Race, Gender, and Ethnic Groups

1500 Words3 Pages

In April 1992, when a mostly white jury acquitted four police officers accused in the videotaped beating of a black motorist, thousands of people in Los Angeles, mainly young black and Latino males, joined in what has often been characterized as a race riot. In the summer of 2001, ethnic riots occurred on the streets of towns and cities in the north of England (Oldham, Leeds, Burnley, Bradford), involving young British Asian men and young White British men. More recently, in November 2005, riots emerged in Paris’ suburbs, sparked by the accidental deaths of two Muslim teenagers, and then spread to 300 French towns and cities. Most of the rioters were the French-born children of immigrants from Arab and African countries, a large percentage being Muslim. These race and ethnic riots have all recently placed the issue of racial and ethnic identity at the forefront of political debate in the United States and in Europe. In this paper, we endeavour to discuss many issues especially on gender issues, relationship issues, family issues, notion of beauty, women in sports and migration issues. The way the characters behaved and how the other characters behaved towards them portrays the theme and the issues involved. Certain symbolisms were also used to show how these issues existed in the lives of the characters.

Gender issue is portrayed through Indian beliefs as well as Western beliefs. The traditional notion that girls should not be involved in sports existed in both the Indian family as well as the England family. This can be seen in both Jesminder’s family as well as Catherine’s family where their mother’s strongly discouraged them from playing soccer as soccer is meant only for the boys. Both mothers cannot tolerate the idea that...

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..., Vol 26, No. 2 May 2002

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