Have you ever been accused for no reason because of your race? What I mean by that was when the Japanese were interned during WWII, that’s an example of being accused for no reason. Has there ever been a rumor that was a hoax but, somehow, you believed that person? Those are examples of Mob Hysteria; when someone starts a unacceptable rumor of a hoax then, later on, the person who started that rumor makes a big deal out of it and paranoia strikes in hearts of millions and round up the “accused”. Throughout history, Mob Hysteria has taken on various forms. This phenomenon creates mass paranoia, allows for unjust revenge, and persuades people to abandon their morals. First, an example of mass paranoia is when Abigail stabbed herself with
Once called the Public Housing capital in the United States, Newark was receiving more money than any other city from the federal government to clear slums and build public housing complexes. People like Louis Danzig who was the head of the Newark Housing Authority (NHA) used the federal funds the city received to destroy low income housing of minorities in Newark, then build public housing on the outskirts of the city putting all the poor minorities in these areas. The police brutalized the cities African-American citizens numerous times with no repercussions. The city was being segregated and African-American Newark residents started to feel more and more marginalized. In 1967 things finally came to ahead as an African-American cab driver was arrested and beat badly by the Newark Police Department and when rumor spread that he had died in police custody. Though the cab driver was in fact brought to the hospital, a group gathered out in front of the police station and started throwing bricks and other objects at the police station. The riot went on for six days and has shaped the image of Newark to this day the riots have given the city a negative appearance that still lingers.
The article “Lynch Mob: A Misuse of Languages” feels the catalyst of the Baltimore Riots was the angst, frustration and sadness felt by the unanswered questions of how the life of yet another young person of color was taken after an encounter with police officers. The author also defines the Baltimore Riots as “not a lynch mob”. He states that the continued invocation of the term ‘lynch mob’ to mean a protest of the killing of people of color is an egregious use of the word, a slander of the citizens who are protesting and moreover, a diminutive of the horrible history of lynch mobs in this country and especially in Maryland. “Nothing that political partisans or protesters have done — nothing! — comes remotely close to the barbarism executed
In the modern day it’s hard to believe there’s even still ‘’witch hunts’’ as you can say where a group of people are stereotyped as something without them doing the actual stereotypical thing. We live in a world where blacks are getting shot for no reason when they were just walking down the street unarmed and not harming anyone. Blacks and Latinos are always looked down upon in any shape or form. They could be driving a nice car they get pulled over for suspicion of a stolen car, they can get pulled over in an old broken car and they will get pulled over for suspicion of ‘’criminal activity’’. But if it’s a white person the cops will NOT bat a single eye at them despite being in the same situations as the black. And you know what the problem
The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
Hysteria is defined by dictionary.com as “Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.” This was a critical theme in the play in which it was tearing apart the community. Hysteria replaces logic and allows people to believe that their neighbors are committing some unbelievable crimes such as, communicating with the devil, killings babies, and so on.
There is not just one definition for a witch hunt. A witch hunt can be looking for and possibly punishing people who are accused of having unpopular opinions. It can also be when a group of people go after another group of people that either have opposing views or are outsiders. Just like in the isolation of HIV/AIDS patients in the 1980’s/1990’s, many people go along with the hysteria of a witch hunt out of fear about something that may or may not be true. These persecutions are often “justified” by those participating in the witch hunt. Whether they blame others to save themselves, or do it out of guilt and greed, they
The gang wants to bully and demoralize the other people by making them suffer because they are under conflict about the stature of the races in the society. Racism is a base of conflict that has been used to project the conflict theory of deviant behavior in this storyline. This is the structure of deviant theory in this situation.
The term scapegoat mean treat innocent with bad behavior in order to make a lot of people happy.The traditional "well-earned reputation" theory explains prejudice entirely from stimulus characteristics of the groups, but is wrong in assuming that reputations are always accurate or well-deserved. The scapegoat theory of prejudice pays attention only to motivation of the majority group. Frustration generates hostility, which is displaced to a defenseless minority group and rationalized by blaming the minority for misfortunes, by projecting bad traits on them, and by stereotyping all members of the minority. The theory fails to explain why certain minorities are chosen for prejudice while others are admired, and why minorities are also prejudiced.
The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.
Society consists of many different sociological groups. These groups involve people of diverse races, religions, and more. Unfortunately, hate crimes happen when groups become angry or frustrated towards each other. These groups are formed mostly during times of economic struggle or even social change. Hate groups continue to be a problem in our society. A group believes that the reason for a specific problem is only the fault of another racial, religious, or other group. The most common forms of crime in our society are due to hatred. Hate crimes are defined as a crime motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance of somebody’s race, religion, ethnicity, political affiliation, disability, and/or sexual orientation. Plenty of hate crimes happen due to the fact that someone is different from someone else.
The people in the Bottom’s mass hysteria toward Sula’s nonconformist (mis)behavior reflects their actual subconscious impulse to find a reason-but ironically a scapegoat- for their misfortunes. Wolgang Behringer proclaims in Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History that people who suffer most sharply the pains of displacement brought about by structural change tend to be pulled most easily into witch-hunts (Behringer 26). Behringer’s remarks are useful in describing the black people in the Bottom’s shared subconscious and mass hysteria,
...due to what you have learned. Violent or discrimination of a group of people comes mainly from confusion, and in confusion come blind actions in fear of what seems to be unknown.
Black people are often stereotyped as violent, dangerous, criminal, drug dealers and gang members (Wortley, 2013). For example, in the well-known case of neighbourhood watch captain Mr. Zimmerman who shot a Black unarmed boy, Trayvon Martin (Ralph&Chance, 2014). The media tried to justify the shooting by trying to find evidence of the victim being involved in drugs and other illegal activities to make him look like less of a victim and more of an offender. According to the stories covered by the media, the boy was looking and acting suspicious before he was shot by Zimmerman (Ralph&Chance, 2014). In fact, in most cases of racial profiling, the police officers and those involved will claim that the victim was acting suspicious when in fact they had no basis to stop, question or search them, besides their skin color (Ralph&Chance, 2014). The media is reluctant to show the Black and people of ethnic backgrounds as the victims and the police as the bad guys; and often cover the news in ways consistent with racial stereotypes (Manning,
Many people, especially those associated with racist groups, find it necessary to put down other ethnic groups in an attempt to strengthen their own. This mode of thought and reasoning usually results in extreme hatred of other races and an overall sense of bigotry. Reasoning in this manner equates to many associated with racist groups. Pride in one 's race may eventually lead to covert racism thought.
Based on the story, the role of public hysteria and intrigue plays a large role in society. In the story, when the Clutters died, no now knew about the facts of the case. They were already making up what happened, who it was, and where they came from. Just a few people’s opinionated predictions, could alter the whole towns view on what really happen. Even when they were fed facts, they still didn't believe the people who were studying the case. In my own life I have seen this happen. One time when I was at Mississippi State, there was some one who had a gun. A girl was said to be running and saying, “gun! gun! He has a gun”! Like people do naturally, they started to run with the rest of the flock. Eventually it came around that there was someone