What do you understand by the term racism Using examples from one of Essay - 1

What do you understand by the term racism Using examples from one of the areas of policy we have covered, explain the existence of racism in contemporary Brit - Essay Example Upon making contact with the natives of these lands, the Westerners had the idea of dominating and subjugating the populace of these lands for providing them cheap labour etc to get benefited from the already existing bountiful resource base. The Renaissance had of course given a fillip to dynamism of ideas in Europe but these ideas were meant only to elevate the immediate environment and such enlightenment was not required for experimentation in the lands which were later to be colonized. It was a deliberate policy devised at the highest levels and its implementation was ensured to keep the status-quo in favour of the would-be colonizers intact. This probably must explain the background in respect of all that we associate racism currently with. And wherever the European colonizers went, they had neither any compulsion to neither extend respect to the way of life under their territories nor incorporate whatever wisdom these lands had to offer in return. Earlier, similar enterprises by powers other than those of Europe and the West also exhibited the same pattern (1). Arabs also under the zeal of their religion became colonial powers and controlled far more territories permitted by their strength in their time. In so far as a comparison is sought to be drawn between Arabs and the West, the former did understand their people and themselves changed in a way that suited their political and social correctness. The Westerns did not learn the same from Arabs despite their same religious and civilizational origins in the Semitic nature of their religion and culture. Racism is generally nourished as a sort of belief that the races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that endows some races with an intrinsic superiority. This belief accordingly involves abuse and aggressive behaviour towards members of another race. Social scientists are of the opinion that ethnic groups have or do create a sense of grouping