In What Ways, If Any, Does The Concept Of Ideology Help Us To Understand Racism? part 1 Essay - 3,189 words

In what ways, if any, does the concept of ideology help us to understand racism? Within the conceptual framework of this research, we will elaborate on racism in general as well as racism in Great Britain with the purpose of answering the question of how ideology helps us to understand racism. Within the scope of this essay, we will give the definition of ideology and see how it influences racism, as well as analyze various racist groups that exist in contemporary Britain. Appiah claims that race does not exist. He uses scientific methods to prove that individuals from different groups of people have no greater genetic differences between them than the genetic differences in individuals from the same group of people. He writes: human genetic variability between the populations of Africa or Europe or Asia is not much greater than within those populations (Appiah, p. 86). With this he is trying to demonstrate that if there is no biological difference between populations, except for those differences due to the habitat in which a certain population has lived for many years. Therefore he proves that there is no accurate meaning of the word race.


Although he divides the world population in races, and gives answers to racism, he does not give an explicit meaning to the word race. He uses history, culture and languages, to form several groups of people that he calls races. Appiah discusses 12 British history books, and focuses in the fact that all of them try to hide racism against black people throughout British history. Later in the debate, Appiah says that the existence of racism does not imply that race has to exist, he mentions the Salem witch trials, in which witches were haunted down and sentenced to death because they were supposedly doing witchcraft, to prove his point; he says that although witches do not exist, they were persecuted for witchcraft. What he means by this cite is that although race does no exist, people are still being persecuted by racist individuals. (Appiah, p.


104) In another part of the debate, he also refutes the idea that race is a group of people with the same socio-historical background; he says that if that statement is true, then his family would have to be a race because they have the same socio-historical background. The most important reason why people try to define race is to understand racism and to see if it is justifiable or not. Racism has been in human nature since the beginning of time and it is a constant problem in modern cultures, thats why through better understanding of how it works, we might be able to finish the history of hate and violence that racism has produced. Racism is the manifestation of the false belief that races are different. Or in the beliefs of a single person which can be manifested when for example: some white people think that they are a superior race and they can treat others differently. To better understand this phenomenon, we need to know what ideology means, since ideology is the basic source of racism.


Eagleton gives several definitions of ideology in his book Ideology, I will cite some of his definitions, and based on the corrections made to the definitions, I will formulate my own definition of ideology to better understand racism. A body of ideas characteristic to a particular social group or class (Eagleton, p. 67). This definition is very accurate, but as history tells us, the greatest ideologists are the ones that defy the ideas and beliefs of the vast majority. Forms of thought motivated by social interests (Eagleton, p. 69). It is true that everyones thinking is influenced by social pressures, but this definition implies that every belief is social-based, which is certainly not true.


Having said that, a new definition of ideology can be made by combining these two definitions. I would define ideology as the ideas and beliefs of an individual person based on his own social, cultural, religious and geographical background. With this definition present, racism becomes a personal belief that emerges from the background of the person. This doesnt mean that racism can not become a part of the ideology of a specific group (because it does). It means that every member of this group has his own ideology, but all have the common manifestation of racism. Also they dont necessarily need to have the same reasons for being racist, since every persons background is unique. Furthermore, we can assume that racism is a belief that derives from ideology and the misconception of race, which means that if we fix the roots from where it arises, racism will disappear.


This also means that racism is not and endless plague (although many people think it ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: racism, black people, white people, ideology, great britain

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