UWRT 1104
9/27/2017
Introduction/Overview
Throughout history there has been evidence of racial prejudice from different races across
the globe, even though this may be the case I have chosen to focus on the time period between 1900-
2017, but I will refer to instances in history to supplement some of my points on what drives racism. Just
seeing how the minds of racist people work intrigues me greatly. Being one who has
experienced/witnessed a considerable amount of racism I would like to understand what makes people
do the things they do towards other people. Once we understand what makes people think the way
they do, I believe this will be a big step into educating people on how to attack racist people and un-
Even though some people believe that racism does not exist, it does. A common misconception
is that racism starts from home. In a way that is correct but Yale University social psychologist Jennifer
Richeson says ,People learn to be whatever society and culture teaches them. We often assume that it
takes parents actively teaching their kids, for them to be racist. The truth is that unless parents actively
teach their kids not to be racists, they will be,. The only way to combat racism is to teach kids to not be
racist. Easier than it sounds. There is prejudice everywhere so even if you teach your kids to not be racist
how do you know thats enough? How do you know they wont pick up racism from their friends at
school or even through the internet? These are questions many parents ask themselves.
question to me because without the roots no tree can grow. So, if we can stop racism from where it
I am interested in this topic because Ive experienced racism in more than one way and every
time after calming down I always ask myself, why would someone else want to do something like to
someone else? For example, during my Junior year of high school my entire AP psychology class was
given an assignment that required a video to be recorded, so we all got together one weekend to record
the video in my friends neighborhood. After about 30 minutes we hear police sirens coming in our
direction, at the time we didnt know they were coming for us so we continued. About 15 seconds later
the cops pull up where were recording the video and tell us to put everything we have down, we
comply and are frozen. After they question us they tell us they received a call from a person saying that
they heard us say, were going to shoot someone. At the time we were disoriented so to speak,
because we couldnt believe that the cops were called on us, and a bogus excuse like that was used to
justify the call. I know that the person had to dislike us for no reason to call the police with that excuse. I
feel that this paper will really help me and you understand what makes people think the way they do
My information will be from the Internet, personal experiences, and books from the UNCC
library. Some of the sources I intend on using from the internet are: humanrights.gov (Why Are People
Racist Article), Washingtonpost.com (Why are people still racist? What science says about Americas
race Problem) talkpoverty.org (Poverty doesnt make people racist), science.sciencemag.org (Roots of
Racism). Some resources from the library that I intend on using are Racism by Martin Bulmer and John
Solomos, Racism by Albert Memmi, Theories of race and racism by Les Back and John Solomos, The
white mans Burden: historical origins of racism in the United States by Winthrop D Jordan, Killing
rage: Ending Racism, Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria, and other
conversations about race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Institutional Racism in America by Owen Blank, Louis
Next Steps
Well some other questions I intend on presenting in this paper are; What are the best ways to
un-teach racism? How to teach love instead of hate? how to un teach racism? Do the people who have
this hatred in them look at it as hatred or a truth? Does the hate the have affect them in their daily
lives? Do they teach this hate to other people and/or their kids?