How Is Racism Still Relevant Today

There are many people in society today that think the same way that Atticus Finch does about Tom Robinson, a black male accused of raping a white woman, in Harper Lee’s book “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Atticus believed that although Robinson was African American, he deserved a fair trial and not to be killed, despite what the other white people were saying in the town. Atticus thought that Tom had just as many rights as the Caucasian people. The towns’ people felt as though Tom was beneath them and deserved to die for a crime he did not commit. That is an example of racism. Racism is the belief that a race possesses unique qualities and abilities that make them superior and dominant compared to another race, this has led to social injustice in todays society. People often confuse racism with prejudice. Although the two are similar they are very different. Prejudice is a preconceived notion or idea that one race acts a certain way without any reason or logic. Racism is thinking of oneself as superior or dominant to another race. An example of prejudice would be if a White police officer stops a group of black teenagers because they look like they are up to no good. An example of racism would be the Klu Klux Klan, a white supremacy group that believes that all white people are inherently superior to all other races, especially Black/African
Minorities have become racist towards each other, this is called Horizontal Racism. Racism has also been internalized in minority groups. They subconsciously or consciously believe that white people are superior to them creating stereotypes for their own race and changing themselves to conform to the ways of the superior race. Minorities start discriminating, criticizing, invalidating, and hating oneself while valuing the dominant race and their culture. This results in interracial relationships and biracial children in order to elevate a minorities sense of