My Views on Racism in the USA

On my social media accounts, I usually make a post bringing awareness to sexual assault/harassment every now and then because it’s something I really hate as I’ve seen how it can affect people with my own eyes. I also pretty much always make a post when someone famous/inspirational dies. But I’ve never made a post about racism. And I think that’s because I know that none my ‘followers’, aka. my friends, are (to my knowledge) racist and they already know that racism is wrong. But I do believe that if you say/do nothing at a time like this then that is turning a blind eye to what’s going on which is almost as bad as participating in the racism itself. So I wrote the following and posted it on my socials, to just give people another person's opinion if anything. And that's what the following is; my opinion. It is based on what I’ve learned through my life as an Asian male growing up in a white, British, conservative society in Buckinghamshire, UK.

You’d think this is the part where I’d say I’ve experienced some form of racism most days from my white right-wing neighbours. But no, aside from some of my school peers making jokes and other kids in my town trying to be ‘cool’ when we were younger, I personally haven’t experienced that much racism in my life. I acknowledge that there is a difference between racism towards the Asian and black societies and I can’t speak for other minorities, but I think the basic premise is the same in that racism is taught - i.e. it is not natural. People aren’t born racist. And racist parents will most likely raise racist children. And that’s a hard thing to stop. I don’t know what the American school system is like, but from my experience this is what I remember learning in school.

In primary school Religious Education, I remember learning more about Islam than any other religion - and I went to a Church of England Christian primary school. I remember my friends and I on our table moaning to each other every time we had another lesson on Islam. But now, looking back, that was a good thing. Because I remember growing up and understanding about terrorism and what’s happening in the Middle East and instead of blaming it on the religion, I fully blame it on the people and the individuals. People who blame terrorism on religion are stubborn, uneducated racists who find it easier to blame a whole race/religion than to look at a bunch of individuals and say that they’re the ones causing the problem so they’re the ones we need to stop.

I remember watching Hairspray in Year 6 and learning the meaning behind it. I remember learning about the Atlantic Slave Trade in Year 8 History and about Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement. I remember learning about the history of reggae in Music class and I remember listening to my first N.W.A. song (which granted wasn’t in school but the point still stands). I remember reading To Kill A Mockingbird for GCSE English and being so enamoured and interested by it that I read it again and again and watched the film out of my own accord. As much as I dislike the British education system, looking back now I must say that it did a good job of teaching us that racism is bad.

Hence, if racism is going to change in America then the best place to do that, in my opinion, is in the schools. If a child grows up in a racist household but their school doesn’t even make them aware or educated about the other side of racism then that child has no basis on whether they are going to grow up hateful or not. And I bet that the majority of people, if they were shown two sides of racism and were able to make their own independent decision based on what they’ve been shown, then they would choose to be on the loving, tolerant side of society. Unfortunately, I do not feel as though the American education system can be changed under a Republican government and so I implore my American friends to vote Democrat in November. And if you think that you can’t make a difference in the UK, then you’re wrong. What you can do to help is vote Labour in the next general election. It will be easier to convince our American allies to do what’s right if we ourselves have a liberal government. Hopefully, by the time we do have a liberal government, so will the USA. And I know there are many other liberal parties than Labour in the UK, but if we spread our votes out among them then the Conservatives will still win. I implore all British people to vote Labour in the next election, all Americans to vote Democrat and any other people in any other country to vote for the leading liberal political party in your nation as this would be the greatest step in ending racism around the world.