Prejudice - a Feeling Which Could Never Be an Advocate to Any Person - Research Paper Example

Racism, sexism, religious and political bigotry are synonymous in a way that they all hold a discriminatory attitude. Whatever personal perception one holds in such subject matters, usually have roots that are sometimes so incorrect in an ideal’s angle of perception. Generally, racism holds prejudice against a racial group just because of the color of skin, hair or eyes, sexism undermines the female to be of a weaker sex and thus held inferior to the male. Religious bigotry on the other hand holds concepts related to spiritual beliefs while political bigotry is obviously affected by politics. Prejudice is a human nature which one could not truly trace its origin. However, origins may not matter if an individual’s aim is to point on something rather than solving the social problem. In modern times as in the past decades, hatred, prejudice and bigotry are as evident as ever. We have Hitler for one to mention, a truly popular political leader who rose up in power against the Jews during his time. No man in this day might parallel the fame and power of the aforementioned man however, it would be needless to mention all the ever obvious ill-informed opinions of one person against another because of the reasoning power of men. As Aronson (271) said about prejudice, this is caused by a person’s desire to justify himself in an act that is not of the norm. To this, we will be determining the reasons behind characters in some references. Pretty women’s Barney Thompson, played by Hector Elizondo is one of the characters who held an irrational dislike on Vivian, played by Julia Roberts, the main character in the movie who was a prostitute. Thompson’s attitude was not explained explicitly in the movie however, analyzing his background and the high regard in his position as the manager of a high class hotel could most possibly be the greatest factor that affected it. As a respectable hotel, customers are supposed to be well dressed, not just fashionably or expensively but most important is the modesty that is accepted in the highly educated circle of customers of the hotel. Since Vivian was dressed in a fashion that was obviously out of place, he was looked down by the customers and the manager, receiving stares that emphasized the humor in how the lady looked. This then was a suggestion to the manager to work things straight, getting rid of the ill-dressed woman who looks cheap enough to be in his expensive hotel. Being helped by her customer and soon to be employer, Edward played by Richard Gere, by being given the chance to buy herself clothes appropriate for a high class woman, Thompson gives her assistance. The protection of the manager’s hotel’s reputation is emphasized to be the reason for the prejudice held against Vivian because if the reason was the woman herself, Thompson would not have helped her at all. Since she told the manager she was trying to get herself well-dressed, the manager then offered a helping hand seeing that she probably would be staying in the hotel as long as his esteemed customer is accommodated in the hotel. As his own words reveal that the hotel was not a place like cheap hotels where customers could bring in prostitutes, but a highly respectable one. ‘British is best’ and ‘Britannica rules’ are two phrases mentioned by Bharati Mukherjee in her The Road From Ballygunge (O’Hearn 17-79) which magnifies the cry of the British people in her neighborhood in the late forties. Being a bicultural neighborhood, Calcutta was inhabited by its natives and the British colonizers who insisted on their prominence and superiority over the Indians. This was, according to the author, due to the same envy she felt over Jill’s pinafore she saw in an illustrated book of the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill. Envy, truly could be an acceptable reason to this prejudice of the British which could be obvious in their battle cry ‘British is best’ and ‘Britannica rules’. The wealth of the peace-loving natives is an asset to be envied so that the pronouncement and declaration of the whites of their superiority over them needed emphasis to scare them off, most probably. Consequently, the harshness experienced by Mukherjee and her friends led them to hate their colonizers, taking revenge in rejoicing over the poorly-treated white characters in their British books. Probably, one of the most common reasons for prejudice would be pain, anger and revenge. Women hating men could be due to experiences of women being abused by men in a family or neighborhood. The same is true to a race having a strong dislike over another like the case of the story of Mukherjee. And the best that one could do, is to justify his acts or feelings over another. Among the top ten terrible bigots in modern history, Wallace Fard Muhammad (JustinJ) is the last on the list who was the founder of a group of black Muslims in Detroit in 1930. His freedom to choose his religion is a right he has to perform however, his beliefs that he shares with his members was a bigoted opinion. He preached that God created the black people and that the white ones were just a result of an experiment by a black scientist named Yakub. In addition, the experiment was performed with the aim of creating slaves for the black people which of course is a direct insult to the white people. Emphasizing that the white people at present, have not yet evolved implies that the existing white people are not human beings created by God but are existent because if the power of a black person, therefore should serve the black race. While there are no reasons mentioned for this opinion of Muhammad, it could be due to the obvious color differences which in effect command power over another race. Physically, most black men look stronger than their white counterparts so that this could be a reason the religious leader tried to drive through in his opinion. Living in a country more dominated by white people, the opinion was quite an expression of racism because there was no explanation of the origin of the red and yellow people. The story of creation according to the preacher circumscribed the position of the white and black people in the eyes of Muhammad. In retrospect, this opinion could have also been in attack to the long held view of the racist white that they are superior over any other race. This would be on a similar basis as that of what was mentioned by Mukherjee. Prejudice, a feeling which could never be an advocate to any person, still is held and embraced by some people. What it makes of an individual is not as desirable as the reason it so humorously presents for the fact would stay that there could never be a race greater than another because in the eyes of the God of the believer, all his human creations are equal. As one saying says, the sun rain pours on all men and the sun shines over all of them. References O’hearn, Claudine Chiawel. 1998. Half and Half (First Edition). New York, NY: Pantheon. Milchan, Arnon (producer), & Marshall, Gary ( Director). 1990. Pretty Women. United States: Touchstone Home Video. JustinJ. February 12, 2010. 10 Terrible Bigots in Modern History. People and Politics. Amazon.com. retrieved from http://listverse.com/2010/02/12/10-terrible-bigots-in-modern history/ Read More