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Internalized Racism

Racism is an unfortunate constant in our society, and in my opinion texts and accounts detailing this do not appropriately highlight the mental and psychological impact on minority groups. Toni Morrison shows inpacts of internal racism through her minority characters in 'Song of Solomon'.
What causes internal racism? What drives people to hate their very own being? Well quite frankly it is the environment in which they live. When someone lives in a place where they are constantly ridiculed, discriminated against and have opportunities taken away from them, people may face significant drops in self-confidence. Minorities loath the color of their skin because they believe that to be the cause of missed opportunities; instead of realising that it is in fact society. This re-directing of blame is seen in the scene with Emmet Till in the novel, when everyone apart from Guitar blamed Emmet for his own death. They took the case, in which someone was brutalized and killed, and they erased the harm. Saying that Emmet was at fault erases the blame from the men who forced themselves into his family house, grabbed him, beat him and eventually killed him, and that is just clear wrong.
In my opinion if society drives people to hate their very own being, something is wrong in their environment and significant improvements need to be implemented


Comments

  1. Shreya Pawar20 October 2019 at 12:13

    I agree that society drives internalized racism. I also liked how you analyzed the causes for internalized racism and agree that minorities begin to resent the qualities that make them isolated. However, instead of doing this, minorities should celebrate their differences and recognize that they are unique.

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