Why Racism is a Mental Illness

Race is a social fact not a biological fact because people judge others and make assumptions about others based on their beliefs and attitudes about what people of this or that color are like. For example, Senator, Barack Obama, Halle Barry, Mariah Carey, and Tiger Woods are all bi-racial Americans, but society labels them as being African American, although genetically they are a combination of various racial groups. The benefits of labeling Racism as a Mental Illness 1. It makes the educational system accountable for using textbooks from various ethnic perspectives and cultural backgrounds. 2. It makes the media accountable for perpetuating stereotypical images of oppressed people and themes that promote divisive attitudes or hate towards other ethnic groups. 3. It places the focus on treating the victimizer and not the victim. 4. It gives professionals a common language, diagnostic tool and treatment goals for those who suffer from the mental disorder. 5. It removes the negative stigma of being a racist as the individual’s fault; but the victim of institutionalized racist ideology. 6. More people would be willing to confront family members, neighbors and colleagues about derogatory, racist comments, irrational thoughts and beliefs that defame other ethnic groups. 7. It will help members of the dominant group recognize and heal emotions associated with feeling guilty and ashamed of privileges inherited by their ancestors’ acts of oppression and domination. 8. It will help members of the dominant group seek professional psychological counseling and therapy for their family and peers, and be able to label their racist behavior and attitudes as a psychological disability. 9. It will prevent oppressed people from taking on the personality characteristics of the racist as a means of survival or revenge. If people learn that discrimination and prejudice are cognitive and behavioral tools that will bring economic and political rewards, they are more likely to imitate and perpetuate racist attitudes. 10. It illustrates to the world, individually and collectively, that we are no longer promoting ideology that creates war, bigotry, riots, or any other types of behavior that destroys or denigrates another human being emotionally, physically, politically or psychologically. 11. People will no longer be able to hide behind religion and irrational, demeaning ideology as a means to justify slavery, wars, genocide or any other method of human destruction. 12. It will give people with racist attitudes, beliefs or values an opportunity to seek treatment or therapy without being judged. According to the Anti-Defamation League, racism “May be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.” Some people argue that it is natural for humans to be prejudiced against people unlike themselves. No credible studies have concluded that prejudice is part of human nature or an innate outcome of being human. Social scientists agree that prejudice is learned behavior.