Racial Jokes - By Kyle Hunter

When people say discrimination they think of the apartheid period in south africa, the jewish and the nazis, they think of slave labour in America. But now in the 21st century, there is a new reign of discrimination; Racial jokes.

You hear it every day, you even take part in it. But do you really know the effect it has on others when you do say it?

Earlier this year, during the summer holidays of 2015. A tourist mother of three children was discriminated and humiliated openly in the underground subway of paris.

As the lights of Paris’s underground subway flash by. Three french boys step onto a train and cluster round the back where a chatty tourist family sit. As the eldest son sticks his cap on the three boys circle him like sharks on the scent of blood. The tourist boy looks up only to see them standing over him with fists clenched.

“I told them to get away from my son, but they just wouldn’t listen.” Shima Hunter tells of her incident in Paris. “When I tried to intervene between them, they just pushed me back and slapped my son in the face.”

Insults like “asian dog”  and “stupid tourist *****” were expressed when Shima tried to defend her son. “It was just disgusting how people can be so cruel, and for no reason at all.” And it is moments like these that cause past experiences to come back, and moments like these to cause pain and sadness.

Incidents and experiences like these have been happening more frequently as rowdy adolescent teenager’s have become more open with racial jokes. It has become more of an issue as children of younger years view these teenagers and later on possibly blossom into them. Out of 22 people asked in UWC 14 people admitted that they have been openly discriminated. That is more than half of a school class that has their own story to tell on their discrimination. Another survey was noted and out of a class of 22, 15 people admitted that they say racist jokes frequently. Although people are getting bullied, no one is doing anything about it. People are getting bullied and the bullies are getting bullied and it just goes on in a cycle of forlorn.

Although the number of discriminations are piling up people are bullying more than they are getting bullied. This is becoming an even bigger issue as racist jokes occur more frequently, and the next generation end up discriminating in everyday life. Imagine a world where people discriminate openly and no one does anything to stop it. If we can fix this issue, we can make our world a happier place.