Race and racial discrimination, an ideology that defends superiority
Racism cannot be defined without defining "race" before. For many social scientists -Weber, symbolic interactionist theory-, race is a social construction. Although biologically it does not matter – nin the blood type or skin color determine the origin or origin of someone – the race has enormous importance in the structuring of social reality. The race was understood as a system of biological or natural categorization of the human species. Even today it often maintains its natural connotation in the popular context.
Racism is an ideology that defends moral, intellectual and spiritual superiority, historically used to justify the domain or violence of an ethnicity or community over another.
Unlike the era prior to civil rights, when racial prejudices were open and generalized, today discrimination is less easy to identify, however, it is still very present, despite the clear evolution of our society regarding ourbeliefs and values. But there has been a real decrease in racism or has it simply less socially acceptable to express such attitudes? Maybe some people consciously maintain racist attitudes, but they retain them being something socially unacceptable.
There are currently new forms of racisms that are not explicit.
For example, privileged groups support equality morally, but resist when implementing policies to reduce such inequalities. It is the so -called "symbolic racism" that advocates the right to be the same, but for specific fields or certain situations, this occurs with any social injustice, whether racial, economic, gender … there is a tendency to blame minorities for theirsocial problems, despite the greatest support for racial equality in the beginning. Unlike "symbolic racism," the (white) opposition to racial equality policies is due to the fact that they perceive a threat of their privileges for the gain of rights of subordinate groups, they will do everything possible to maintain their privileged position, whilethat the disadvantaged respond trying to change society and improve their situation (conflict perspective).
According to the perspective of the conflict (Marx), what dominates in society is not the balance, but the conflict of interest between its members, supported and fed by the differences and inequalities of all kinds. That is, the social structure usually benefits some people and harms others. It maintains the conflict that exists between the categories of dominant and disadvantaged people (the rich in relation to the poor, the whites unlike blacks, men in front of women). For Marx, the school is filtered by social class, consequently serves as a reproduction of inequality (education, work, status …)
Marxism explain racism as an ideology that arose to justify and rationalize one of the greatest atrocities in the history of humanity as one of the fundamental pillars of the accumulation of primitive capital. It is a contrast to the idealistic conceptions that see racism as an ideology that is innate to the nature of man and has always existed.
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