What Literature Has Taught Me About The Effects Of Racism

Racism has been around forever, and has effected individuals, and humanity as a whole. In “The Watch”, Elie was snatched from his home and his family and friends were killed in the concentration camps during World War II. During that time humanity lost more than 11 million Jewish people, and many more homosexuals and disabled people. All these people were killed or tortured, because of their differences. In Indian Horse, it describes the abuse, trauma, and racist mistreatment that the aboriginal kids went through. Saul and many of the other Aboriginal kids were raped and beaten. Many of the kids killed themselves because they wanted to escape their reality. Children were taken away from their families so the “Indian” in them could be erased. In “What Do You Remember Of The Evacuation”, the young Japanese girl and her family were forced to leave their home and all their belongings, and go to an internment camp. This girl ended up feeling ashamed of her skin which is horrible because it’s something she can’t change. She and her family were treated like animals because they weren’t white. Forever, people have treated others with racial discrimination, because humans aren’t able to look past their differences. Humanity has lost millions of people, due to genocides, or people ending their own lives because they weren’t treated properly. It makes me sad to think that after many killings and genocides because of racism, humans still aren’t able to look past the colour of each other’s skin, or the differences between people. Everyone should try to treat others with respect, and “treat others the way you want to be treated.” No one wants to be treated differently, so everyone should work hard to create a world where everyone tries to treat everyone equally.