Racial Discrimination
Why is it our first instinct to judge a person from the moment we meet them? Racism and stereotyping have been reoccurring issues throughout the world for thousands of years. This theory can be seen in multiple works that we have studied this year such as Crash and The Color of Water by James McBride. Each one shows, in it’s own way, how racism can affect any single persons life and they can both be compared to things that happen every day in America.
The Color of Water is a novel written by a black man, James McBride, for his white mother. James was raised with eleven siblings in a house constantly filled with chaos. And his mother being a white, Jewish woman married to a black man made it much more difficult. All throughout the novel there are multiple issues that come about because of their race and ethnicity. McBride’s mother, Ruth, was constantly being criticized for marrying two black men and having twelve black children. They had very little money at the time and Ruth’s goal for her children was simply to be successful. She sent them all to school and made sure they kept their grades up. Each one of her twelve children even continued to go on to college. At one point, when James was in grade school, he remembered all the other parents at the bus stop being “different” than his mother, and that’s when he started to realize the looks his mother would get. Every time they went out together he would see more and more people stare at her. He became embarrassed and never wanted to go to the stores with her. It upset him to see that his mother was not accepted in society, and because of this he started to rebel. He ran off and started doing drugs and not coming home. His mothers protection always kept him safe from the harm of the racist people in society, but she could not stop it forever. He eventually had to learn on his own that a black person did not have it as simple as a white person (McBride).
Unlike The Color of Water, Crash is a movie about multiple peoples lives and how racism effects each one of them in a different way. One of the main characters, John Ryan, seems to have a difficult time with people of different ethnicities, but by the end of the movie that changes. At the start of the film, Ryan pulls over Mr. Thayer, a black man, and his wife and has such hatred towards them. He does not treat them like human beings and he’s constantly talking down to them throughout the few minutes he’s with them. Just before he lets them off with a warning, he molests Mrs. Thayer as her husband stands there watching. He does not give them a ticket, but later in the film he’s confronted with a problem. A woman was in an accident and John Ryan was there to save her from the car wreck. That woman was Mrs. Thayer. She screams and yells at him to leave her there and not to touch him. This incident opened Ryan’s eyes to racism and how it is wrong. Mrs. Thayer was a person, just as anybody else, and she did not deserve what he did to her (Crash). Unfortunately, this kind of situation happens often and not only in movies.
Today, multiple issues come about involving race. Police officers are sometimes accused of being a racist and are told that the individual they pulled over did not deserve the ticket they were given. One Los Angeles Police Department officer was accused of being racist his first traffic stop as a rookie. In 1998, he had pulled over an individual for reckless driving and speeding, but as he started to walk up to the truck the man accused him of pulling him over simply because he was black. More recently, the LAPD was accused of “not adequately guarding against racial profiling by it’s officers.” The Department of Justice had said that one of the officers was saying to his supervisor that he "couldn't do [his] job without racially profiling" ("Not Race Alone"). Racial profiling, which means an individual is targeted based on their race or ethnicity, is illegal and has been an issue within police departments in many states. The LAPD has made many changes to make sure racism is not an aspect when it comes to arresting or ticketing a criminal. Hopefully one day racism won’t be an issue with police officers anymore.
There will always be issues with racism in some way because there will always be immigrants. Having constant immigrants flowing into the United States will leave the citizens disappointed that new groups of people have arrived. The Obama administration has considered suing Arizona due to their “harsh new immigration enforcement measure” ("An Immigration Standoff"). Until now, illegal immigration had been considered a federal matter but with this new law it would be a crime in Arizona. No two people will ever completely agree about immigrants and what should be done with them. A poll stated that 60% of Americans agreed with this new law in Arizona simply because they don’t think the immigrants should be here. This law would give, and sometimes require, officers to check the immigration status of the people the pull over for different reasons. Why would anybody want to be asked if they had proof that they were a citizen? Immigration is either a good or a bad thing, and there is no middle. Therefore, it is almost impossible to compromise.
Racism is an ongoing issue and majority of Americans discriminate against someone at some point. However, people can always change their ways. One’s eyes can always be opened to see that being racist is no longer accepted in America. Years have passed and our country has grown to realize certain things should result in punishment. Although officer John Ryan in Crash was not chastised for his wrongdoing, he learned on his own that he should change. Race and ethnicity should not matter when it comes to judging a person at first glance.
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