Racism By Thomas Jackson Essay

Introduction

Racism can be defined as favor of one culture, race and color by undermining other people’s cultures, races, and color. Historically racial discrimination was perceived to be committed primarily by whites especially towards the black population living in the United States and other European countries.

The emergence of civil activists like Martin Luther and Malcolm X was because of the increased racial concerns. In order to give an explicit reasoning about racism with respect to the words of Thomas Jackson, it is imperative to understand both the current and the past historical issues concerning racism; this will give a clear and unbiased argument about racism based on my own understanding.

My perception of Thomas Jackson racism

I personally agree and at the same time disagree with the argument presented by Thomas Jackson about racism. To commence my argument about this issue, I will first point out what I personally believe that Thomas Jackson missed about racism. Thomas concentrates only on the current issues and concerns that seem to discriminate on the white race. In doing so, he forgets the historical injustices that whites have shown especially towards the black community.

A large percentage of the black communities living in the United States were taken as slaves for the white people. The reverse has never happened anywhere in the world. The propagation of racism was evidently done by the white community. In the early 1960’s at the rise of civil rights movements, most African-Americans and Hispanics were clearly discriminated by their fellow white citizens in most aspects of social life.

There were schools for the whites and hospitals for the whites among other necessary social amenities. Thomas seems to forget these past injustices committed by the white communities. If the black and other races had not been discriminated, the word ‘racism’ could not have attracted much attention as it is in the modern world.

By stating the history of racism and the past injustices committed by the white people, I do not support discrimination against the white community regarding their own cultures and identities.

However, there is one factor that is clear when talking about racism, the whites triggered racism and blacks and other races have disseminated racism through their over-sensitivity to any act that seems to support or favor the white community. In this respect, there is discrimination against the white community since they cannot exercise their own private practices without attracting overwhelming attention from the media and the ‘modern civil activists’.

As painfully explained by Thomas in his argument, this side of the argument is true. It is also true that the white community has to be more cautious in their actions more than other races. This perception can be explained by considering historical events that led to racism, in summary the hunter is more or less becoming the hunted.

More so, Thomas emphasizes on the growing number of immigrants flocking the United States especially from developing countries. On the contrary there are minimal number of white immigrants to the United States as compared to the number of blacks and other races. This clearly indicates the decreasing dominance of the white community.

Conclusion

Based on my analysis, Thomas Jackson is neither right nor wrong; his argument seems to be a reaction to the growing sensitivity from other races. There is more reaction to the actions of the other races rather than a comprehensive argument of racism and its origin. In this perspective, Thomas is wrong in his approach about the whole concept of racism.

He ought to analyze the genesis of racism to account for the current actions. In another perspective, the growing concern for any white actions should not be taken as a sign of racism; I personally detest this perception from other races about the white community in support of Thomas argument.