Chidi Osakwe

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

9/27/2017

Topic Proposal: Drives Racism

Introduction/Overview

Throughout history there has been evidence of racial prejudice from different races across

the globe, even though this may be the case I have chosen to focus on the time period between 1900-

2017, but I will refer to instances in history to supplement some of my points on what drives racism. Just

seeing how the minds of racist people work intrigues me greatly. Being one who has

experienced/witnessed a considerable amount of racism I would like to understand what makes people

do the things they do towards other people. Once we understand what makes people think the way

they do, I believe this will be a big step into educating people on how to attack racist people and un-

teaching racism in racist people.

Even though some people believe that racism does not exist, it does. A common misconception

is that racism starts from home. In a way that is correct but Yale University social psychologist Jennifer

Richeson says ,People learn to be whatever society and culture teaches them. We often assume that it

takes parents actively teaching their kids, for them to be racist. The truth is that unless parents actively

teach their kids not to be racists, they will be,. The only way to combat racism is to teach kids to not be

racist. Easier than it sounds. There is prejudice everywhere so even if you teach your kids to not be racist

how do you know thats enough? How do you know they wont pick up racism from their friends at

school or even through the internet? These are questions many parents ask themselves.

Initial Inquiry Questions

 I want to learn a lot more on where the hatred stems from. I think this is most important

question to me because without the roots no tree can grow. So, if we can stop racism from where it

begins we can prevent racist people.

My interest in this topic

I am interested in this topic because Ive experienced racism in more than one way and every

time after calming down I always ask myself, why would someone else want to do something like to

someone else? For example, during my Junior year of high school my entire AP psychology class was

given an assignment that required a video to be recorded, so we all got together one weekend to record

the video in my friends neighborhood. After about 30 minutes we hear police sirens coming in our

direction, at the time we didnt know they were coming for us so we continued. About 15 seconds later

the cops pull up where were recording the video and tell us to put everything we have down, we

comply and are frozen. After they question us they tell us they received a call from a person saying that

they heard us say, were going to shoot someone. At the time we were disoriented so to speak,

because we couldnt believe that the cops were called on us, and a bogus excuse like that was used to

justify the call. I know that the person had to dislike us for no reason to call the police with that excuse. I

feel that this paper will really help me and you understand what makes people think the way they do

and act the way they do towards other humans.

How will I get my information?

My information will be from the Internet, personal experiences, and books from the UNCC

library. Some of the sources I intend on using from the internet are: humanrights.gov (Why Are People

Racist Article), Washingtonpost.com (Why are people still racist? What science says about Americas

race Problem) talkpoverty.org (Poverty doesnt make people racist), science.sciencemag.org (Roots of
Racism). Some resources from the library that I intend on using are Racism by Martin Bulmer and John

Solomos, Racism by Albert Memmi, Theories of race and racism by Les Back and John Solomos, The

white mans Burden: historical origins of racism in the United States by Winthrop D Jordan, Killing

rage: Ending Racism, Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria, and other

conversations about race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Institutional Racism in America by Owen Blank, Louis

L Knowles, and Kenneth Prewitt.

Next Steps

Well some other questions I intend on presenting in this paper are; What are the best ways to

un-teach racism? How to teach love instead of hate? how to un teach racism? Do the people who have

this hatred in them look at it as hatred or a truth? Does the hate the have affect them in their daily

lives? Do they teach this hate to other people and/or their kids?