Racism is a huge overarching concept that in my opinion includes: bigotry and ignorance. It is a very delicate issue. If left unchecked it can spread into something horrible. Look at the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler didn’t start by ordering all the Jews killed. He began by scapegoating them, making the rest of Germany believe that the Jews were the cause for all their problems. Then he gradually started taking away their rights and grouping them into ghettos. When the time came for the concentration camps, very little was done to stop him because he had turned everyone against the them.
This brings up the question, what leads to this? Is it possible that little bigoted stereotypes at school can lead to something like the Holocaust? Though I’m inclined to believe that this is a little far fetched, I suppose it has to start somewhere. However I think the main aspect of life that allows racism to spread like wildfire is ignorance. Education about people who are different than you is absolutely key to counteracting racism. Hitler did such a good job of stereotyping the Jews that they were portrayed as animals and even devils. Though this was not accurate, the ignorant masses started to believe it and did nothing to stop Hitler when things got out of hand.
Another way to combat racism is to never forget the mistakes of the past. Soon all the survivors of the Holocaust will no longer be with us. We need to all ensure that we listen to as many of their stories as we can, and continue talking and teaching about it. This way even though the survivors may go, their story and their hardships will live on. If the world remembers the mistakes of its past and it learns from them, then something as terrible as the Holocaust should never occur again.
This being said we still do see instances of genocide in our world. Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Darfur are but a few that sadly many people do not even know about. Schools should offer courses and curriculums that focus on these terrible events. The world cannot ever forget the awful events relating to racism that have transpired throughout history. If we do then history is doomed to repeat itself.
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