Racist targets city beauty Queen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/8007659.stm

" Racist targets city beauty queen"

I have written about my thoughts toward racism, and I understand that this is a sensitive topic, so please do not leave any mean comments about this issue. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Nigerian-born Miss York, Helen Lawal, age 23, from Pickering was threatened in a phone call to the event organizer Vivienne Lee. The man that called Miss Lee told her that there shouldn’t be a black person representing York and would get “all of them”.  Both Miss Lee and Miss Lawal were surprised and shocked to hear this phone call. Miss Lawal did not encounter any racism since living in Pickering. Miss Lawal will go through the grand final of Miss England 2009 on July 20^th.

 

This shows that racism is a significant issues, as it even exists in multi-cultural events like this. People who get bullied because of their Race would be hurt, and the pain won’t be easily forgotten. They would feel bad about their identity and lost their confidence. They would also always keep in mind (consciously or non-consciously) that people would look at them different because of their race, and it would be hard to have a good self esteem.   Racist bullying has been going on for quite a while, and these days people try not to show it as much, because they would be considered as a Racist, but it is definitely still going on. This would still be a problem 5 years later because the time does not really matter to racism. It would probably would be better as people have easier access to other cultures and think more globally, but it would take time for them to actually accept different races without feeling any wall between them.

 

This doesn’t have a big impact on me as I have not been bullied with my race. I did find some minor teasing and name-callings but they were the ones I could deal with, and weren’t very serious. I also knew how to deal with it and it never happened again. If I were ever bullied, then I would be deeply hurt and would be depressed. I wouldn’t feel confident about myself, and not show myself easily. I might also fear meeting people. I chose this article because I think it showed that racisms still exists in events like the beauty contest. When I was reading this article, I was relating it to the discrimination issues that we were talking about during English and Humanities class and the books I have read about racism, which helped me understand more about the ways these people feel who are racist bullied. Since I go to an international school, we rarely see racism, but I notice that many students tend to hang out with the students with the same race. It could be because there is less culture difference, but also could be an example of minor racism, just without the violence or any significant actions. This is a very sad issue, and as a citizen of Hong Kong and the world, I feel that if I see any racist bullying happening, I should try and help to stop the bullying.