. This immediately draws a line between people based on absolutely nothing at all. It makes us grapple with and quarrel over insignificant nonsense like "interracial" dating. More invisible lines drawn to do battle over.

All forms of racism are based off of complete lack of understanding, indoctrination, or chosen ignorance. The lack of understanding that we're all one race is a reason in and of itself. Some people automatically dislike anything which doesn't look or seem like themselves. Indoctrination is a parent who raises their children to either dislike another tone of skin or to be weary of another tone of skin. Both are extremely dangerous and deluded. Chosen ignorance is when you let religious scripture decide which type of people you like or dislike. Chosen ignorance is also when a person of a certain ethnic background does something, and you immediately broad stroke all of them as the same.

Racism, by definition, is completely and totally absurd. We, as a species, have to overcome this. We're all the same, there is only one human race. To say otherwise is just a crying shame.

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