From Racism to Genocide

I never considered myself racist until I moved to Jacksonville, Florida the summer before my sophomore year of high school. My family had moved several times in my childhood, but the majority of my early years were spent in a small town in Tennessee. Although my Russian nationality made me a minority, I was still very much Caucasian and part of the White society. For a couple of years, I was part of an organization that reached out to inner-city kids and had the chance to work closely with minority children from Hispanic and Black families. Because of this experience, I was convinced that I didn’t have a racist bone in me. However when I began school in Jacksonville, I was shocked at my own reaction. For the first time in my life, I felt like a minority not because of my nationality, but because I was white. It took me an entire year to sort through my emotions, thoughts and actions. I became very aware of racism and began to struggle against mine.

What is racism and what are the dangers behind it?

Racism has been defined as “the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races” and “discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race”. (Word Net Web) I think racism is a result of people categorizing themselves into specific groups and comparing to other groups. Categories such as White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic become part of our social identities. Although each individual has a social identity, racist ones lead to danger.

Not only do people identify themselves by their skin color and/or nationality, groups such as Aryans, Hutus, and Tutsis begin to form. The problem is that “racism defies logic, knows no boundaries, and finds differences unacceptable and intolerable.” (White, 2009)

Two of the most horrific conflicts during the 20th Century are the Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide, both a result of racism. Nazi Germany murdered about 6 million Jews because they were considered subhuman and “parasites” to the Aryan society. (Engel, 2000) In Rwanda, the Tutsis were considered “vermin and cockroaches”; over 800,000 lost their lives during the 100 day massacre. (White, 2009)

I understand that racism is very real and can exist in any person regardless of their race or situation, just like it affected me. However, if it is not dealt with and becomes exacerbated within a social group, it can become extremely dangerous. History shows us that in fact, racism can lead to genocide.


References:

Engel, David. (2000). The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews. London: Pearson Education.
White, Kenneth R. (2009). Scourge of Racism: Genocide in Rwanda. Journal of Black Studies 39 (3). Retrieved from http://ejscontent.ebsco.com.dax.lib.unf.edu/
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn