AlexandraKosjakova,Well, the topic of racism has been talked, written and described to us over a million times already, we all know it’s bad and we all know that it should not be done and you are probably thinking ‘tell me something I don’t know?’So before you decide to read something more interesting let me tell you that racism is far from gone, and the most frightening thing about it is that it has risen even more. You would think that such major changes such as Barrack Obama becoming the first African-American president of the USA signified an end to racism in our well-educated young people. It has not. Racism is now like a virus that has mutated and can be undetectable unless you look closely. So is there ever going to be a cure? All I know for sure is that whatever is being done now to stop racism is not working and a change is needed.I’m a 15 year old that goes to a multicultural state school and I can say that my racism expert skills were thrusted upon me weather I wanted it to or not. It was not until a month ago that I realised that my school is very much racist but yet again, I don’t believe thatit is only my school that is like this, my school might even be quite alright compared to other schools and any teenager reading this will most likely agree with me. One month ago on a free class, a very much heated discussion took place as some people noticed that all the ‘black people’ and other foreign students sat at one side of the room and all the Irish or ‘white people’ as they said sat on the other. This resulted in a row between an African boy and an Irish boy with a few extreme racist remarks coming from both sides, it wasthe strongest racist behaviour it ever got to and afterwards they both apologised to each other but I could see that they never fully rekindled their friendship. I began to notice tension between groups of students in the social areas and then I noticed that most groups of friends in the school where either Polish with Polish or other Eastern European students, Africans with Africans and Irish with Irish but rarely mixed groups, so I began to observe in more detail.A few people had once told me that they don’t talk to certain people anymore because they feel like they always put them down by constantly asking them that annoying question of‘’where are you from?’’ It doesn’t seem racist at first but when you always ask the same question to the same person on purpose to annoy them it turns into racism, it makes you feel as small as a bug from a different species that was just classified and pinned down, it does not make you feel equal.People need to understand racism comes from all races anywhere, there are no exclusions and nobody is immune to it. Racism these days is not about ‘white to black’ or ‘natives to immigrants’ as some people might think, as I have witnessed it can be immigrants to immigrants or other. I feel that, if racism should be stopped to a great extent, countriesand nations should not boost about, for example ‘’Irish pride’’ or ‘’be proud to be African’’ because it creates moral confusion in people who might take this the wrong way thinking that there is nobody better than Irish or African and as a result all sides clash and this is where the origins of racism occur in our society.Honestly, I don’t think there ever will be atotal end to it, some people might think otherwise, and of course some of us prefer to wear pink glasses. In reality, there will always be problems and issues because we live in an imperfect world and none of us are perfect either. So for me, I will always remind myself that no matter where we come from or what skin colour we have, we are all still human and there is a lot more to us than just our race or physical appearance, beyond the visual differences there is a unique personality. We might as well try for a change, another philosophy, ‘live and let live the others’, it’s not that hard if we try.
Racism- the school experience
AlexandraKosjakova,Well, the topic of racism has been talked, written and described to us over a million times already, we all know it’s bad and we all know that it should not be done and you are probably thinking ‘tell me something I don’t know?’So before you decide to read something more interesting let me tell you that racism is far from gone, and the most frightening thing about it is that it has risen even more. You would think that such major changes such as Barrack Obama becoming the first African-American president of the USA signified an end to racism in our well-educated young people. It has not. Racism is now like a virus that has mutated and can be undetectable unless you look closely. So is there ever going to be a cure? All I know for sure is that whatever is being done now to stop racism is not working and a change is needed.I’m a 15 year old that goes to a multicultural state school and I can say that my racism expert skills were thrusted upon me weather I wanted it to or not. It was not until a month ago that I realised that my school is very much racist but yet again, I don’t believe thatit is only my school that is like this, my school might even be quite alright compared to other schools and any teenager reading this will most likely agree with me. One month ago on a free class, a very much heated discussion took place as some people noticed that all the ‘black people’ and other foreign students sat at one side of the room and all the Irish or ‘white people’ as they said sat on the other. This resulted in a row between an African boy and an Irish boy with a few extreme racist remarks coming from both sides, it wasthe strongest racist behaviour it ever got to and afterwards they both apologised to each other but I could see that they never fully rekindled their friendship. I began to notice tension between groups of students in the social areas and then I noticed that most groups of friends in the school where either Polish with Polish or other Eastern European students, Africans with Africans and Irish with Irish but rarely mixed groups, so I began to observe in more detail.A few people had once told me that they don’t talk to certain people anymore because they feel like they always put them down by constantly asking them that annoying question of‘’where are you from?’’ It doesn’t seem racist at first but when you always ask the same question to the same person on purpose to annoy them it turns into racism, it makes you feel as small as a bug from a different species that was just classified and pinned down, it does not make you feel equal.People need to understand racism comes from all races anywhere, there are no exclusions and nobody is immune to it. Racism these days is not about ‘white to black’ or ‘natives to immigrants’ as some people might think, as I have witnessed it can be immigrants to immigrants or other. I feel that, if racism should be stopped to a great extent, countriesand nations should not boost about, for example ‘’Irish pride’’ or ‘’be proud to be African’’ because it creates moral confusion in people who might take this the wrong way thinking that there is nobody better than Irish or African and as a result all sides clash and this is where the origins of racism occur in our society.Honestly, I don’t think there ever will be atotal end to it, some people might think otherwise, and of course some of us prefer to wear pink glasses. In reality, there will always be problems and issues because we live in an imperfect world and none of us are perfect either. So for me, I will always remind myself that no matter where we come from or what skin colour we have, we are all still human and there is a lot more to us than just our race or physical appearance, beyond the visual differences there is a unique personality. We might as well try for a change, another philosophy, ‘live and let live the others’, it’s not that hard if we try.