Racial Prejudice
The various causes of racial prejudice are as follows:
1. Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia: W.G. Sumner (1960) described this point of view as one “in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it”. Xenophobia is a people’s fear and hatred of things and practices that are foreign to their own society’s way of life.
2. Economic Advantages: One of the most important causes of race prejudice is the economic advantage that may accrue to the dominant group in certain circumstances. Imperialism, spread throughout the world by the whites in the name of racial superiority, was intended to extend markets.
3. Political Advantages: The dominant group fosters racial prejudices to maintain or strengthen its political supremacy. Colonial powers dominated the world, and even now, neo-colonial powers are extending themselves as political superiors.
4. Ignorance: Racial prejudice usually originates from ignorance. When people do not have an exact idea about the extent of racial inheritance of physiological traits, they are under the influence of other members of the group. For example, there is a belief that English people are composed and reserved in nature, Bengali people are open to novelties, etc.
5. Fear of Losing Superior Position: When a particular race is rich with cultural heritage or scientific achievement, its superior position is kept intact. This is why the Western people still do not grant total freedom to the people of the East.
Thus, the race is neither good nor bad; it is racialism which is positively bad and mischievous. It acts as a strong barrier to cooperative social action and leads to discrimination and injustice. Therefore, a course in ‘Race Relations’ should be imparted in our educational institutions.
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