Dismantling Racism: Beyond Labels and the Ego
Usually, when we think of racism, we think of believing that one is superior to another based on race. However, it works the other way round too. One can believe that one is inferior to another based on race. In other words, one is being racist towards one’s own race. Now let me briefly broaden the subject. We can also believe that we are superior or inferior to another based on religious belief, or nationality, or even the language we speak—such as believing that you’re superior to another because you speak English and the other doesn’t. The pattern is essentially the same. So, basically, racism is based on the tendency to identify with a certain characteristic, taking that as who you are. However, in reality, you are not your race—just as you’re not your religious belief, or nationality, or the language you speak. Yet, we may identify with such things, taking them as who we are. Having formed a sense of something as who we are, we then form a sense of something else as who others ...