Unanswered [6] | Urgent [0]
  

Home / Writing Feedback   % width Posts: 4


"Is racism becoming an obstacle in today`s world?" - correct my essay


student001 1 / -  
Apr 16, 2009   #1
Is racism becoming an obstacle in today`s world? In our diverse society, racism is facing one of humankind's major tensions in this day and age. Many people are unaware of the use of prejudice and discrimination when they communicate. It is evident that racism is a fatal perception because it portrays an expression of hatred and surprisingly, there are still a quite number of people who still engage in making negative remarks to insult a minority victim. The two authors demonstrated a good understanding of how racism is created by the colour of the skin, wherein, how a race judges another race by its negative impression. In fact, the stories describe the specific origins of racism where it can be a brutal, a negative force in human society, and a downfall to human resources. In the two readings, "I'm Not Racist But..." by Neil Bissoondath and "I'm a Banana and Proud of It" by Wayson Choy, racism is based upon stereotyping what's unfamiliar; racism causes real psychological damage to people who are stereotyped; and racism is not easy to change.

First and foremost, racism is based upon stereotyping what is unfamiliar where an individual would classify a specific group by its characteristics. In the writings, the authors arrange the race with xenophobic terms, where a race is given a very rude label. For example, Bissoondath stated, "And so a black might become 'n***ig- -ger,' a white 'a honky,' an Asian 'a paki,' a Chinese 'a chink,' an Italian 'a wop,' a French-Canadian ' a frog.'" In the other passage, it follow an exact same format of xenophobic terms where Choy said, "After all, in Canada and the United States, a native Indians are 'apples' (red outside, white inside); blacks are 'Oreo cookies' (black and white); and Chinese are 'bananas.' "(206). Throughout the essays, it appears people like to stereotype an individual by saying a racist comment at their skin or religion. For instance, Bissoondath said, "A friend of mine... has the impression that their one great cultural contribution to the world is in the oft-repeated boast that 'We (unlike everyone else) know how to party.'"(273). Whereas, Choy has a similar phrase in essay where Choy stated, "I don't mind being called a 'banana,' yellow on the outside and white inside: I'm proud I'm a banana. "(206). When it comes to meeting a person of another race, there is a chance that the person hasn't meet another type of race before and this will make the person to feel racist by judging on person's religion or skin. On the other hand, Bissoondath uses an example in his essay where he said, "Or the oil company executive... who, looking for an apartment in Toronto, rejected buildings with East Indian tenants not because of their race -he was telling me this, after all-but because he was given to understand that cockroaches were symbols of good luck in their culture and that, when they moved into a new home, friends came by with gift-wrapped cockroaches." (206). Consequently, both of the essays express how stereotype groups can affect individuals by the use of negative insults or name calling.

On the other hand, racism causes real physical loss to people who are stereotyped whereas one person in a particular race will insult another race. Although, people have a tendency in believing their self and also, the act of stereotyping is mostly an unconscious. In Choy's essay, he elaborates how another race takes control of his race where Choy stated, "We began to feel Chinese home life was inferior. We co-operated with English-language magazines that showed us how to act and what to buy. Seductive Hollywood movies made some of us secretly weep that we did not have movie star faces. American music made Chinese music sound like noise." (207). This clearly indicates Choy's race wasn't liked in the American society. As a result, Choy points out to the American music as being loud and how Hollywood movies do not include any Chinese's faces. Stereotype also proves to show how an individual would put racial hatred of another race by using it as a way to discriminate the group. For example, Bissoondath said, "I'm not racist, but the Chinese are the worst drivers on the road." (273). Psychological damage usually happens when a race calls another race by a racist term, for example, Chinese are called "Chink" because of the shape of Asian eyes. Such as, Choy said, "'Chink' is a hateful, racist term, stereotyping the shape of Asian eyes: 'a chink in the armour,' an undesirable slit." (206). Individual, who stereotypes a specific race, often makes a person to feel bad. In this case, let's use the oil company executive as an example where he started to feel uncomfortable with East Indians who use cockroaches as good luck and Bissoondath expressed, "Neither of these men thought of himself as racist, and I believe they were not, deep down."(273). In addition, racist individuals often cause psychological damage to innocent groups whereas racism would likely to rise when one race meets another race.

For the most part, racism is hard to change. If a particular race is taught not to respect another race, than the outcome of that the race will likely to become eternally prejudiced. For example, Choy said, "They came as unwanted 'aliens'. Better to be an alien here than to be dead of starvation in China. But after the Chinese Exclusion laws were passed in North America, no Chinese immigrants were granted citizenship in either Canada or the United States." (206). This passage clearly indicates Americans did not approve Chinese to have their own citizenship in North America because they think Chinese immigrants do not deserve the right to be American citizens. As well, Bissoondath uses an example to distinguish racism occurs almost everywhere such as the media where he said, "We must be sceptical about those who depend on conflict for their sense of self, the non-whites who need to feel themselves victims of racism, the whites who need to feel themselves purveyors of it - Does the Miss Black Canada Beauty Contest still exists?" (274). Reading from this passage, Bissoondath tries to explain how racism can take place in beauty contests where he uses black beauties as a case of how people would react to the media. In addition, racism can occur when one race starts calling another group by the colour of the skin or food as to mock them and this obviously shows racism has not changed. For example, Choy stated, "-Chinese are "bananas" (206). In Bissoondath's essay, he uses food as an example to show stereotyping can represent a Chinese by their language where he stated, "Chinese as chow mein..." (272). Simultaneously, racism is becoming a widespread factor when victims have no choice but to follow what's best for them. In Choy's essay, he clearly said, "They had no choice. They adapted... If they had not, they and their family would have starved to death." (208). Wherein, Bissoondath he uses how Jews and Klux Klan as a racial hatred terms where he stated, "They may indicate ignorance or stupidity or insensitivity, but pure racial hatred - such as the Nazis held for Jews, or the Ku Klux Klan for blacks..." (272). Hence, racism is becoming a crime in both of the essays as people start to abuse one another.

In conclusion, the two writings on the subject of race are shown to be the same. As previously stated, both of the essays express how stereotype groups can affect individuals by the use of negative insults or name calling; racist individuals often cause psychological damage to innocent groups whereas racism likely to rise when one race meets another race. Furthermore, racism is becoming a crime in both of the essays as people start to abuse one another.
EF_Sean 6 / 3,491  
Apr 17, 2009   #2
Your essay sort of meanders about your topic aimlessly, without any real point, especially if your essay is meant to be an attempt to answer the title question. This makes it difficult to follow. I'd suggest you start your revision by defining racism in your first paragraph. The sort of racism you seem to be talking about is explicit, negative, overt racism of the sort that is probably a fairly minor problem in most of North America today. In contrast, the sort of racism that does still cause social problems, and that is therefore actually interesting, tends to be implicit, hidden, often times even from the person engaging in it. For instance, the person who refused to rent to East Indians because he thought they treasured cockroaches is not, by your own admission, racist in the former sense. That is, he genuinely believes a story he has heard about another culture's practices. And why shouldn't he? Cultural differences weirder than that do exist, after all. In some cultures, for instance, cows are sacred. In some, dog meat is considered an acceptable food. In yet other, ants are considered a tasty treat. In some really messed-up cultures, you find buildings with no 13th floor because the number is considered unlucky. It's not really that much of a stretch to believe that some culture somewhere might view the cockroach as a good luck symbol. And, if this really were an East Indian belief (and I'm assuming its not), he would indeed be justified in not wanting to rent to people who were likely to infest the building with a creature that is consider the vilest of pests here. On the other hand, if the story is merely a racist myth, then he is still in racist in the latter sense, because he is discriminating against people based on a perception rooted in consideration of their ethnicity.

But even that isn't a really good example. You might look, for instance, at how forms of racism may underlying disparities in racial incarceration rates even though the courts themselves are not deliberately trying to be racist. In fact, in most of the legal system, most of the people involved would not think of themselves as racist, even though the results clearly seem to indicate a certain amount of racial bias creeping in somewhere.

You could also look at research about how people make unconscious associations based on racial awareness. One experiment involved having people "shoot" subjects in a videogame. The goal was to only shoot people who were armed. Most of the participants didn't actually shoot unarmed black men at a particularly higher rate than whites. The researchers were really looking, though, at how long it took people to decide to shoot. And what they found was that most participants would shoot a black man with a gun far more quickly than they would a white man with gun. This was true, I believe, of both black and white participants. That is, black people who played the game also showed this sort of bias against blacks. Another test, less violent in nature, involved word associations when the people associating words flashed on the screen too rapidly for them to consciously tell what the words were with images of black or white faces invariably matched up negative words with black faces and positive words with white faces. In both of these cases, the bias was utterly unconscious, something none of the respondents had been aware of before the test.

So, look at these sorts of things if you want to really answer the question you pose. If the essay is really meant to be just a book review of the two texts you mention, then I can't give you anywhere near as much advice, as I haven't read them.
pranav143 1 / 4  
Apr 17, 2009   #3
i think u have got that ability to espress your idea in a good way. anyway its rocks..keep it up
EF_Kevin 8 / 13,321 129  
Apr 17, 2009   #4
In our diverse society, racism is facing proving to be one of humankind's major tensions in this day and age.

Above, you had writen that "racism is facing ... tension" but what you need to write is that racism is CAUSING or PROVING TO BE a kind of tension.

I want to point out that the title is not quite right, because racism obviously is not "becoming" an obstacle but rather, has always been an obstacle.

I think these readings you discuss seem great. If you ever have time to read "Pattern Recognition" by Gibson, I think it would be an interesting novel to read with racism in mind. (I'll give 100 points to anyone who can tell me what is the biggest insight into racism that you can get from Gibson's novel, which is not even about racism.)

The thesis you use is very weak: the two writings on the subject of race are shown to be the same, The two authors demonstrated a good understanding of how racism is created ... These are the asserions you made, and they are not very meaningful. What makes these 2 authors' works similar in the ways they expose racism? What makes them similarly unique, (if that is even possible)? Can you make it so that your essay opens my eyes to some new insight I had not considered, even after I read those two books? Your job is to write about those 2 books in a way that makes the reader see deeper truths in them than s/he may have seen prior to reading your essay.


Home / Writing Feedback / "Is racism becoming an obstacle in today`s world?" - correct my essay
Writing
Editing Help?
Fill in one of the forms below to get professional help with your assignments:

Graduate Writing / Editing:
GraduateWriter form ◳

Best Essay Service:
CustomPapers form ◳

Excellence in Editing:
Rose Editing ◳

AI-Paper Rewriting:
Robot Rewrite ◳