We live in a fantabulous world. But there are some factors that make this world, unpleasant and hideous. Deforestation and pollution are 2 of the factors that ruin the pleasantness of the world. Another atrocious action of people that tarnishes the beauty of this world is RACISM.
Recently we heard several news of racist violence. The most recent incident was the death of George Floyd in the United States. It has evoked condemnation all around the globe.
What’s Racism?
Racism is the belief that certain races are better than others or discrimination towards other races. According to Google it is the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
There are several aspects of racism. Following are some of them;
- Aversive Racism — negative evaluations of ethnic minorities to avoid the interaction with other ethnic groups.
- Colour Blind Racism — this aspect of racism is more common in the society. The dislike of the people of the opposite colours is ‘Colour Blind Racism’. This depicts that the skin colour is significant in the society.
- Cultural racism — prejudicing the people of other cultures in the society comes under the cultural racism. This type includes the idea of one’s culture is superior and the rest should not even live with them in the society; in a specific area. Xenophobia comes under this type of racism.
- Institutional racism — it is the racial discrimination by religions, languages, governments, corporations, schools, educational institutions or other large organizations. Stokely Carmichael defines this type of racism as the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin.
- Economic Racism — Racial wage gap and racial wealth gap come under this form.
- Supermacism — it is the idea that a specific class of people is superior to the rest of the classes. At the same time it provides the idea that the class which is cared as superior should rule and dominate.
Apart from the above mentioned types of racism, Subconscious biases, Symbolic Racism, Racial Discrimination, Racial Segregation and Othering are also there in the society.
George Floyd’s Death
George Floyd, aged 46, was an African- American man who lived in Minneapolis. He came to Minneapolis after leaving his hometown Houston, Texas several years ago.
On the evening of 25th May, he went to a grocery store in order to buy a pack of cigarettes. George Floyd was a good customer of that store. He had a good relationship with the owner of the shop, Mike Abumayyaleh.
Instead of Mike, his teenaged employee was at the work on 25th May. The employee suspected that the bill of $20 of George Floyd to be a counterfeit.
Therefore he called 911 and reported that George was not returning the pack of cigarettes even though he was using counterfeit currency. The employee had also mentioned that George appeared to be drunk.
Soon after the call, 2 Police officers had arrived. At that time George Floyd had been sitting with two other men in a car, parked around the corner.
Thomas Lane, one of the 2 Police officers, had pulled out the gun and pulled George Floyd out of the car. Afterwards he had been handcuffed. Floyd had become compliant after being arrested for passing counterfeit money.
When officers were trying to put Floyd in to the squad car the chaos commenced. Minutes after, George Floyd had fallen to the ground and had said that he was claustrophobic. (Having an extreme fear)