Why are People Racist?
There are many reasons why people are racist. A lot of a person’s attitudes and opinions are formed during childhood. If someone is taught to be racist from an early age by a family member, for example, these attitudes are likely to stick with the person throughout their life. Often, when asked, racists are unable to explain why they hate people of a different skin colour, nationality or culture. Racists commonly use people of different ethnic backgrounds as ‘scapegoats’ on whom to blame their problems and make sweeping negative generalisations about these groups of people. The racist comment “They take our jobs and our homes” is one of the most frequently cited ‘justifications’ for racism. This is simply not true. Racism can also be stirred up by the media. Witness recent anti-asylum seeker campaigns run by some of the newspapers in Britain. Constantly running stories about ‘bogus’ asylum seekers and using emotive language such as a ‘flood’ of refugees helps to create an atmosphere of
