Societies Need New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity

Humans need to treat each other with mercy and ensure that peace is encouraged in societies to solve the problems of racism and ethnicity. If people come up with common values so that each member knows what to expect of each other or have some shared principles by which to resolve differences without resolving to violence, this world would be a better place, racism and ethnicity wouldn’t exist among human beings. Societies should have values that binds them together, encourage the spirit of friendship and brother hood among people to make this world free from racism and ethnicity.

Tolerance and dialogue can also help in solving the problems that arise due to racism and ethnicity. Societies need to have peaceful exchange of ideas for them to come up with positive solutions that can resolve differences without violence. Tolerance safeguards against persecutions and evils that are necessarily associated with ethnicity and racism. Hate and curse should be discouraged and peace and harmony among people in societies be encouraged.

Power hungry people should not be made leaders as they sometimes make decisions that negatively impact others in societies thereby encouraging racism and ethnicity. Rather people who are relatively grounded, reasonably self-aware and do not take things or themselves too seriously or don’t change in a bad way are the ones with the best chance of leading successfully. Power hungry people get carried away with their desires and do not consider other people’s views. They do not like to be criticized and are of the perception that they are always right. This cause disunion among people and encourages greediness. Greedy people destroy societies.
Recognizing human dignity in people plays a very big role in curbing racism and ethnicity. This makes people to respect and honor each other’s values. Respect for human rights can help people to understand each other in societies. Human rights bring people together because they are inherent to human beings of all nationalities, sex, ethnic groups, and races. These human rights are interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

People should also be sensitized on racism and ethnicity and encourage victims to be reporting issues of racism to authorities or to speak up. If people in societies are aware of how to deal with racism, they stand a better chance in addressing the issues when encountered.

A bad expected behavior cannot be changed or fixed by hating or announcing it an enemy. Hate bears hate. Moving from on this path the damages of racism and ethnocentrism ca be more and more by having a distance and calling “the others”. Because the racist and ethnocentrist also call “the others”. Instead of having a distance, need to build bridges to avoid the disunity and prevent the problems which can be caused among the relations.

When people live in harmony, recognize the contributions that each person make to societies, appreciate each other’s contributions towards issues that affect societies and recognize that we are all on this planet together and that we stand to gain more when we work together rather than against each other. Racism and ethnicity can be avoided if love for humanity is practiced. Societies would be united regardless of race end ethnic groups and wars and conflicts would be avoided. We should all try to follow the golden rule that encourage us to do onto others as we would want them to do onto us as the saying goes “if you live in glass house, do not throw stones at others”.

by Prof Dr. Ibrahim Kurt

published at
Societies Need New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity: Societies in Harmony (Religious Context)
June 2021 · International Journal Ihya Ulum al-Din 23(1):79-88
DOI: · 10.21580/ihya.23.1.7765
License· CC BY-SA 4.0
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