Understanding Racism: Exploring Tensions and Intersectionality

Master of social work 1
Master of social work
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Introductions
Racism is one of the contemporary issues that would address the aspect of difference and
diversity. Racism refers to the discrimination of an individual of a certain group of individuals
due to their race (Acosta & Ackerman-Barger, 2017 p167). The racists normally have the belief
that their race is usually better than another race. Racism is usually very common in a setting
containing more than one race. The setting could be a place of work or even at a social place like
in the club. The individual from the “inferior” race is usually treated differently and in most
cases denied some of the privileges that the individual is entitled to. Intersectionality theory is a
vast concept which is still debated within the community of the feminists (Bakan & Abu-
Laban ,2017 p.50). Intersectionality tends to give an explanation as to how various aspects of
political and social discrimination would overlap with gender this theory focuses on institutions
within a society which are oppressive or discriminative. It therefore defined as the study of
oppressive or discriminative institutions. This term was coined to protest against the violence
that women of lower class and color faced. In my paper, I intend to highlight the issue of racism
and also give an explanation to how this concept can be understood through highlighting some of
its main tensions. I would also give my own view about racism and finally connect racism, its
main tensions, and my views to the theory of the intersectionality.
Identity of a social issue
Racism in itself can be understood from various points as it is normally observed in many
places. It is common at the workplaces, in courts, health care facilities, and in the education
center (Kivel, 2017, p.55). Some examples of incidences of racism include when an individual is

Master of social work 3
denied a chance to pursue a certain career in a certain school or even denied a promotion in a
certain company due to the color of the individual’s skin. In a court room, unfair judgments may
be passed to the individual because of the race of the individual. Racism has brewed hatred
among people and has even caused unrest within the individuals (Bastos, Harnois & Paradies
2018 p.123). This has further led to the limitation of progress within a society and above all, it
has led to making reducing unity among the individuals. This form of practice gained momentum
from the time of slavery and sadly, traces of it can still be identified in this time and age.
Summary of the issue
Most individuals practice racism subliminally. This is due to the lack of knowledge of
what racism is and how it could be understood. When living in a society composed of different
individuals of different races, we should be careful of how we interact with each other. Racism
can be understood in a number of ways. We can for example understand it by its origin. Racism
finds its way back to the historical times. Some of the incidences happened over a hundred years
ago and left wounds that could not be forgotten even by the modern man. This has racism to
become a contemporary issue that rises in a society of people. In the United States for example,
the issue of racism finds its roots to the period of slavery where the blacks used to work for the
whites as slaves and were being mistreated. This continued to a time where the citizens of the
country who were black were not allowed to participate in political decision making through
being denied the opportunity to vote for their own leaders. Another example that would explain
the origin of racism in Australia where the Aboriginal Australians were looked down by other
Australian citizens who viewed themselves as superior to the Aboriginal Australians. This is
because Aboriginal Australians were facing some difficulties that were not common to the other