What is racism?

Racism happens everywhere. People are bound to judge or throw comments when they meet a person of a different colour. Racism is the act of classifying other races in an inferior position. Racism has always been an issue. Some people also stir-up racial issues which might lead to controversies. For example, the case where someone accused Tommy Hilfiger of making an outrageous racist remark on Oprah.

'If I had known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice. I wish these people would not buy my clothes, as they are made for upper-class white people.'

That was in fact a lie as Hilfiger had never appeared on Oprah before the rumour surfaced. This might be small comment but it hurt many people and caused social problems.

Words we use to refer to other races are called “cultural identifiers” . Speakers have to learn how to use appropriate identifiers. For instance, African-American should not be referred as the “blacks” nor “niggas”. Words carry strong meanings. We have to be extremely aware of the words we choose to use because they carry different intensities of power and the words we use will evoke different emotions in a person




-Carmen Lee-