Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes

M6A1: “Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes”

* Option 1: Racism

Some people argue that racism is primarily a belief or attitude and that anyone who unfairly judges another based on race is racist. Others argue that racism is about action and systemic discrimination, so only those with the power to act, and not those who are the targets of discrimination, can be racist. Based on the quotes listed below and in an essay format, answer the following: which argument do you find more convincing and why? Is there a difference between racism and prejudice? If so, what is the difference?

"Racism couples the false assumption that race determines psychological and cultural traits with the belief that one race is superior to another."

--A World of Difference project of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith .

"Racism is any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of skin color."

--U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1975

"We define racism as an institutionalized system of economic, political, social, and cultural relations that ensures that one racial group has and maintains power and privilege over all others in all aspects of life. Individual participation in racism occurs when the objective outcome of behavior reinforces these relations, regardless of the subjective intent."

--Carol Brunson Phillips and Louise Derman-Sparks in Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach, (Teachers College Press, 1997)

The Oxford English dictionary defines racism as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

According to sociologist N.L. Cole:

From a sociological standpoint, the dumb blond stereotype, and the jokes that celebrate and reproduce it, can be considered a form of prejudice. The Oxford English dictionary defines prejudice as a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience,” and this...