RACISM

The themes of race, nationalism and international relations

The themes of race, nationalism and international relations

Introduction

The main purpose of this paper is to make an analysis on the themes of race, nationalism, and international relations. The paper is about the point of view of Alan Klein about the race, nationalism and international relations. The paper discusses that how the author develops these three categories, and determine the most effective approach to explain the relationship between the races, nationalism and international relations.

1. Examine how the authors develop the over three categories.

According to Alan Klein, when people are asked about whether racism still exists in America, they almost unanimously confirm its presence and view it repulsively. Some believe that while it is not as conspicuous as in the past, it could be more dangerous today as some hide their hatred to avoid violating political correctness. This is not to assume that racism only reflects the individual's conscious prejudices toward others. It can also be subconsciously triggered by the presence or mention of a minority group. This subconscious activation may come from “stereotypical beliefs associated with a racial category” and could subsequently influence individuals or groups actions. The study of inequality seeks to analyze the causes, contexts, conditions, and outcomes of disparities between two or more groups over a given number of variables (Brown, 1998, p. 67). It differs from a study of difference insofar as the former assumes a quantifiable progression from worse off to better off in some respects relevant to the human sciences. Alan has described that Inequality is most commonly explained with reference to genetic predisposition, individual action, and social forces, or some combination of the three that leads to disparities between two or more unequal individuals or groups. The means of quantifying inequality are often quite sophisticated, and are consistently used to analyze the development of a given group relative to its own past and relative to the situation of others within a time frame. Racism is one of the most common prejudices in a society which perpetrates inequality. "Donnellan" (2001: 13) defines racism as beliefs or assumptions that individuals hold towards those different from them either in skin colour, language, religion or ethnic background, to mention a few.

Even though, the law safeguards individuals from racism however, in some places discrimination is prevalent either direct or indirect. Such places include schools, workplaces, public transport and others. As a trainee teacher, it is important to know that children come to school from different backgrounds with different values and beliefs. Some might be from stereotyping families, of which such children can perpetrate that unknowingly or knowingly when enrol in schools. Connolly (1998: 66) advocates that the way one has been oriented affects how one think about and interact with others. According to Alan, Racism should be taken seriously regardless of the child's age. However, if the issue is complex because of its cultural and institutional embeddedness, it has also become more problematic in the wake of the September 11, ...