s influenced by social pressures, but this definition implies that every belief is social-based, which is certainly not true.Having said that, a new definition of ideology can be made by combining these two definitions. I would define ideology as the ideas and beliefs of an individual person based on his own social, cultural, religious and geographical background. With this definition present, racism becomes a personal belief that emerges from the background of the person. This doesn’t mean that racism can not become a part of the ideology of a specific group (because it does). It means that every member of this group has his own ideology, but all have the common manifestation of racism. Also they don’t necessarily need to have the same reasons for being racist, since every person’s background is unique.Furthermore, we can assume that racism is a belief that derives from ideology and the misconception of race, which means that if we fix the roots from where it arises, racism will disappear. This also means that racism is not and endless plague (although many people think it is). We also have take into account that racism varies from culture to culture. In Costa Rica, the degree of racism against black people is much lower than in the United States. This difference may be due to the fact that in Costa Rica we do not have the background of slavery, or the history of beatings and persecutions that is so present in the United States history.To remove racism from our society, we need to educate ourselves, for knowledge is basic in the understanding of racism. We also need support from the government, by the implementation of anti-racist policies that would protect people from racism, and would make mandatory to teach history as it really happened, without omitting parts of the American history that are as important as the Declaration of Independence. Also, we need to eliminate our concept of race, and for doing that we need...
