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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.
In ZZ Packer’s short story titled “Brownies,” Laurel, also known as Snot, tells the story about her African-American Brownie troop attempting to fight a Caucasian Brownie troop, Troop 909. Arnetta, a fellow Brownie in Snot’s troop, overhears one of the girls from Troop 909 call another member a racial slur and plans to get revenge on all the girls. Snot, being a shy person, keeps quiet through the entire process of her troop planning their attack on Troop 909. Snot is a flat character; moreover, her characterization supports the theme of ignorance prevailing due to silence.
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.
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.
	The narrator in Ellison’s short story suffers much. He is considered to be one of the brighter youths in his black community. The young man is given the opportunity to give a speech to some of the more prestigious white individuals. The harsh treatment that he is dealt in order to perform his task is quite symbolic. It represents the many hardships that the African American people endured while they fought to be treated equally in the United States. He expects to give his speech in a positive and normal environment. What faces him is something that he never would have imagined. The harsh conditions that the boys competing in the battle royal must face are phenomenal. At first the boys are ushered into a room where a nude woman is dancing. The white men yell at the boys for looking and not looking at the woman. It is as if they are showing them all of the good things being white can bring, and then saying that they aren’t good enough for it since they were black. Next the boys must compete in the battle royal. Blindly the boys savagely beat one another. This is symbolic of the ...
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.
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
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.
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.
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.
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
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