According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 4 in 10 people responded that the country hasn’t made enough progress toward racial equality, and some believed black people will never have equal rights with whites.
Yes, unfortunately, as we thought systematic racism was a decades ago topic, we have to now awaken from the reality that this civic issue is only getting more complex and that the progress we had made so far is not looking too bright because racism has always been a deep-rooted stigma in the United States all the way from the bloody Civil Wars.
According to, Steven O. Roberts, a Stanford psychologist who identified seven major factors that contribute to the heated racism problem in America:
- Categories, which organize people into distinct groups.
- Factions, which trigger ingroup loyalty and intergroup competition.
- Segregation, which hardens racist perceptions, preferences, and beliefs.
- Hierarchy, which emboldens people to think, feel, and behave in racist ways.
- Power, which legislates racism on both micro and macro levels.
- Media, which legitimizes overrepresented and idealized representations of White Americans while marginalizing and minimizing people of color.
- Passivism, such that overlooking or denying the existence of racism encourages others to do the same.
In this Stanford article, a postdoctoral fellow at NYU brought up the fact that many people, especially white people, have underestimated the depths of racism. Though the spotlight was rightfully given to the recent murders of Geroge Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others. We as people have to understand that these events are the brutal consequences of a much larger system with the community. In regard, I have to agree with him, in order to leave an impact and actually make changes, people have to come together as one community to be educated on how the system function first.
Intergroup prejudice is the most critical belief and mindset that leads to systematic discrimination. If we can fix or at least lessen the tension of many people’s intergroup relations by starting improving our living qualities in the community, it can at least reduce the level of animosity in the current air.
One thing I noticed in the United States is that some babies would stare at me with confusion, especially with white babies. I am not talking about the curious look that babies would give to anyone when they assume they are strangers, but a genuine glare as they study my skin color and distinct facial features. Even though more and more Asians can be spotted in America, there are still instances when these children might have never gotten the chance to see someone that does not look like themselves. Every time this happens, I would start suspecting that these babies’ families may be living in not-so-diverse areas and their parents may have little to no Asian friends and relatives, which is why these little kids were dazed by my appearance.
From my personal experience, since Taiwan is a rather small place, not many foreigners would come around, and even if there are most of the time they are there as tourists for a short period of vacation. Therefore, growing up in Taiwan, I had very few opportunities to see or interact with someone that does not look like me. For most Taiwanese, foreigners of different races only appeared in movies, and of course, sports channels. With that being said, black people were introduced to me through NBA games on TV as my father watches basketball.
The very first time I have gotten the chance to talk to a foreigner would have to be an American, who is a white male that teaches English from my kindergarten. And keep this in mind, I was attending a private institution, which is why they were able to have an English native speaker to teach us. Otherwise, public kindergarten schools’ English teachers would most likely be Taiwanese.
Also, It is not until later upperclassmen in elementary school that I learned there is systematic racism that exists in our society. Besides, the reason I was even introduced to the idea is that some Youtubers speak racial slurs in their videos because there was no chance for people to be racist to people in our own community.
Now, looking back, I was unaware of there are minorities or certain races in this world being looked down on and treated unequally. And when I was finally able to recognize the horrifying stigma in this world is when I came to the United States. Somehow, I felt ignorant to be educated on these social issues just now, since I am confident that many people out there may never have the chance to know the complication of some racial communities that are unspokenly being suppressed by others. Another thing I can be sure of is that there have been people in Taiwan that made jokes about other races and ethnicity, yet, none of them were pointed out in any media because the potential communities that were targeted are not large enough to become controversial, in which I think is disappointing, as public figures could appropriate this behavior to make people believe that their statements can be taken lightly.
In conclusion, sadly, I truly believe that racism exists everywhere and in every corner of this world. It just depends on how much your country is exposed to a variety of races. The more diverse a country appears to be, the more prevalent the intergroup prejudice would present as a transparent issue to all.
Work Cited
https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/09/seven-factors-contributing-american-racism/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3640585/
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34913564
I think the most frustrating thing about this is passivism. People will just tell you that there are no issues anymore, and that’s their entire argument. Also, growing up in suburban America, I feel like I (and a lot of other people) don’t have a lot of perspective to truly understand what is going on in places where racism is more prevalent. It might be hard for someone to realize what goes on racially, especially when they have no exposure to that kind of stuff while they are growing up.