Connection Between Racism And Sexism - Free Essay Example

Growing up in a society that comprised between a lot of different races, sexes and ethnicities can very challenging when people have different perceptions and understanding toward each other. At some point, Conflicts and hatred feeling in the society between people to people and race to race is quite concerning for me as a young generation to encounter. Because of the civil war and the bleak history, it makes people to obtain the negative ideas about the other racial group. In this Assignment, I will elaborate and examine on how inequalities such as racism and sexism manifest me as a person and further explain about how social media or social institution can affect the issue of racism and sexism. First of all, Before getting deep down to the main argument of the essay, I would like to examine the key terms that will be used in the following essay. According to Cambridge University, the word Racism refers to the belief that peoples qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races (Cambridge, 2018 ).Racism generally involved the use of social, economic and political power by one group to discriminate against other groups, so as to maintain its own power and to control the other groups mostly by exploiting their labor. Its a major problem to the humanity and the world as a whole. I personally aware about the problem racism in my country through social media, newspapers opposition party movements and so on. It has always played a very important role in emerging the racism or racist in my society. In Cambodia, The Khmer people made up to 90% of the total and There are 24 indigenous groups from 15 different provinces and the highest percentage is Vietnamese population (5%), followed by Chinese and Muslim (ODC, 2017). Vietnamese people are the most-targeted minority that have to encounter a lot of racism and hatred from the native Cambodian people. It is similar to how African American is treated in the United State with bias and unfairness between the white and the black citizens. Most of the Vietnamese people immigrated to Cambodia illegally and causing a lot of problems such as, prostitutions, drug trafficking and fake products importing and production. Historically, and in the past few years, there have been a lots of border conflicts between the people on both sides due to the unclear border lines and the Peoples greediness over the control of the agricultural fields. These problems are well delivered to all the people by social media such as Facebook, Nationalist movements pages and News Channel such as FRA ( Free Radio Asia ). They captivate and sensationalize people by posting photos and streaming live video regarding how minority committed such bad thing in society. For example, On June the 2nd 2015 , there was a video tap on a demonstration carried by Cambodian activists at the border between Cambodia and Vietnamese police posted by the Free Radio Asia. The video itself went viral and created a lot of angers to Cambodian people about the invasion of Vietnamese people and military on our motherland (FRA, 2015). Moreover, One of the most important actor that manifest racism in my country is the political parties. Cambodia adopted the multi-party system since 1993 and in every four years election, there are always political campaign both outdoor and through social media. In their political Agenda, Racism is one the issue that they use attract people attention. Once again, It is all about the overloaded numbers of Vietnamese people and the border invasion . They do broadcasting on TV and Social media and carry on political campaign that mainly based Vietnamese ethnic cleansing out of the country which is hard to happen because not all the Vietnamese people are the illegal resident. Further more , they always recall all of landmass that Cambodia has lost during Indochina war especially the southern part of Vietnam( Cochin China ) that used to be the Cambodias sovereignty. By these actions, It makes native Cambodian strongly hatred toward the Vietnamese people that later on leads to the inavietable Racism. In the recent day, the problem of racism to Vietnamese minority is getting calm but the new emergence of Chinese people is even more concerning than any other minority. From 2017 to 2018 the increasing number of Chinese went up 120 % more than last year and it equals to 20% of the population in City ( 120, 0000 people) (Guardian, 2018). Because of the troublesome and chaos that they have made such as drug trafficking, Money laundering , illegal gambling and prostitution etc, local people start to hate them and try to find way to reduce the amoun t of Chinese or otherwise the society and culture will be ruined. Secondly, I would like to touch on the problem of sexism that is also a social issue which we need to deal with. The term Sexism can be defined as discrimination based on gender or as a set of attitudes, conditions, or behaviors that promote stereotyping of social roles based on gender (Swim, Mallett, Strangor , 2004 ). In nowadays society, Sexism is state of prejudice or discrimination against women and LGBTQs community. Cambodia is a developing country that still lack of the ability in protecting Womens right and LGBTQs community. Its also a tradition and culture- based country which women and other unidentified or non-binary sexuality are not strongly encouraged and supported by society. Cambodia is men-dominated country which women are automatically grouped as the house-wife rather than being employed in the government official or bureaucracy. Political institution and Government institution is the best reflection on how sexism and discrimination has been accelerated against women . When there are less women in the political arena or government, It is hard for them to hear and draft the regulations that might benefit the women in the country as a whole . According the data from The Country Partnership Cambodia the number of women participating the government is only 20% of men. In 2013, there is only one female Deputy Prime Minister, two females ministers, 16 female secretaries of state and for sub-national level, there are no women governor at the capital or provincial level (CPC, 2016). As the data above shows that the proportion of the male and female are not balanced in the government , According to the data above, I can draw an assumption that women in Cambodia still lack of chance to participate in many sectors in the top national level and it shows clearly how sexism pictured itself in the society. On the other hand, As I mentioned earlier about the non-binary or LGBTQs, Those people have also faced the same problem of discrimination from the society and they find a really hard time in living with that feeling . I think that the main actor that manifest the sexism or discrimination against them is by the Society, because LGBTQs has always been the target to be humiliated and considered as alien. They are easily getting bullied and spoiled by the prejudice individuals inside the society. But there are also some well-educated people who strongly support LGBTQs such as, University students and teenagers. They carry out demonstration and movement to make the LGBTQs accepted by the public, But Most of the sexists or haters are adults and old people who have experienced in civil war and our society has not officially considered LGBTQs community as the part of society yet . All in all, I think that the term Racism and Sexism is correspondent to each other because as what we can see, Racism is the main factor that lead to sexism. Racism and sexism are parts of main issue that we as a small developing country have to face and I am sure that it is also the problem throughout the world. There are a lots of factors in the society that contribute toward the sexism and racism started from individual to society, social media to people, different institutions and political sphere. After learning and discussing with all the people in this course, I even understand more on how to identify and to see deeply into the roots of the problem. I never think about the problem of racism before until I got in to this class I can reflect on how racism exist in my country as well the sexism issue. I am really surprised to see the data and results of the racism and sexism rates in my country and it provokes me a lot thought on how to eradicate Racism and Sexism in Cambodia.