The Problem of Racial Discrimination and Its History

Today I would like to talk about discrimination. Do you know about discrimination?

I know it is sad to think about, but several kinds of discrimination have always been a problem in the world. For instance, discrimination against woman, gender discrimination, racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination.

Today, I would like to focus on the racial discrimination in the United States. The United States is a melting pot of various races and people. Racial discrimination is to this day still a large problem.

First of all, I would like everyone to know about the history of racial discrimination.

I think the most known conflict is the Montgomery bus boycott which a black lady called Rosa Parks stood against oppressive white people. One day, Rosa Parks took a bus to go home. The bus seats were separated for white people and black people. There were also middle seats. Black people were able to sit on the middle seats if there were no white people who wanted to sit there. Suddenly a number of white people came onto the bus, so the driver expected Rosa to leave the seat. Rosa felt very offended, so she didn’t stand up and leave the seat. Because of her opposition, the bus driver called the police and Rosa was arrested. Martin Luther King, who heard the news, stood up for her and black people and started a protest campaign. It continued for 381 days. Finally, it led to Civil Rights Act which gave black people a human right same as white people, but discrimination did not disappear.

However, history of racial discrimination started when the continent of the United States was founded by Christopher Columbus. In order to pioneer the continent, the Spanish imported many slaves from Africa. Africans were treated in an inhumane manner. After the Civil war, slavery was banned and the attitude towards black people slightly changed thanks to the Civil Rights Act of Martin Luther King.

However, racial discrimination has not disappeared from the States and it is still going on. Not only black people but also native Americans, Hispanic and other immigrants are still receiving prejudiced. I will tell you about some recent racial discrimination issues.

Have you seen this news? This is the hoodie’s advertisement of famous fashion brand “H&M”. In this advertisement, the black boy is wearing the hoodie which says “coolest monkey in the jungle” and the white boy is wearing “Mangrove jungle survivor expert”. The advertisement was criticized by many people all over the world because it is considered as a racial discrimination.

Also there was news in Japan. Have you seen the famous TV show “Gakino Tukai”, which was broadcasted on the new years day? This year, Masatoshi Hamada, the main cast of the show, wore the costume of Eddie Murphy and painted his face black. The picture of him spread over the Internet and he was criticized all over the world. Moreover, racial discrimination seems to be related to other serious issues such as obesity in the United States, even though it doesn’t seems like that. This is a story that. I heard from my teacher in cram school. When she was studying in the University in the US, she had a chance to interview to a black woman about fast food. My teacher’s question was “Will you stop buying fast food, if the price increases?” The black woman’s answer was no. The reason why she said no was because she wanted to make her body strong and big due to bullying in the school. The bully did not occurred by her attitudes or manners. It occurred because of her race and her skin color was black. I thought it was unfair and my teacher agreed with me, but my teacher also said that it was a usual thing for black women.Unfortunately, I think there are no good ways to solve this complicated issue right away.

However, I consider that people’s attitudes might change by the way of education.

When I was a kindergarten student, I studied at an international school for one and a half years. Because it was an international school, I of course learned many things about foreign countries such as their cultures, languages and habits. Simultaneously, I also learned about their races. However, my teacher didn’t tell us that “You must talk about skin color to your friend.” or “You mustn’t ask your friend about their country.”

The thing our teacher told us was how to distinguish people from different countries. So, I was told that in America, some people have blond hair, some people have brown hair and some people have white skin but some African Americans have black skin etc. Of course, my teacher also told us that Asians such as Japanese, Chinese or Korean generally have yellowish skin color.

Maybe, some people might think that this way to educate children is perceived as racial discrimination. I, however, do not think that it is a bad education. I rather think it is a good way to teach.

The reason why I think this is good is that when the students in classroom, including me, were educated this way, no one felt bad at all. So, if this style of education was to increased all over the world, I think the way of thinking about racial discrimination might change.

Finally, I think to have a different skin color, different eye color or to be of a different race is completely ordinary. Therefore, I strongly claim that we should respect each other’s unique attributes and we mustn’t discriminate against them. I also strongly hope that people of different races will cooperate with each other some day.