Racial Stereotyping - Essay Example

?Assignment There are different characterizations of racism. Initially a race is when people are united by common beliefs, interest and characteristics. Modern day races are these days defined predominately on skin color and then on the geographical location of a group of people. An example of a race could be that of White people who share a common skin color but this race is restricted to people in a certain locality as well. Ethnicity is a group of people who are defined in accordance to the language, religion, location, color, beliefs, homeland and cultural origin and background. Various ethnicities differ from region to region; an example of an ethnicity is that of African Americans. Racial and ethnic identity is the recognition and identity affiliated to a person who leads to awareness among the person which is described by their race and ethnicity. The way a person chooses to describe oneself is associated with one’s physical appearance, their language, their heritage, primary and secondary socialization, cultural and the experiences which occur in a lifetime. Racism has numerous definitions; the most commonly used is that a person is inferior in accordance to their particular race. This involves characterizing people in relation to their race. Another definition of racism is that of having a system of advantage over another particular group of people due to an inherent feeling of superiority over the other. There are particular types of racism; Individual racism is a system of discrimination practiced by one person which can be done consciously and subconsciously like telling a black joke. Active racism involves actions which lead to discrimination against a particular group of people active racism usually involves around people who believe in superiority of white people in relation of those of color. Passive racism is beliefs, opinions and attitude of people which lead to racism without openly advocating violence. These are usually thoughts and ideals of a person which leads them to look down upon the victim of racism. Cultural Racism can be that of that of other races but the White people are seen to be the biggest culprits in this issue. Racism at an organizational level or at a bureaucracy is institutional racism .The benefits that a white person enjoys by their biological identity is called white privilege; these are inclusive of but not restricted to not being stereo typed as being a criminal or people associate beauty by the whiteness in a person’s skin. Lastly horizontal racism is discrimination or racism which takes place within the same racial group (Benoist, 2004). A stereotype is certain characteristics involving people of certain gender, race, ethnicity, religion or locality. If a person finds another person of Bangladesh to be shy and quiet if one would hold the same image for all people of Bangladesh to be shy and quiet then it would be an example of a stereotype. Certain modern day stereotypes that exist are that of Muslims being terrorists, boys being tough and blondes being dumb. A stereotype prevents diversity within a group and adds stigmatization within a society. A stereo type is followed with a self-fulfilling prophecy which is that people tend to live up to the way they are labeled and stereotyped in society. If all boys in seventh grade are stereotyped to be intelligent all of them will work hard to live up to that particular stereo type. Self-fulfilling prophecy can be that in a negative sense as well; if poor children are going to be stereotyped to becoming beggars they might actually believe that is so and live up to that certain stereotype. This process is called a self-fulfilling prophecy (McGarty et al, 2002). Assignment 2 In the movie Crash there are multiple incidents that highlight racial stereotyping as well as discrimination. Right from the start of the movie stereotyping that is against a number of races can be seen. The first of these was when the rich white man and his wife are walking to their house and she is seen to clutch her purse instinctively closer as she sees two black men coming towards them. Looking at Jean’s reaction these two black men, Anthony and Peter decide to hi jack Jean and Rick’s SUV, and fit right into the stereotype that flashes through Jeans mind “Black people are thieves”. When an enraged and shocked Jean gets back home, having lost her purse and all her keys right away asks her husband to put in new locks. Rick hires a Mexican man to do the job and as soon as Jean sees him she becomes upset and makes multiple racial remarks about her husband’s choice of hiring a “homie” for the work. Her anger and racial discrimination is so ingrained in her mind that she even decides to replace these new locks. There are other characters that show racial stereotyping behavior. Cameron and Christine is an affluent black couple and they are at the receiving end of stereotyping and racism as part of their daily routine. A major incident highlighted that reflects stereotyping against them is when they are driving back home and a white police officer pulls them over. He asks both of them to step out of the car and Officer Ryan in plain view of Cameron violates his wife. Cameron takes no action against Officer Ryan as he is afraid of the legal charges the officer would bring up against him if he did. The couple fights on their way back as the wife is upset that her husband did nothing to stop the assault. Another key part of this event was the fact that Officer Ryan had a white partner, Hansen, who was aware of the fact that what Ryan did was inappropriate and illegal decides to be a passive bystander instead of interfering. Other examples of racial stereotyping can be seen in the way even the attitude of the minorities towards each other was highly discriminating. Farhad, the Middle Eastern store owner becomes highly worried about his families safety post the perception of Middle Eastern individuals as terrorists. His store is destroyed and there is abusive graffiti on the walls. Another example is that of Daniel whose daughter runs out to meet him when he comes home and almost gets shot by a Black man who was doing a drive by. Lastly there is the example of Officer Graham and his partner Rita, who is Hispanic. They were dating and when inquired by the relationship by Graham’s mother he chooses to let her believe that he was going out with a white woman instead of a Hispanic one. Assignment 3 The central theme of Crash is about how everyone, regardless of the fact that they are black or white or Hispanic seems to be prejudiced when it comes to their behavior towards other racial and ethnic groups. Everyone carries around racial baggage whether it is in shape of unfair stereotypes or anger or racist notions and perceptions. Crash has many examples of how racism and stereotyping are brought to the surface in everyday situations. The different characters introduced are depictions of racism and stereotypical notions. Be it Cameron Thayer, a successful black man, in the film CRASH, who has attained the status of a white man. He is able to provide for the family because he has all the wealth but because of his race, he is denied the privileges enjoyed by the white men. For instance; his wife is sexually molested by a white police man; but he can do nothing about it. His belonging to the subordinate group limits him even in seeking justice in the society. Tom Hanson belongs to the Los Angeles Police Department and is a law abiding citizen. But he belongs to the subordinate black race and the fact that he is successful does not cushion him from humiliation of the white racists. His race does not allow him to enjoy the respect and social status of a white man. Hanson has not only failed to protect his family but also himself against the inhuman. John Ryan is also a key example when it comes to perpetuating racism with impunity. He is an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department and is hence protected by his racial status. It is due to this status that he cannot be charged by a black man in the court of law. The molestation of Cameron’s wife serves to be a critical incident when it comes to the protection his racial status gives him and the helplessness of the black man when it comes to protecting his wife or speaking out against such vile acts of discrimination. Assignment 4 Focus groups are in depth qualitative data gathered from a selected group of people to gather insight and data about diverse range of topics such as eating burgers to sexual preferences. Focus groups are of integral importance when a detailed study is to be carried out. It carries out a good picture of the opinions and beliefs regarding a group of people. The advantage of focus group is that since it is a primary source of gathering information, the interviewer keeps the conversation on the right track and encourages participation. The group members can interact with each other in order to have a better clarification of the topics in hand, another advantage is that of the ability of the interviewer to pre-prepare the topics in order to make the conversation more interesting and exciting. Another advantage is that the interviewer can use the non-verbal behavior of the person being interviewed as a primary source of data due to one-on-one interaction. Since the process is being videotaped the process can easily be seen again and the interaction between the people and the interviewer can be increased. Quality control can be maintained within the research process as each interviewee has been screened before they are selected for data to be selected from. Even though there are numerous advantages of focus groups there is a flipside associated with it as well. The presence of dominating personalities within the group makes the proceeding more revolved around a few people and shuns out the perspectives of more people. In presence of a crowd people are not very comfortable to disclose their personal information and may provide misleading data in order for their image to not be tarnished. The findings from the focus groups cannot be generalized to the large masses of the people as only selective people are interviewed and lastly the interview takes place in an artificial setting hence affecting the responses of the people to be that which portray demand characteristics (THCU, 2002). A Historiography is a secondary source of data which gathers information from records, diaries, historical references in order to explain past proceeding which eventually took place. There are certain advantages to a historiography. The first of these is that there is data from more than one perspective which gives the person to make their own judgment to what is right or wrong. It gives an insight to draw comparisons between past events and present ones and see changes in trends which occur in relation to the time. It also gives us a good clarification about our past occurring and also it is probably the only form of data which is available in order to explain past proceedings. Though there are advantages to this type of research, there are certain disadvantages associated with it as well. A historiography shows a writers own opinions for example a diary will show only one person’s beliefs which may not be true or accurate to be applied for that time. Another disadvantage is that data may not be available altogether for past occurrences. For example there are some parts of Egyptian history which are still unknown or unclear in modern day. There are some biases in historiography; the history of a particular country will be biased in favor of that country in order to invoke sentiments of the locals. There is also no way to calculate the validity of such methods of data. Lastly this data is not applicable for modern day incidences due to the evolution of societies (Busha et al, 2008). ASSIGNMENT 5 In historical research the purpose is that a sub group of principals provide inside to their own schools in order to promote marginalized culture and promote understanding between the culture, curriculum and the atmosphere of the respective institutions. The purpose of the article is to develop a social justice understanding by the people. Research design: The research design revolves around three questions. Firstly is that in what ways are principles enacting social justice in their institutions? Secondly what resistances do social justice driven principles face? And lastly what strategies are applied by the principles in order promote social justice in light of prevailing resistance. Data collection and Analysis: Seven schools were the primary targets of the study; those schools took pride in dealing with issues regarding gender, religion, disabilities and other marginalizing factors within society. A critical, qualitative based on the principles of authethnography were used. Interviews were the primary source of data collection. Findings: The findings focused more on descriptions relations to the three questions. Social justice was enacted by raising achievements in students, enhancing the capabilities of the staff, improving the school structures and lastly strengthening the school community. Resistance faced was the role of principal ship, roles of privileged parents, attitudes of the staff and their beliefs, lack of resources, issues with the district and provided resistance and the strategies applied were that the principals used proactive strategies, developed a theory of social leadership. In focus groups there were various schools that use this technique to make their staff fulfill the preK-16 requirements. Research Design: A focus group of counselors and teachers were taken into consideration in order to evaluate the purpose of social justice within the specific institutions themselves. Employees from diverse departments were called upon and asked for the importance of social justice in an organization within a focus group. Data collection and Analysis: There were 51 participants in the study who contributed towards the cause, Questions from the faculty and the staff were asked separately which the latter contributing to sixty percent of the answers. The process was entirely voluntary. Data was collected through interviews, online surveys and group transcripts. Three questions were asked what comes to your mind when you hear the term social justice. Secondly what is the essential function of the principle revolving around social justice and lastly list three things that staff and faculty can do in order to advocate for those who have less power than most people. Results: In response to the first question, Social Justice is caused by empathy and feeling for human kind. Social Justice implies actions not feelings and it evolves into personal enactments. Social Justice was used to prevent discrimination and help minorities prosper and prevent a feeling of alienation and lastly the faculty can help first correct themselves and monitor subordinates doing the same. References Benoist, Alain. “Defining Racism”. 2004. Retrieved on 8th May 2012 from: http://alaindebenoist.com/pdf/what_is_racism.pdf McGarty,Craig., Yzerberg, Vincent and Spears, Russel. “Stereotypes as explanations”. Cambridge University Press. 2002. Retrieved on 8th May 2012 from: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2002073438.pdf The Health Communication Group. “Using focus groups”. Version 2. 2002. Retrieved on 8th May 2012 from: http://www.thcu.ca/infoandresources/publications/Focus_Groups_Master_Wkbk_Complete_v2_content_06.30.00_format_aug03.pdf Busha, Charles and Stephen, Harter. “Research methods: techniques and interpretations.” Academic Press: New York. 2008. Read More