Question

If racism is more than the acts of individual bad people. What, then, is racism? What is problematic about reducing racism to simply the bad things some people think and do?

Answer 1

Racism is a mentality. It is where a group of people use the race of another group as an excuse to treat them inferior. In many causes, it starts with one race separating a heinous act that a part of another race does and then apply it to the entire race as a whole. The problem with reducing racism to the actions and thoughts of people is we miss the big picture. Most people try to be good and fit in with society; however, some people can't do this because they don't understand why what they do/think is not socially acceptable. These people often think that they are in the right and those opposing them are in the wrong. A good example of this is the enslavement of Africans. There is a passage in the Bible that refers to Ham, the son of Noah, acting out against his father, and in return his skin gets blemished or darkened making him inferior and showing the crime he did against his father. This was the main excuse for enslavement of those with darker skin for generations, and if it was in their most sacred book, how could it possibly be wrong?