RACISM           

                                                                                                   Name: Alexandra

Date: Monday, March 5 2012

Teacher: Ms. Babb

 Stupid… Ugly…How would you feel if you were called these names just because you have different coloured skin, are part of a different religion, have different customs or are have a different background? This is racism, one of the world's major issues which must be stopped. People are made fun of everyday because of this. A lot of people think that racism only existed decades ago however they don't know that racism still exists today in our social lives. Racism can affect the stress in our lives. We should help and stop racism so that we can all be treated equally.

            Racism is vicious because it is against human equality. It can really hurt someone's feelings, make them feel less confident about themselves and lower their self esteem.  For example a new student arrives at a new school. He is Chinese and doesn't know any English. Then a group of kids come up to him and start to make fun of him and laugh at him because they can't understand what he is saying. The person who is being laughed at would feel very left out and sad because no one likes him/her. Why must we treat others like this? They shouldn't be treated like this.

           

            Many people attempt and some commit suicide over racism. Stress can affect racism because if someone is being made fun of (often called bullying) because of their race/background they probably would become very stressed about it and wouldn't want to see the people who are making fun of them again. If they are really fed up and can't take the stress anymore, then one of their options would have been to commit suicide. We can save lives by making everyone feel like they all belong. We can also comfort them if they are having a tough day.

Like Michael Jackson said in his song Man in the Mirror, if you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make a change. There are many things that we can do to stop racism. We can start with simple things like telling an adult that someone is being bullied or made fun of. Another way is standing up for the person and telling the bully that it is not right and that they should stop. If everyone changes, cares for one another and helps one another rather than making fun of everyone's differences, we will become a better community.

As you can probably see, racism is something that needs to end.  Even if we help by doing small things like calling an adult if someone is being bullied about their race we can make a difference. It shouldn't matter the race of the person. There are many famous celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Beyonce, and Whitney Houston who are all successful African-Americans and many people encourage them. Like Michael Jackson said in his song Black or White, it doesn't matter if you're black or white. Now, I would like to end with a quote from an unknown author. "Laundry is the only thing that should be separated by colour."