Is a certain dosage of racism healthy? To be made felt inferior because of your race or religion, something you can’t change, something that makes up who you are, inevitably strengthens your character. Having to build confidence and strong self-esteem, to protect and defend yourself against racism is a good thing. Of course it can also have an adverse effect, where the victim of racism allows the discrimination to crumble them. However, if the person uses it to their advantage, it can definitely be a powerful perk.

Michael Carr-Gregg, one of Australia’s highest profile psychologists, states that, ‘it is by overcoming and being strengthened by adversaries that enables us to develop resilience.’ It is by building up our resilience, our tolerance towards BS, that we may begin to enjoy life. As we learn to realize that the thoughts of others are insignificant, we will well and truly be content. This can happen by a series of unfortunate events, and those events may include racism.

Now, some may argue that racism is about the rejection of a group of people so its ridiculous to think that even a small dosage of it can be beneficial. However, they probably haven’t heard of the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, who came up with the theory ‘deconstruction’, which is an idea that the definition of words actually possess’ the antonym. So yes, racism is the rejection of a particular group, but according to the Frenchman’s theory, it is also about acceptance. As contradictory and absurd as that sounds, the following reinforces this.
Joy Chan, an Australian who is from China claims that she has accepted racism is a part of life. ''Some people are just not going to like you, whether it's your race or your gender,'' she says. ''They're things I can't change about myself. I don't want to stop being Chinese. It is who I am, it's part of my heritage.'' This is a prime example of racism having the opposite effect and