Racism and Discrimination Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Racism and Discrimination - Research Paper Example Racial discrimination, on the other hand, refers to the illegal expression of racism towards a particular group, according to the Council of Europe (2009). It entails intentional malicious acts meant to demean another one based on his or her race. Racial harassment is one type of racial discrimination, according to Kassimeris (2009). This may be manifested through acts of name-calling, direct insults, bad comments that lower someone’s dignity. Racism and discrimination are particularly strong in countries that are diverse, such as the United States and Canada. Canada, for instance, is a multi-ethnic country and is among many countries that have witnessed some of the worst racial discriminations in the past. Canada reportedly has over 200 ethnic groups with the visible minority accounting for about 13% of Canada’s total population (Appadurai, 2012). Reports also show that approximately 18% of Canadians are foreign-born. Reports indicate that racial discrimination in Canada has mainly been directed towards non-native Canadians, particularly immigrants (Appadurai, 2012). In this regard, a report shows that many immigrants in Canada have faced all manners of racial discrimination in the past. Reports indicates that many Canadian immigrants and minority ethnic groups have faced a high degree of racial discrimination in the past, in which some have been tortured to death because of their racial backgrounds (Kassimeris, 2009). The discrimination mainly comes from the fact that the non-Canadian races are being perceived as primitive people who do not deserve to live together with the white Canadians. It is said that the violence of 1907 in Vancouver was mainly race based, according to Adams (2008). During this violence, it is reported that a mob of white Canadians violently attacked Japanese and Chinese ethnic communities in Canada. This racially motivated violence left several Chinese and Japanese ethnic communities dead with property worth millions of dollars destroyed (Appadurai, 2012). In another incident during World War II, several Japanese Canadians were incarcerated and their property seized by white Canadians that were fighting them out of the country based on their racial background. Reports also indicated that members of Asian community were beaten up and harassed by native Canadians in Toronto in the 1970s (Seltzer & Johnson, 2009). This incident shows how racial discrimination has been rife in Canada. When we talk of racial discrimination, what also comes into mind is the kind of racial discrimination that African Americans have had to face in the U.S. This is because African Americans are arguably the race that has faced one of the worst racial abuse occurrences in the world. In the U.S., apart from being subjected to hard labor on white settlers’ land, they were also being harassed and beaten to death, according to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2010). They were also denied certain rights purely on their racial backgrounds. This was based on the fact that African Americans were being perceived by white Americans as primitive people that should be segregated from the rest of society. For example, it is reported that segregation laws were passed in the U.S. during the Jim Crow era, which resulted in segregation of public facilities in which African Americans were barred from attending public facilities meant for their white counterparts. In this regard, any black American found to disobey such a law was to be executed by white Americans. An example can be seen when at one time an African was forced to leave the front seat of a bus to a white American, which triggered riots and boycott of public transport by African