What does racism mean?
Around 200 years ago there was an idea which said that humans could be divided into different groups based on their race. There was also the idea that each race displayed different behaviours or had physical differences and that these were only unique to a particular race.
Of course, this is WRONG and is made up nonsense. These ideas were developed by white people, mostly from Europe. The reason that they created this vision of the world was to try and justify (give a reason) why the white race was the strongest and best in the world. This would help them to control the populations from other countries.
White people felt the need to do this because for about 400 years they had travelled the world, taking over countries and controlling the populations there. You may have heard of the British Empire – by the year 1914 Britain controlled 1/4 of the world. Even today, the Empire is celebrated as having been a good thing that brought Britain lots of wealth.
But this is only one viewpoint and ignores the voices of the people who were controlled by Britain. The way that Britain treated the people who lived in the COLONIES they created is often ignored. And the people of the colonies were often treated appallingly.
When non-white people have come to settle in Britain, sometimes they have experienced prejudice and racism from people in society. Further, non-white people have sometimes experienced prejudice and racism where they are ignored or overlooked when it comes to getting jobs or doing well at school.
We know that racism still exists in Scotland and is a problem in Scottish schools – in the last 3 years over 2,200 racist incidents were reported.
