Essay on Race Prejudice or Apartheid

The belief that humanity has, by nature, been divided into races and subraces and that certain races are naturally superior to others in psychological endowment, forms the basis of the color prejudice assumption. History reveals that the belief of racial superiority is very old and universal. In recent years outworn and forgotten racial theories have been revised in an attempt to rationalize political, social and economic actions and policies.

The white races consider that they are the true builders of civilization. This concept shamelessly proclaims the white civilization requires the legal barriers to protect itself against Asiatics and Africans. Men should indeed learn to treat every human being as their equal. There is no mystery about the whiteness of the skin. It has been proved that given equal opportunity, a man, be of any color or country is equal to any other. The white men should not forget that the greatest of the teachers of mankind were all Asiatics and they had no white skin. But it is regrettable that the whites in Rhodesia and South Africa behaved like brutes and enacted laws to force the Negroes, Indians and other Asiatics to live in horrid ghettoes. This is true of the USA that proclaims to be the most civilized nation in the world where the Bill of Civil Rights was treated in the world where the Bill of Civil Rights was treated as a scrap of paper in the Southern regions.

Non-violence is the dream of the wise, while violence is the history of man. In the twentieth century, violence was carried out by the groups of human species which took pride in being white, as if the mere color was the hallmark of the superiority of race. It is a great stigma in human society that tells us the various causes of color prejudice. Various European powers established their colonies in Africa. The consequence of this policy of colonialism is the evil birth of racial discrimination.

Race prejudice, of course, has always existed in one form or the other. It has become more dangerous in the present times as there are weapons of mass destruction at the disposal of the rulers of the different countries of the world. Scientifically advanced races think that they have a right to dominate, govern and exploit people of the under-developed countries. Racial prejudice shows that the animal in man persists. The animals recognize the members of their herd by scent but they react with suspicion at the approach of a strange animal even if it were one of their species. Human beings still possess many traits of animal behavior.

Race prejudice will cause unparalleled human suffering as it has caused in the past. It was due to race prejudice that mass destruction of the Jews took place at the hands of the Nazis under Hitler. The Germans thought that they were a superior race and therefore must dominate the world. Hence the killing of millions of Jews.

A large section of the population called Negroes are treated as sub-human beings. Their children are refused admission in the so-called white schools, colleges, public places, restaurants, and parks. When the Negroes seek their human rights, they receive bullets from the so-called superior race policemen. It was in America, the most developed and so-called highly civilized country that the great leader Martin Luther King was killed.

In India, which has been the motherland of the exponents of racial harmony such as Lord Buddha, Sant Ravidas and Gandhiji, the racial prejudices are rampant. Gandhiji, who fought all his life for the uplift of the depressed classes and scheduled caste people, was assassinated by a communal fanatic. Incalculable harm has been done to humanity by the evil of race prejudice in different parts of the world. The cause of world peace has been greatly impaired due to the prevalent hatred between man and man. It has caused a severe blow to the progress of society and of the nations at large. It is heartening to note that by large, all over the world, people are raising their voices in protest against racial prejudice. All the member countries of the UN condemned the racial policies of the South African government when it was ruled by the white regime. The enlightened section of the people in the USA has strongly condemned the racial prejudices of some of the states in their own country.