The Issue of Discrimination - Essay Example

The country has literally shed blood of innocent civilians to fight for few basic rights that are God-given. Racism and prejudice are clearly present through Terkel’s narration of Ellis as he projects his emotional level of prejudice, his self-justification, and his displaced aggression. One of the main concepts of prejudice and racism that is outlined in Ellis’s narration is his level of prejudice that is prevalent throughout his life. Vincent Parillo, author of Causes of Prejudices questions the whole essence of social categories of racism, which is then depicted in Terkel’s work.

When people are nurtured in an environment where they are biased culturally against a group of individuals; they naturally assume that those views are correct. This can be no doubt detrimental as these perspectives are embraced and become the foundation for hatred. Prejudicial attitudes are prevalent amongst many groups and are a key catalyst towards conducing hatred. In this particular scenario, the narrator shows his hostility towards African Americans as he terrifies the young African American kid with a gun.

The whole narration is brilliantly captured in this scenario below: Clearly, here his emotions got the best of him as he traumatized the African American kid without any remorse. Undoubtedly, his anger got the best of him as he held a hostile attitude for no logical reasoning. Clearly one cannot conduct an analysis of the root causes of prejudices without understanding the true cognitive roots of the psychology that individuals possess regarding this issue. The psychological approach to this issue tends to mainly focus on the levels of prejudice, self-justification, personality and frustrations that become key components of this issue.

 Again, Ellis is the remarkable example of that as he joins the KKK to self-justify his actions. The human nature undoubtedly in many matters is to self-justify their actions from their own reasoning. Self-justifying hatred and racism is derived to logical thinking that humans are blessed with. However, philosophers argue that humans although have the great capacity of justifying the wrong reasoning for our actions. A brilliant example of this is prevalent throughout history. The genocide of Jews that occurred during World War II serves as a dark reminder of how an extremist group can rally for support and modify the perspective of a huge society.

Another classical example can be seen throughout the reign of the Crusaders in which the Muslims and the Jews suddenly were public enemies for the name of Christ. Sociologists tend to emphasize the fact that self-justification can work the other way too.  A great example of a self-justifying group can be clearly seen through the rise and the terror caused by the KKK. The re-enlightenment of the second era had many different views than its predecessors. Post 1920, the Klan grew a strong membership of 4 to 5 million.

Unlike the first Klan movement in the reconstruction era, it extended beyond the traditional motives. The second wave of the Klan continued to focus national agendas at hand that went beyond the agrarian economy. Since the Klan compromised majority of white and Protestant, it was vital that they