Systemic racism and ubuntu philosophy: The moral issues Al Nahada International Journal

Abstract

This paper discusses how the Ubuntu philosophy could be applied to address the negative impacts and the moral issues in systemic racism. Discovering the heterogeneous nature of humanity, the paper holds that every human being has an instinct of racism as seen in reverse racism. The work conceptualizes the concepts of race and racism, trying to establish a distinction and the origin of racism. It cross-breeds the ideas and notions of different philosophers and thinkers including the reverse racists who came is Pan- African thinkers. The paper listed the causes of racism and went ahead to explain systemic racism and its criticism. It espouses the Ubuntu Philosophy of the Bantu people, tracing its history too. The paper suggests that systemic racism raises serious moral issues ranging from dehumanization, discrimination, injustice, unfair treatment, inequality, emotional trauma and physical harm that sometimes results in death. The paper opines that if humanity will adopt and practice Ubuntu philosophy of "I am because we are, and if we are, therefore I am", then human beings will understand that we are all from one stock, hence we should be careful of what we do to others, despite their colour, race or ethnic nationality. To address this menace, the paper calls for moral education embedded in self-awareness and conscientization of all persons and races.