I Stand Against Racism: Ivy Emily Henry

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I stand Against Racism Ivy Emily Henry

I believe that we are like potatoes, we come in different forms, different shapes
and sizes, but under our skin we are all, the same.

Thank you chairperson. A very good morning I bid to the honourable judges,
principle, senior assistants, teachers and the rest of my fellow audience.

I be of the opinion that there is reasoning to however our world was formed. No
matter what belief you have in human creation and existence, in this society we are
the most dominant, the smartest and claimed to be the greatest creation on our
planet and only we get to choose whether that will bring us together or break us
apart.

The New York times says that War is defined as an active conflict that has claimed
more than 1,000 lives. Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace
for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history. At least 108 million people
were killed in wars in the twentieth century. With this, you might think ‘that is
ridiculous!’, and yes I do suppose so too, but sadly that is what happened. This is
caused by our disability to work together, hunger for power and lack of
understanding, but today I’d like to talk about a topic that also has to do something
with war or the reason behind the lack of togetherness between humans, that is
not being discussed enough. I’d like to grab all your attention now please, as I am
going to give a piece of my mind about why we should stand against racism.

Ladies and gentlemen,

What is racism? Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against


someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior, it
can also be the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or
abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior
to another race or races.

I quote, 16 year old girl named Sarah,

“Why do people think that something as permanent as race, something we have no


choice in, can make us better than another person?"

- Sarah, 16
From the Australian Human Rights Commission, they say

There are no reasons or excuses for racism. It's just wrong.

Racism is ugly. It divides people into "us" and "them", based on where we come
from or the colour of our skin. And it happens when people feel that it's okay to
treat others badly as they go about their daily lives.

Racism can be as ugly as it gets, some students may be bullied and made fun of
their skin colour, because of or their accent and even their country, sometimes
family also gets involve in these situations. This can be as bad as just name calling
from a far, to taunting someone causing them to be emotionally and mentally
affected, even worse, beating them up just because they “don’t belong” and
physically hurting them.

When it comes to adults it may just be even worse, things like these can happen at
work or in public, and we all know how it’s about to go down when you see a public
fight, first the police get involved next thing you know someone needs to go in jail.
In some cases, for example, a white man pushed a black man just because he was
in his way and started shouting. The black man didn’t like it so he needed to stand
up for himself, the white man comes in contact with him, punching him and the
black man just HAD to fight back. In the end, both were put to jail but somehow the
black man had to stay longer as if he was the one at fault. This is the work of
racism, how our past has poisoned our way of thinking about people different from
us.

Racism can even be in a tiny everyday situations, sometimes we don’t notice it, or
even just brush it off. Person A is scanning his list of people who wants to apply for
a job not picking person B just because his name sounds odd and again, from a
different maybe even a specific race. As a third person, we don’t think much of
these situations and just brush this off thinking it’s not that big of a deal. Imagine if
this was you, think of this situation as the affected individual, how would you feel?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You hear something racist being said, to you or to someone else, and you just want
to do something about it but you’re not sure what and how. I trust that we’ve all
been there.

It takes guts to stand up to racism – but you should never put your physical safety
at risk. There are plenty of things you can do to make a difference that doesn’t
involve confrontation.
There are some things we can do and this is said by the Australian Human Rights
Commission,

If you're on the receiving end of racism, you could…

1. Say something if it feels okay to do so. It doesn't have to be aggressive or


abusive. In fact, it's often more effective if it's not. We could say things like,

"What you just said is really offensive and rude."

or

"Please, have some respect for yourself and for others."

2. Say nothing. Sometimes people just want to provoke you and get a reaction.
Walking away may defuse the situation.

3. Report it

If you are in public, you should report it to those with authority. If this happens at
school, you can talk to a teacher, counsellor or student welfare officer so that they
can help you before it gets worse. If it happens on public transport, let the bus
driver or station guard know what’s going on.

You should "Unlike" it. Do not support hate online, and click unlike, people who
cyber bully are not cool and they do not deserve any positive attention in their
poor actions. Instead, most social media sites have policies for dealing with
offensive material. For example Facebook allows you to report content that
breaches its terms of use.

It is okay call the police if you feel threatened or unsafe at any time.

4. Talk to someone. Get advice and support from friends, teachers or parents.

5. Make a complaint. Written on www.freemalaysiatoday.com , it said that Local


NGO Pusat Komas released an app called Report Racism for us to report any racists
incidents in Malaysia.

Or, If you see racism towards someone else…

1. Back them up. You don't have to get involved in the situation – just showing
your support would make a difference.

 You can go and sit or stand next to them. Ask them if they're okay.
 Send the victim a message of support through Facebook, Twitter, SMS or
email.

2. Say something if it feels ok to do so.

3. Report it. If the person who is experiencing the abuse needs help, you could help
them report it to the Report Racism MY app.

4. Encourage the victim to get support. There are some great organisations that
offer support in dealing with difficult situations, like Kids
Helpline and ReachOut.com

5. Take your own stand.

 Share about why racism is bad and ways to help victims of racism
 Ask your school if you can put up a campaign poster.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I previously quoted, race is permanent. We born into this world not given a
chance to choose from which background we were born in. Nobody should be
treated badly than their neighbor just because they are a little different on the
outside, regardless of race, of religion, colour, background, beliefs, traditions, or
our imperfections because what matters is what we hold within ourselves that
makes us a good person. With that said we should all just embrace diversity, let the
sins of those before us be a lesson to us that war only destroys mankind and let our
uniqueness be something not to look down upon, instead let it be our glue to keep
us together. Each race has their own strength, so I think that is what should be
taken advantage of, to be used at their full potential.

I myself am a person of colour, and I am proud of my race, my language, my


background and history, the colour of my skin, the texture of my hair and the fact
that my irises are black instead of brown or hazel or whatever the colours that are
always seemed to be adored by many. I am proud to be me, and you should be
proud to be you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/books/chapters/what-every-person-should-
know-about-war.html
https://itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/resources/what-you-say-matters/what-
racism

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/11/02/smartphone-
app-to-report-racism/

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