Each year in September the United Nations commemorates the UN Day of Peace. This year’s theme was “End racism. Build peace”.
The United Nations invites us to work towards a world free of racism and racial discrimination; a world where compassion and empathy overcome suspicion and hatred – a world that we can truly be proud of.
Racism in its most basic sense is the manifestation of a person’s tendency to attach significance to an individual’s race – one race, one culture or one religion as superior to another.
Twenty percent of Australians reported experiencing discrimination on the basis of skin colour, ethnic origin or religion. Most people reject blatantly racist attitudes, yet underlying attitudes that underpin discrimination and intolerance are still held by many people.
Psychological Underpinnings
Racist beliefs can develop early in a person’s life and become deeply rooted in their minds. People learn negative stereotypes about other races, ethnicities or religions as children. These lessons are critical to a child’s development because they help them form a sense of identity – their notions of self and others.
Nelson Mandela said, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
So much of contemporary racism has been driven by a sense of loss. Those who may have previously felt more powerful or in control are now feeling they are losing their place, and they are responding with anger.
Racism is also borne of fear and anxiety. The human ego can feel vulnerable and threatened by what people are not use to. Individual fear can extend to one’s culture and community. This has been one threat that has run consistently through the historical fabric of racism – fear that a certain other poses a danger to a national identity or way of life.
To cope with this vulnerability and fear, people cling to their worldviews as a means of protecting themselves and the world they are used to. These worldviews may be inappropriate and detrimental to others and themselves.
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