Discrimination Essay, Research Paper

Because I wasn?t here for the full length of the video I am unable to reflect on the movie in its entirety. But instead, I will fill you with my recent thoughts and analysis of prejudice and general discrimination. I hope this will be thought provoking for you as well. The harsh reaction of the students at the particular white high school was to be expected. After decades of monotonous all white education, the students and faculty were naturally frightened to take this gigantic unexplored step. It was a natural protection of their ?white territory? of comfort and security. They were also stereotypical towards blacks perhaps from rumors or television. Blacks were thought to be dirty, smelly, rude and violent. However, one cloud that needs to be cleared is that the students and faculty members weren?t directly discriminating the black students for their charcoal appearance. Rather, they were prejudice against them for because of their ignorant stereotypical views of what blacks were, violent, dirty etc. The discriminating acts of categorizing are practiced just as often today as it was decades ago. For example, when we are walking alone and we see a pack of big black people on the sidewalk we immediately feel extremely threatened more so than if those men are white. The initial discrimination of different people in modern day is derived from the reputation that the majority of that the particular group has made for themselves. For example, blacks are known today for excessive crime and violence, so therefore we would naturally feel more frightened to see a group of blacks, we?d think they are gangsters. So I do not blame those who dislike a certain group of people because of their reputation for doing harm. However, discriminating people based solely on the fact that they have a different appearance is totally immature and closed-minded. This type of senseless discrimination is still in existence today for example towards Asians and Jews. The people who discriminate against those who are simply different them lack a sense of identity in their lives. Instead of respecting others for their culture, language and appearance, they mock it, because they lack self-esteem, confidence and security.