End of Racism - Special Topics in Anthropology

Wijaya, Vionna

2012190008

Special Topics in Anthropology

Professor Lee Sang Kook

Response Paper 9

This last chapter of the book really triggered me to think whether or not racism can be abolished completely; will racism really come to an end? Throughout the whole class discussion, we often emphasise how racism is highly connected to the notion of “us” and “others” and the creation of nation states further emphasised the distinction between these two notions, hence racism. We see how it started with the long history of imperialism and colonisation that bring about the notion of “otherness” and is embedded deeply within those deemed as others. Often time when racial issues surface, we tend to put the blame on those superiors for mistreating the ‘inferiors’.

However, I started to think that the notion of “otherness” itself has indeed greatly affected those deemed inferiors and it just become a natural thing to assume that we are inferior as compared to those superiors. Coming for Indonesia, I have lived and witness such mentality and I would also say that I still do have that idea carved in my head. To be honest, I do not really see problem when that notion of distinctness is forced upon me, because to some extent I do believe that every single person is indeed different one to another. And for this reason, I believe that racism will not disappear. I think given the fact that differences exist, the notion of perceiving and segregating those who are different from oneself will always exist.Hence, racism.

And yet, I would agree that despite an ever growing conception of racism, progression in morality will follow along the way. We witness terror attacks occurring so abruptly these days, and racial attacks or religious attacks towards certain group of people are happening everywhere. Nevertheless, we still see compassion  coming out from people’s hearts despite all tragedies. The reading mentioned that in some cases, xenophobic campaigns are not always successful, they sometimes produce contradictory outcomes. It mentioned several different cases where resistance occurred in response to such exclusionary campaigns back in the history. In regards to this, I am not quite sure whether the world today has progressed better than before, but we still can argue that the possibility of it is still there. One example that I can mention is perhaps the last terror attack happening in Australia that led to an “I’ll Ride with You” cm. The author mentioned specifically how Australia can be listed as one of the most xenophobic society but at the same time we still see humanity progresses towards solidarity. Therefore, even if I would agree that racism is not going to be disappear completely, I still believe that what ties humanity is still stronger than what segregates it.