Steps We Can Take as a Nation to Remove the Evils of Racism
6:00PM EST 1/17/2022 FRANKLIN T. BURROUGHS

Prejudice, discrimination and antagonism: These terms often define racism in a particular situation or at a certain point in time but may prove too simple to explain or deal with fluid issues or new ways of thinking. They tend to reflect late 19th- and early 20th-century theories identifying human beings according to their physical and behavioral traits, related to ethnicity, country allegiance and shared language. Colonial and imperial powers emphasized the theories to prove their superiority and justify their actions.
Racism persists even today on several levels. One level that demands considerable attention is alluded to as systemic or institutional racism. This level exists and functions across society between and among institutions and organizations. It generally refers to unfair policies and discriminatory practices in schools and workplaces.
Internalized/individual and interpersonal racism represent two other exigent levels of the phenomenon. Internalized racism involves personal beliefs and biases; interpersonal racism focuses on interaction with others and the beliefs that prompt those interactions.
Racism in the United States extends back to the founding of the country and the subjugation of Africans and African Americans beginning in 1526. Slavery continued until 1865 when sharecropping and convict-leasing largely replaced the practice but did not destroy the concept of racism, which seems to have revived as a moral panic or public movement; sometimes accurate but often based on exaggerated, personal perceptions that exceed actual threats a society is facing. Such a movement can produce unrealistic fear and pose a threat to a society's principles and safety.