The Turtle And The Scorpion Response

The fable, The Turtle and the Scorpion, was the inspiration for my creation. This old tale is about a scorpion who asks a turtle for a ride, but the turtle with its previous knowledge was hesitant about helping the Scorpion across the water. After much convincing, the cunning scorpion persuaded the turtle that it would be illogical for it to sting the turtle because it would because them both to drown. After the scorpion got on board, the turtle swam across the water and halfway through the scorpion stung him. Petrified, the turtle questioned why he would do such a thing and his logic behind it because now they will both drown. In response, the scorpion stated that “it has nothing to do with logic” the scorpion sadly replied, “it’s just my nature.” (The Scorpion and the Turtle). I chose this to answer the question whether racism is a natural tendency of humanity, or is it caused by society? In this case, I used the scorpion to

represent racism and the turtle to represent the rest of society. While just like the turtle, society questions the logic of the hateful expression and even at the beginning of the story was standoffish and even resentful of this other species.

This shows how on each side of the spectrum naturally people seem fearful of people that do not look like them based on stereotypes they have heard. For example, how the turtle heard scorpions sting people and so he was uneasy to trust him. It is natural to be fearful of something and even resentful to something that is not familiar. Also in cases like in “Defining Racism” by Daniel Tatum, where he has gone to 3-4-year-olds (almost all were white) and asked them to draw a picture of an American Indian and most were stumped. Once he asked for them to draw an Indian it was the same stereotype (feather with a scary weapon) with the person in each piece. Most described that Peter Pan was their main inspiration. This demonstrates how people based looks and other assumptions based on untrustworthy sources can lead to this offensive behavior and an underlining

fear. This same kinda idea is discussed within “Racism Is Fueled By Fear” by Catherine Meeks, Ph.D. and states how a systems like the KKK find prejudice and power “power that is generated by the use of collective prejudice to create the systems of exclusion and exploitation and makes it appear that this is enough to build a lifestyle upon” (Meeks) This relates how the turtles prejudice towards the scorpion and his acceptance to let him across the water allowed for racism to sting. Furthermore, the scorpion demonstrates that racism may not be logical or beneficial for either side, but for some, it is a natural function and type of defense mechanism. Overall, racism in my eyes can be a natural tendency of humanity or a flawed creation by society.