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How to reduce discrimination and prejudice
How to reduce discrimination and prejudice
Strategies for overcoming prejudice include
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Racism is similar to the iceberg metaphor. On the surface, one may be perceived to believe they know everything about another based on the history of their race, but forget about what is beneath the surface of the water. “Brownies,” a short story written by Z.Z. Packer, takes place at Camp Crescendo, and it follows a young African American girl named Laurel (aka Snot) and her troop in their plan to ambush the white girls in Troop 909. The idea of the ambush, started from one of the girls’s in Snot’s troop hearing a girl in Troop 909 call one of their own the n-word. Throughout “Brownies," Packer uses Snot’s perspective of her troop and her father to reveal the recurring spread of dehumanization between whites and African Americans being cycled …show more content…
After Snot’s troop finished singing for Mrs. Hedy, who is sad thinking about her possible divorce, Mrs. Margolin’s operation appears in the talk. Sadness floats in the air and Snot says, “We had been taught that adulthood was full of sorrow and pain, taxes and bills, dreaded work and dealing with whites, sickness and death” (19). The negative attitude hints at a strong and lasting tension within black and whites relationship because things such as taxes, bills, work, sickness, and death are something that can continuously last. The things listed above are a generalization of ideas that can be described in more complexity, as well as, being compared with another word with similar meaning. By comparing “dreaded work and dealing with whites," it suggests that African Americans are not considering the whites as actual people, but as depressing things to be done. The children being “taught” whites are considered work, are influenced into observing a world through their parents eyes. When Snot’s father asked the Mennonites for “Anything [he] want[ed]”(30). He subtly teaches Snot the idea of “[w]hen you’ve been made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others” (31). Showing her that the oppressed doing something back to others, which they have received, is okay. Her father also focuses on the Mennonite’s iceberg tip--dehumanizing them as white and “jump[ing] at the …show more content…
The perspective of Snot provides a closer look into her father and troop, showing their closed-tip-of-the-iceberg perspective of the whites. The perspective then leads to the oppressed desire into doing something in return to the oppressing race, in addition to, dehumanizing them. Snot’s troop--being a part of the next generation--helps to reveal the cycle being taught from the parents. Influencing the children to perceive life through the eyes of the parents; furthermore spreading dehumanization through generations--creating a cycle. Ultimately closing the open-minds of the oppressed and diverting their focus onto their own situation; thus, leading to dehumanizing and neglecting the oppressing race without looking under the water. Creating unfair barriers between people/ races and limits the changes within
Words are commonly used to separate people by the color of their skin, but they can also be used to bring people together, no matter what their skin color was. Using words improperly was a common problem in America when our parents were our age, and even way long before that. People have written countless stories about racism, it’s affect of the world, or it’s effect on the person themselves. One of the more well known poems about racism is “‘Race’ Politics”, by Luis J. Rodriguez. The story the poem is based off of took place sometime in the mid 1960’s, so this gives us an insight of what the world was like back then.
From beginning to end the reader is bombarded with all kinds of racism and discrimination described in horrific detail by the author. His move from Virginia to Indiana opened a door to endless threats of violence and ridicule directed towards him because of his racial background. For example, Williams encountered a form of racism known as modern racism as a student at Garfield Elementary School. He was up to win an academic achievement prize, yet had no way of actually winning the award because ?The prize did not go to Negroes. Just like in Louisville, there were things and places for whites only? (Williams, 126). This form of prejudice is known as modern racism because the prejudice surfaces in a subtle, safe and socially acceptable way that is easy to rationalize.
At the beginning of the story, Snot says “the girls in [her] Brownie troop had decided to [fight] each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909. Troop 909 was doomed from the first day of camp” (134-35). Therefore, Snot knows that the rest of her troop is going to fight the White girls and does not try to stop it, which further develops the main theme of the story. Moreover, after the Brownies passed Troop 909’s bus, Arnetta describes the White girls as “Caucasian Chihuahuas” (136). However, Snot remains quiet although she knows that none of the girls know what Caucasian means. Consequently, her remaining stagnant helps give rise to the theme. Furthermore, while both troops are at a stream, Snot sees – “Arnetta eye[ing] the Troop 909 girls, scrutinizing their movements to glean inspiration for battle” (139). Instead of confronting Arnetta, she stays quiet; therefore, she does not stop Arnetta from being ignorant. Snot’s flat characterization supports the theme of the story: silence causes ignorance to
The text begins with the woman who had raised him being pregnant, and instantly the sense of violence is introduced, the dangers of the Ku Klux Klan lurk within the beginning of the text and the description of fear is already being portrayed. "Nightmare” is appropriately titled the very first chapter. When this chapter is expressed not only does the reader already acknowledge struggle but there is also a brief background of his father. His father who was preaching the right that all African Americans had to go back to where he felt they belonged, he preached of the wrong that the “white man” oppresses amongst them and the cruelty they receive. An example of what may be racial identity, an example of how the color of ones skin was so effecting that his father felt the need to leave everything behind and truly felt that leaving was the
Racism is the notion that one’s own ethnic stock is superior to that of someone else’s. Most all racism is as result of ignorance. Racism can range from a simple comment to make another human being feel inferior, to complex actions that make others feel unwelcome in society because of who they are. The theme of racism can be seen throughout literature. In the murder mystery novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson, many examples of wartime racism are evident.
In Of mice and men there are a few characters that act like they are from the city and some that work for a living which represents the lower classes. This element can be found when Lennie and George are working, when the boss is demanding the workers to work, and when the men won’t let Crooks join in “‘Why ain’t you wanted? Lennie asked ‘cause I’m black. They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black’”(Steinbeck,1937,p68). This quote shows how the lower class you are in the condition of how you are treated is degrading to self-esteem and the segregation of whites and blacks.
With all three of these aspects of racism in consideration, race was a prevalent theme in the book that couldn’t escape the reader’s consciousness. Whether it was through showing the division of the communities, or through the feelings that each race held about the other race, the book portrays the history of racism in America.
The topics of racism and judgement are often correlated together, because people judge others on their way of life or the color of their skin. People often are quick to judge someone without knowing the person closely. Brownies by ZZ Packer and The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas by Reginald McKnight are two short stories that have the same topic of racism and judgement. ZZ Packer and Reginald McKnight took the topics about racism in different directions and how judgment is the reasoning for it. As many people judge others on their race without knowing them. The similarities and differences between the two stories shows diverse ways people judge others just by noticing the color of their skin and how it can lead to misunderstandings.
Racism dates back thousands and thousands of years back to the caveman times. In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Kate Chopin shows how discrimination by skin color can affect people. Desiree was abandoned and raised by Madame Valmonde. Armand, the father of the baby, was a member of the most notable families in Louisiana. He falls in love with Desiree and marries her. After they have a baby, their relationship quickly corrodes. A few months later, Armand realizes the baby’s skin has a darker tint than usual. He accuses Desiree of being black. Armand tells Desiree he wants her to leave so Desiree takes the baby and “disappears among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou” (Chopin 91) and never returns. Armand finds out that Desiree is black when he reads a letter that her mother sent her that read “she belongs to the race which is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 92). The story’s ironic ending has a connection with the story’s setting, imagery, and Chopin’s use of similies.
Racism has been evident all around America, even before this country was officially created over two hundred years ago. Prejudice and racism are not uncommon words in American history, because many disputes, such as war and protests, have emerged from the topic of race. This has been a common practice in the past, and is still a common practice today. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the effects of racism are shown in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. The effects of racism were very cruel during this time, and Harper Lee reflected this through characters, such as Atticus, Jem, Scout, Mrs. Dubose, Aunt Alexandra, and Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird.
At the end of the story, Laurel, the narrator, says that her father made the Mennonites do humiliating work at her house. When Daphne asked whether her father bothered to tell the workers ‘thank you’, she said no. “I could not tell which were the thoughts and which were the trees. “No,” I said, and suddenly I knew there was smoothing mean in the world that I couldn’t stop”. The expression stated above illustrates how when being confronted about the action of her father made her think about the situation with a new perspective which allowed her to broaden her horizon and accept her father’s mistake. This stirs empathy in the reader as its human tendency to form an impression about a person without knowing them and one fails to realise how can that subconsciously affect them. As in Laurel’s case, every person has been a prey to such a situation where subconscious hatred towards someone due to background difference could lead to increasing the differencing by repeating the same thing others had done to you. This makes the reader further question their action and thoughts in such situations which causes them to empathize with Laurel. This shows how ZZ Packer uses racial conflict to make the reader empathise with the
"Brownie" is a contemporary short story about racism, the discrimination, which invisible but still exist in the relationship between blacks and whites. It like an obvious truth that if someone say something bad about blacks, they must be whites. For example, a member in Brownie troop tells Daphne that she is called nigger by a member in Troop 909. The girls in Brownie troop don't want to find out the deeper cause; they become angry after they hear that. And, of course, we can see a reason why they do not want to find out deeper because the girls of Troop 909 are whites. If the negative relationship between Brownie troop and Troop 909 represents the contradiction, then Daphne individually represents as an equal person who wants to change the negative
In the short story “Brownies,” author ZZ Packer uses the narrator, Laurel, to explore the tensions that exist between belonging to a community and maintaining individuality. While away at camp with her brownie troop, she finds herself torn between achieving group inclusion and sustaining her own individualism. Although the events of the short story occur at Camp Crescendo, Packer is able to expand (and parallel) this struggle for identity beyond the camp’s walls and into the racially segregated society that both the girls and their families come from. Packer is exploring how an individual’s inherent need for group inclusion consequently fuels segregation and prejudice against those outside the group across various social and societal stratums.
For example, “...the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the nation's heart.” (25). The word “murderous” is extreme and refers to the negative actions inflicted by Americans even as far back as when slavery was legal. The woman also seems to realize that without any intentions, it is natural for people to act this way towards black people. “And he is black, and I am white, and without meaning or trying to I must profit from his darkness,” (21-23). The woman examines this mindset and comes to the conclusion that is actually how society is set up. It appears that profiting off of minorities is considered normal. “The rod of his soul that at birth was dark fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling ready to thrust up into any available light.” (33 - 35). This suggests that the boy was born into this predicament and despite having the ability to progress and “grow” like a seedling, he's suppressed as there is no light to allow freedom.
This short story makes the gender roles in the Southern culture very clear. Even though the grandmother is very talkative it is her mouth that put them all in danger. If she had not claimed to recognize the Misfit he probably would have let them go, but the grandmother also foreshadowed the dangerous situation happening before it happened. This irony is what I believe the author uses to draw attention to the gender roles within Southern culture. I believe the author allows the grandmother to have insight of how this misfit she saw the newspaper would be ultimately the end of their lives. If her son would have considered what she said about encountering the Misfit, he could have prevented their death. When her son chose to ignore her, it was a representation of how women’s opinion was ignored in society. The short story didn't seem to have much tension or mention about race other than the display of how the family interacted with themselves and with other African Americans. Finally, this story raises questions about class because it shows how the children treated people with a lower economic status. This family is portrayed as a working or middle-class family because the daughter knows how to tap dance, and their family is going on a vacation. The children treat people with a lower economic status poorly with a lot of disrespect. On page 4 the daughter speaks disrespectfully