ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: racism

The main task in everybody’s life is to find his own identity. It is not that easy as it may first seem. Once this task is fulfilled, strange as it may sound, man is no more ‘invisible’. What is ‘invisibility’ in this concept? It is not the physical absence of the body, nor the only metaphysical presence of the spirit. It is not a different level of the substance or the state of material non-existence. Though, it seems to me, that people, who label themselves invisible and have strong reasons for that, would rather wish one of the stated above kinds of invisibility.
Topic: racism

Astonishing the readers with grandeur and the depth of the thoughts, giving a great food for thought for both the discriminators and the discriminated and arising various disputes on the subject it was concerned with, Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man” served an incredible milestone on the way to a better and more human treatment of the black people. It built new bridges, opened the doors and crashed the old and outdated stereotypes of class division according to people’s skin. No more black people could be treated the same way they were before the book was published. It has done a great thing, it was like the light at the end of the tunnel that gave a hope of at last being seen, being heard and counted as people. It changed the prospective.
Topic: racism

Being the representative of the black people, Ralph Ellison perhaps had to overcome a lot of difficulties in writing the novel. I guess, being fed up with the overall prejudice that reigned the society, it was hard for him to perceive the great power of the talent he possessed and then to realize it into the actual work. It wasn’t, as we know, the simple literary work, nor just a masterpiece of majestic style of writing and numerous characters. It was not a simple cry for help, an SOS signal. It was the call that aimed to waken the nation, to unfold its eyes and make it look at the everyday problem that has already turned into the routine for many… It took the author seven years to write that book but this rather long span of life was really worth it.
Topic: racism

The novel is hard to read. It is difficult to watch the cruel scenes of the Battle Royal with its main part being the kind of a game, and a very cruel one, where the black teenagers have to fight each other until only one of them remains standing. They are blindfolded at that moment. I guess there is a deep symbolic meaning in that. One can explain that fact in many ways but I suppose that white men think that the black ones do not deserve to see the bright light of the white world. The white people incite the black ones to violence by rude racist words while they are pushing them into the circle with no chance of getting out of it.
Topic: racism

The author managed to touch here the rotten nerve not only of the American society, which was temporary to him. He went far beyond the problem of the very racism. He explored the overall problem of hatred that ruled the modern societies, the cruelty, blood lust, despising people not only of the different skin colour but also of the different and lower social class and the keen feeling of own perfection. He makes us think why white people were so fond of keeping the black ones in the constant state of fear, confusion and terrible and scaring darkness. There is a great food for thought here.
Topic: racism

Why namely it happened? Normally, people who are happy with what they are and what they have strive for bigger achievements, not for putting somebody down. Was is not the strong and haunting feeling of self imperfection and nonentity that made them do what they did to black people? Love cannot lead to aggression, nor can any aggression lead to love. So if there was any problem, it lay hidden only in them, not those, whom they teased. We must remember that in order to make things change one should first change himself. And that was one more worthy lesson that the author of the novel “Invisible Man” wanted to teach us.
Topic: racism

I guess that he made it out of despair. The person, who thinks of himself as of an invisible creature, isn’t really sure that he deserves sunlight. And the hero reassures himself that he is at least able to manage to make use of such a convenience of the civilization as light. Besides, he claims that light is truth and truth is light. Along with the light the hero enjoys music that seems to make his body vibrate. Another important thing in the novel “Invisible Man”, I think, is the calfskin briefcase that was presented to the narrator because of his success. That briefcase was of incredible value for him as he represented and symbolized his education.
Topic: racism

The person who gave the briefcase to the narrator was the superintendent and he said the following words to him. “Take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it. Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people.” Then the hero finds the scholarship in the briefcase that could admit him into the Kingdom of further learning. “My eyes filled with tears and I ran awkwardly on the floor”. Such were the emotions of the narrator at that very moment. That calfskin briefcase was the only material thing that he carried in his life along with courage, love, strength and other virtues that he possessed.
Topic: racism

We should not forget that the nameless man is a well-educated person, that all this ‘invisibility’ was not simply a fruit of an ignorant man’s mind, but of a person who is intelligent enough to question the problem of being and existence from both psychological and philosophical point of view and to seek the necessity of it. That well-developed character represents an author’s mouthpiece, I guess, as there are many lines that link together the past of Ralph Ellison and the narrator. For example, after receiving a college scholarship, the hero goes to a southern African American college and Ellison himself attended Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington.
Topic: racism

At first the narrator feels like tormenting himself when he tries to write down all that he wants. “So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down? Because in spite of myself I’ve learned some things. Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled ‘file and forget,’ and I can neither file nor forget.” But as the character develops and matures, he begins to treasure his invisibility. He claims that “It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen.” But who knows if that was self soothing or realizing the value of being invisible…
Topic: racism

One of the most important and symbolic things in the novel was the narrator’s grandfather’s advice. “Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight… Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” These words that were pronounced by his grandfather had a great impact on the narrator. Perhaps he didn’t understand all the deep meaning of them until he was betrayed by his Brotherhood. Then suddenly the advice became totally clear to him. It was like the light at the end of the tunnel that made the road seen and not that scary. I guess, there words helped author to shape his destiny and to make it into one that he wanted it to be, not the one that world wanted.
Topic: racism

In my point of view, the only one thing that kept the author on the float all the time was his values. If it were not for them, he would have sunk into the dusk of the overall hatred that ruled the society and would never be able to come back from that horrible net. I think that for us, as for people who are lucky to grow up in far more righteous times, this novel was a great opportunity to see that our life is better from the one that the narrator has experienced.
Topic: racism

Of course, every one of us is sometimes cut dead by any other or even by the entire world, but still, we can hardly call ourselves totally invisible. Still being present in the society, the social injustice is not that sharp as it used to be during the narrator’s times. For us, I think, was not that easy to understand and value the advice of the hero’s grandfather as it might have seemed too coarse. But still, as it was proved, it has its own merit and helped the narrator a lot in shaping his individuality.
Topic: racism

If you constantly remain in the shadow, if you fail to strike someone’s eye, it means that people do not expect anything of you and instead of living up to people’s expectations, you may live according your own values. This so-called ‘invisibility’ presents you with enormous free time and space for self development. And it is up to you what to fill it with. One may either use it the way the narrator did- to fight the world that ignored him and then become visible, or you may remain in the shadow if the sun rays which reach you there are enough for you to get warm and to feel alive.
Topic: racism

Ralph Waldo  Ellison have written an incredibly deep and meaningful novel. Though being not an easy one to read, embracing the problems of men’s cruelty, brutality, hatred, and injustice, it holds the reader in the firm grip until the last word. Arising the deep feeling of hearty compassion, it gives everyone a chance to inspect his own values and their credibility and importance one more time. While discovering what it takes to become happy in this life, the reader also discovers that one cannot reach it by humiliating others.
Topic: racism

The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955) is one of the most influential books written by the Pulitzer (Mary Chestnuts Civil War) & Bancroft (The origins of the New South) prize winning author, C. Vann Woodward (1908-1999). Regarded as the one of the most renowned southern writer in America, his 1955 powerful work tackled the issue of racial disjointing of the southern United States.
Topic: racism

The second point that Woodward proceeded to make was that implementation of the Jim Crow laws was not merely a racist maneuver. In fact, it was more politically motivated then we might think. Post War Dynamics ensured that due to slavery, interaction between the two races was an eventual outcome. He further argues that all schools of thought, whether republican or conservative, possessed valid reasoning to interact with blacks and with the North United States effectively governing the South after the War, racial separation was not a prevalent social condition.
Topic: racism

Synthesizing Woodward’s findings that racial separation was not an ancient phenomenon; the argument goes that remote chances existed for a change of heart in the south. The beginning of the book consists of, in Woodward’s words, the First Reconstruction, a period when urban blacks in the southern United States socialized with whites as neighbors, as fellow passengers on street cars and by gracing the same restaurants, café’s and dining halls. Although this was not blatant and a degree of voluntary racial separation was present, legal imposition did not exist.
Topic: racism

The author presents three political schools of thoughts as the answer to this lack of racial separation following the war. Taking twenty years starting from 1880 as the reference period, the author argues how White politics manipulated black support with hopes to capitalize on it. While the liberal school of thought were ineffective with regard to their calls for racial and social equality, the Conservatives took a diplomatic road by calling for good treatment of the black community but also arguing that society was divided into classes and the black community was a second-rate rudiment of this social structure. Using this two-pronged approach, the conservatives gathered the support of the blacks and hence succeeded in holding elective office.
Topic: racism

Woodward then moves to the Second Reconstruction, an era that commences after 1945 and reaches its peak somewhere 20 – 25 years down the road. It was during this period that the Jim Crow laws faced a barrage of counter actions in the form of integrative policies. The very first attacks came from the Oval office as President Franklin Roosevelt and his successor Harry Truman embarked upon a reform in the Military through the repealing of racial separation in this institution.
Topic: racism

The U.S. Supreme Court was not far behind and attempts were made to end segregation at the schools. The case, referred to as Brown vs. The board of education, was then taken up at the lower courts in the south where the decision was the same as that of the higher court in Washington. The situation only worsened for the segregationists as sporadic and violent skirmishes on the streets of the Southern United States coupled with the reluctance of the state’s elected representatives to implement the Supreme Court ruling further strengthened the resolve in Washington.
Topic: racism

From 1960’s onwards, the Kennedy & Johnson administrations worked to pass legislation that would further reduce the degree of racial separation and also allow the black community to vote. However, following the unrest in Northern Urban centers in the decade of the 60’s, Woodward argues that the Second Reconstruction approached its death as the black civil rights activists moved towards militancy, thus shedding light on Woodward’s conclusion to his work citing a new and ever widening gulf being created between the black and white communities in the United States.
Topic: racism

A point of view often presented is that the book served more as a means of populist arousal then as a work of academics. The scores of young blacks taking to the streets, demanding an end to racial separation admitted the persuasive effect the book had on them. Martin Luther King Jr. himself quoted vastly from the book. Another important yardstick is the fact that, even to this day, copies of the book are printed to meet ever rising demand. This explains in itself the influence this book has had on American society.
Topic: racism

The way the author tackles the rise and fall of the Jim Crow era is another highlight of the book. Woodward’s ideas were powerful yet dangerous and provoked reaction to varying degrees. The book relies heavily on a set of speeches given at the campus of University of Virginia in 1954 as its source document. To this day, the book, already in its third edition, is available in its original form and the author still manages to substitute captivating ideas for length. To conclude, the book is not only a nail in the coffin to the misconceptions forwarded by the Southern elite of the blacks being “separate but equal”, the book also serves as a historical record of the time. Moreover, Woodward’s association with the book lends it greater acceptance and legitimacy.
Topic: racism

What I inferred as the greatest quality of the book is that the author managed to be objective in the whole book and presented an unbiased point of view. While at most places, he is discussing the historical background and the fallacies of the Southern population with regard to social separation, he also manages to actually comment on the very paradoxical and often obnoxious nature of racism prevailing in the Unites States as a whole. Since 1783, co existence internally as well as externally was a dilemma faced by both black and white communities. Understanding was lacking between the two races.
Topic: racism

Woodward, in his unique style, manages to trace the development of race, social separation and the civil rights movements through history to help us understand the present state and fervor of racism in the United States today. The author warns us not to fall into the fallacy that the South has been traditionally racist and the North anti racist. In fact, he presents a socio economic analysis of how peaceful co existence prevailed between black and white communities in the post civil war era. The author argues that the spite sowed by the draconian Jim Crow laws was not hinted at that time as people acted out of passion without regard to future consequences. The author analyzes social separation as political and economic fallout rather then embedded hate.
Topic: racism

However, nothing is perfect and this book too has its faults. Constructively criticizing it, I believe that the lack of referencing in the book is a major shortfall. though some credit needs to be given to Woodward as he relied on a set of 1954 Virginia University speeches as his source, another pitfall is the fact that a bias exists as the author often fails to take into account the social, economic and political responses of the black community. Although Woodward does refer to a black with journalistic associations who traveled through the South under the auspices of the Black Panther Party towards the end of the 19
Topic: racism

To Woodward, the black community was a community that lacked active participation and unity to act as combined force in Southern politics, constantly being played by one white school of thought followed by the other. Whether this implies servility amongst the black vote to the white community is a debatable issue. However, one can argue that it was their educational backwardness and social upbringing as slaves which might have induced them to accept the white’s point of view. However, one can argue without any doubt that the black community did stand up to fight for equal treatment and to finally put an end to racial separation, even though they might have been misled by some white forces.
Topic: racism

While Woodward was able to deliver a fine historical account in the form of The Strange Career of Jim Crow, it was the present events related to the book that shot it to its iconic fame amongst the masses. This is primarily because the author tackled racism not as a state of mind or social upbringing which advocated hate and spite, but as a politic and socio economic pressure that induced the implementation of Jim Crow laws in the American South. The fact that the book is written in a lucid easy to understand style with as minimum digressions as possible, it is a recommended reading as an introduction to race relations in the southern United States. On the other hand, any one who still belongs to the traditional thought process, should read this as it is guaranteed to change his/her mindset.
Topic: racism

Other characters are Mrs. Franklin, Alma’s mother, who works as a housekeeper of the Rossman’s. Who believes in spanking a child if have done something wrong. Then, Susan, a pale blonde girl, first approached and played with Alma on the first day of school. Another child named Paul who’s comparing Alma with a chocolate pudding; he’s one of her classmates. Then Donald who first hurt Alma when she wants to play with blocks but the tower fell down when the black girl puts one at the very top. He pushed her away and bumped her head on the edge of the door.
Topic: racism

The story plot mainly happened inside the school premises with lots of children. The author’s intention is try to convince the reader that no matter what the color of your skin one must feel comfortable with their emotions and differences. As she said, “every human must talk to one another about races and treat blacks with respects”. What the person’s race she is entitled to her own rights most especially children. Ms. Paley’s reason for bringing up this topic is to reader is not to be judgmental on the persons color and identity, treating them as your own will be greatly appreciated by them.
Topic: racism

My final thoughts on the book “White Teacher” by Vivian Gussin Paley are that is emotional and sensitive to the issue of racism in America. It signifies the humane side of the author with regards to the racial prejudice of the society. Even though the setting is in the school wherein young children learn, they early understood that the particular color of skin is an issue. The children’s perception among black is quiet rigid, they know at an early age that those black children should not exist among them.
Topic: racism

I am fascinated on her patience with regards on dealing with both black and white kids, but more attention and care to the black child. I really felt the pain on Alma when she was pushed by a kid and bump her head and cried silently and felt alone and then came Ms. Paley to assist her. What I like about this book is that the author easily conveys her message in simple yet touching words. Easy to understand words are being used so any age could assess the essence of what she has written.
Topic: racism

There’s some event on the book wherein she wants to talk to the mother of a black kid, my point is that she was too emotionally attached to the student, though sensitivity was being shown I find it amusing to preempt the privacy of the child’s family. But this will not affect the integrity of the author for the reason that her intention is for the good of all the races in the world. Racial discrimination should end because we are created by God equally. Human rights is entitled to everybody, diversity should not hinder the right to live. I recommend this book to every teachers, parents and students.
Topic: racism

Eurocentrism can be defined as the idea that the Roman and Greek cultures gave rise to the modern explosion of ideas and learning. Within this idea is contained the notion that the origins of Greek culture lie strictly within the borders of what is currently considered Western Europe, making the ancestors of Western Europeans responsible for all the progress of the modern world (Dussel, 465). This idea is considered by modern historians to be false and based not on factual accounts but rather on the distortion of history by colonizers (Blaut, 10).
Topic: racism

This distortion of history is based on the Inside-Outside or Center-Periphery models of civilization which pinpoint an area of the world as the peak of civilization, and the areas outside of it as barbaric. This model depicts Greater Europe as the insider area which contained the civilized culture, and it posits a gradual diffusion of that culture to the other parts of the world surrounding it. Yet this model presents an erroneous view of the world’s process of civilization.
Topic: racism

On the other hand, this view places the world outside of Europe in a position of stagnancy, with knowledge remaining static unless ideas were learned from Europe. This idea also gives rise to an ethnocentric idea of “European” intellectualism as being the reason for the centralization of knowledge within that area. It also gives rise to the antipathetic idea of non-West European culture as necessarily consisting of inferior ideas which might be described as “savage, atavistic, uncivilized [and] evil” (Blaut, 16).
Topic: racism

The truth is very different, however, as the Greek and Roman cultures that contributed to the “civilization” of Europe must give attribution for its ideas to a wide array of cultural influences whose origins span areas as far as Africa and Asia (Dussel, 465-468). According to Dussel, Europe cannot claim Greece as a part of its earliest origins. Furthermore, during the height of Greek cultural dominance, awareness existed in the Greek world of the progressive nature of the Egyptian (African) and Turkish (Asian) civilizations (Dussel, 465; Yurco, 1).
Topic: racism

Yet, while this Greek center civilization was aware of the existence of civilized Africans and Asians, their knowledge of what is now Modern Europe was minimal and the area considered to be populated by “the uncivilized, the non-political and the non-human” (465). The idea that Greece bequeathed civilization to Rome and to Europe is false. Rather, a dichotomy existed between the Latin (West) and Greek (East) cultures, and this configuration did not include a strict conception of Europe. The Greek culture was dominated in classical times as much by the Arab (Muslim) culture as it was by the Byzantine (Christian) culture.
Topic: racism

Therefore, the Aristotelian basis of civilization was historically strongly connected to the Middle Eastern and even Asian (Turk) civilizations (466). What actually occurred to lead to the development of civilization in Europe is based on an interplay of cultures from all over the continents of Africa and Eurasia. Such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus relied heavily on the ideas that came from the Turkish-derived Aristotelian ideas (Dussel, 466). The ideas generated by Aristotle were actually studied in what is now modern-day Iraq (Baghdad) before Aquinas became exposed to them.
Topic: racism

Indeed, Aquinas’ exposure came only after the Muslims in Spain translated these works into the Latin vernacular. The arrival of these works in Paris during the late 1100s B. C. marks the initial period in which differentiation occurs between Europe and Africa/Asia (466). The Crusades, which followed during this era, therefore may be seen as the first attempt made by Europe to become dominant in the newly differentiated territories of Africa and the East—and these campaigns might be considered failures (466).
Topic: racism

Eurocentric ideas concerning the Old World can therefore be seen to be a myth based on the colonially driven histories that have been passed down in the recent past. The failure of the Crusades might be seen as a way in which Europe itself was kept out of the civilization encompassed by the Turkish and Muslim regions, which spread their dominance from Morocco to India and even to the Philippine island of Mindanao. Even the Roman Empire, which dominated Europe for centuries, never penetrated to become the center of civilization in the African and Asian worlds (Dussel, 466).
Topic: racism

Before this time, the only empire that came close to being dominant and of Eurasian origin are the Hellenistic empires. Yet these empires are not one and the same as Europe, and never gained as large a dominance as the Muslims had after them (467). In contrast to the Eurocentric model of civilization is the strong Turkish (Muslim) civilization—historically represented by the term “Asia” (Blaut, 20). This area, which later became known as the Ottoman Empire, was dominant within its region.
Topic: racism

It even began conquering territory into south-eastern Europe, and this idea falsifies the theory of all civilization issuing from Europe. Even in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, European presence in the African and Asian continents was merely a matter of trade rather than dominance. The idea of a Eurocentric world actually found root only during the nineteenth century when colonization occurred in areas of the Old World (India, Asia, African and China). During this period, the multifaceted Greek culture was adopted and re-classified as European.
Topic: racism

The Greek culture is then identified with that of the Romans and then the two are placed at the center of the world’s historical civilization. It is at this point that Europe is able to emerge as the world’s intellectual benefactor. However, the fact that at this point no united “world history” existed and their location made it impossible for them to be central in providing for the surrounding territories an impetus toward civilization (468). Colonization in the nineteenth century can be seen as the chief mechanism through which Eurocentrism has been able to become dominant in global thinking.
Topic: racism

In order to maintain the colonial thrust, European colonizers were prompted to create ideologies that support the dominance that European countries had gained in their respective colonies. Religious, social, and scientific ideas that were spawned during that time gave rise to the Eurocentric ideas that are extant even in modernity. According to Blaut, “A [Christian] missionary might have great love and respect for the people among whom he or she worked, but could not be expected to believe that the culture and mind of these non-Christians was on par with that of Christian Europeans” (24).
Topic: racism

Such ideas as equilibrium and stasis developed in Keynesian economics. In geography, stasis was found to be a natural occurrence in regionalism. Theories of equilibrium and stability were embodied in such anthropological ideas as functionalism, while cultural relativism “declared in essence that each culture has intrinsic worth” (Blaut, 27). However, within the discipline of Anthropology, political motives can be found for publicizing the fact of cultural relativism, though tempered with a Eurocentric overtone.
Topic: racism

The notion of the intrinsic worth of the culture would have the effect of discouraging unrest, while the Eurocentric overtones would have the complementary effect of evoking gratitude in the heart of the colonists toward the colonizers (27). Overall, however, colonial indoctrination has been characterized by a teleological view of the West’s advancement, which is responsible for the benefits accorded Latin American, Asian, and African nations. Many other cultures outside of Europe experienced great progress and civilization throughout history.
Topic: racism

Yet, the result of inattention to the civilization status of Europe and other regions at other time periods has given rise to contemporary confusion surrounding these cultures. One such problem can be found in the misunderstood racial composition of Egyptians. In fact, the analysis of the racial composition of the Egyptian royalty gives credence to the idea that multiculturalism existed in the Egyptian civilizations of the past. Peoples from lands traditionally connected with Europe became traders and settlers in Egypt—and this underscores the centrality of this civilization during the ancient times.
Topic: racism

Such centrality naturally rebuts the idea behind Eurocentrism. However, the fact that interbreeding led to the Europeanized features of many of the Egyptian drawings and mummies has helped fuel the myth that European cultures played all the dominant roles in the civilizations of the past (Yurco, 2). Eurocentrism involves the idea that civilization was generated from a European center and somehow diffused to the other areas of the world. This idea finds its strength in the recent dominance that Europeans have had in the several continents of the world.
Topic: racism

Colonialism needed justification, and the method by which this was done involved the creation of ideas and systems that placed Europeans at the forefront of history. It involved the Europeanization of the Greek cultures and the oversimplification of the factors leading up to the current socio-political state of the world. Furthermore, the fact that world history has been written down and propagated mainly during the period European dominance has facilitated the Eurocentrism that can now be seen in the historical understanding of the world.
Topic: racism

Summary – “Dry White Season” Adam Simon – CGW 4U1 Dry White Season was what I felt to be an exemplary interpretation of how native South Africans truly condemned the immoral Apartheid political system of the mid 1900’s. Though the film was quite graphic, explicit nature seemed necessary to prove how racial brutality towards the black community really did exist. I enjoyed the whole idea of a narrow-minded white man making the transition from a life of socially superior racial prejudice to become a devoted supporter of black rights.
Topic: racism

I found this really helped create a strong liberal message to aid viewers in understanding the sick intolerance of the majority of white South Africans at that time. Racial separation was clearly evident to me while watching this video, as I noticed blacks being forced into their own “homelands” which retained a much more compact living than the whites, as well as Afrikaans being sub-divided into smaller ethnic groups to make whites appear to be the largest authority in South Africa.
Topic: racism

Blacks outnumbered whites 6 : 1) I think A Dry White season illustrated very well how the whites compromised such a small portion of the country, yet ultimately dominated the South African government, recourses, and economy. I really liked the use of indirect symbols to cleverly make points throughout the movie. For example, the white boy and the black boy happily playing together in the beginning was a interesting way to foresee an ideal future for South Africa that was obviously non-existent at that time.
Topic: racism

Benjamin is the hero; the incoherent individual that learns an unpleasant lesson due to one event that changed the course of all events prior, (Gordon’s death) Captain Stoltz was the villain; the sadistic, power hungry oppressor with manipulative ways that ended up determining his fate, Johan represented the loyal and resourceful character that led the viewer to believe there was a shed of hope throughout any struggle, and Stanley was the character I’ve seen way too often, the random bystander that provides the cathartic release by ultimately giving the villain what he deserved.
Topic: racism

Despite some predictable qualities, the characters were still interesting. I thought Donald Sutherland played the part of Benjamin superbly. His air of seriousness and integrity really keep me interested in his character. Sure, he was naive before the death of Gordon, and it was “best to just let it go” at first, but he grew from being pessimistic and cynical, to an entirely optimistic, likeable person to me the end by going neck deep into the mystery of Gordon‘s disappearance.
Topic: racism

My favourite character of all though, was no doubt Mr. McKenzie. Though he only was vaguely present, he absolutely dominated the screen during the courtroom trial. I found his use of sarcastic remarks in the courtroom hilarious, yet so fittingly applicable to his realist character. He clearly is a trail blazer in the sense that he is a white man fighting for black rights, yet he does so anyways, just to wittingly prove his point so well. This film helped me see how cynical the South African government really was.
Topic: racism

Their response to any criticism was basically that they had their own right to pursue its own domestic policy as it sees fit. I though it was interesting how South Africa was also quick to point out how blacks in South Africa had the highest standard of living amongst all blacks in Africa. It’s ironic that they do not admit that this is still an absolute garbage living standard, and blacks here were still innocently imprisoned and couldn’t even educate themselves in English to gain better chances at surviving in the workforce.
Topic: racism

Countries like Canada could do a number of things to show their unacceptance of Apartheid policies. First, they could employ trade sanctions against South Africa and refuse to remove these sanctions until all Apartheid policies were destroyed. Also, they could remove South Africa from major events such as the Olympics (recently in Vancouver, Canada) and furthermore decline their entry until these policies are abolished. Canadian business people, activists and clergy also played parts in bringing about all-race elections in 1994, and a surprisingly peaceful end to apartheid.
Topic: racism

In this assignment, I was challenged to find important historical and cultural connections of the film American History X and analyze the important rhetorical of my findings. I went about choosing American History X by placing a poll on Facebook listing out the films that I had any slight interest in considering for this assignment and American History X won by a landslide. I was actually somewhat disappointed, because I wanted to do The X-Files, but I chose to stick to my promise and go with whatever text won.
Topic: racism

I watched American History X some years after its release in 1998. Although, I know I must have watched it sometime after I got out of high school because at the time of its release I was 12 years old and with the amount of violence in that film I know I did not watch it with my parents. From the little memory I had of the film from the first time, I could only recall that American History X had a lot to do with white supremacy and racism, that Edward Norton played the lead role and that the kid who played in the first Terminator was his brother and was all grown up.
Topic: racism

After reading about and discussing in class the topic of approaching a text organically, I decided to implement that mentality and view the film as objectively as non-object individual can. It is difficult to say whether it was that approach that ultimately led to my findings in the film, or if I would have discovered them anyway since it was my second time viewing the film. Everyone can appreciate that after the second and third time of watching any film you begin to pick up on things you missed the first time. In either case, I found the movie to be incredibly eye opening and I enjoyed having to research the history surrounding the film and, ultimately, the state of the nation during what was my childhood. American History X is a film that depicts a traditional white family in the mid 1990s, but spotlights the two brothers’ journeys into maturity.
Topic: racism

The movie focuses on the older brother Derek, played by Edward Norton, and how Derek’s Neo-Nazi associations in his life greatly influence his younger brother Danny, played by Edward Furlong. Fueled by rage of his father’s death, the film opens with a scene of Derek brutally killing three young black men who were attempting to steal his father’s truck. Derek is then sent to prison for 3 years during which time his younger brother Danny begins to follow in Derek’s footsteps with the Neo-Nazi organization. The movie flips between black-and-white scenes of the past and color scenes of the present. The black-and-white flashbacks attempt to illuminate Danny’s perception of Derek’s past life while intermittently presenting how Derek overcame is his own hatred. The color scenes portray the present and highlight the effects the hatred has had on the entire family. Overall, the movie critiques on not only the effects of urban racism and bigotry, but also the how minds of young people are so impressionable.
Topic: racism

The film even succeeds in creating a sense of sympathy for characters that are typically hated, Neo-Nazi racist skinheads, and paints them not as foolish, uneducated racist bigots, but instead as misguided intelligent human beings. On the surface the film discusses racism, violence, and bigotry, but upon closer examination I found a deeper message within the film. Watching it a second time, I realized that this film is really emphasizing the lack of critical thinking skills in young people, particularly in teenagers and young adults and how impressionable their minds are. Then, upon further research related to those very topics it touches on in the film, I discovered that the entire movie itself actually harbors an obscure form of racism that was reflected in many movies throughout the 1990s. Needless to say, even in today’s society we deal with these same issues of racism and intolerance for other people’s beliefs.
Topic: racism

However, within the most recent years it has evolved to focus more on the gay, lesbian and transgender community. History certainly can be seen as repeating itself as many of the arguments that gays and lesbians make regarding their civil rights and discrimination almost mirror the same arguments made back in the 1960s during the civil right movement. Reverend Dr. Phil Snider made this connection so blatantly clear in his speech that went viral on YouTube that he gave before the Springfield City Council of Missouri just a few weeks ago. In his speech, Dr. Snider cleverly took quotes directly from speeches given by white preachers in favor of racial segregation in the 1950 and 1960s and merely substituted select words and inserted ‘gays and lesbians’ (“Preacher Phil Snider Gives Interesting Gay Rights Speech”). I think the twist of his speech highlights the main issues regarding any form of racism and discrimination and they most certainly could be applied to the issues of racism that America faced in the 1990s.
Topic: racism

The 1990s was saturated with debates over, court cases involving and numerous media outlets centering on the issues of racism and affirmative action. In May of 1992, Newsweek printed an article entitled “The Crossroads of Shattered Dreams” that summarized the conflicts of racism in the early 90s stating, “white[s] charge that affirmative action is unfair…blacks respond that it was unfair for them to be starved of opportunities by 300 years of slavery and discrimination.” That same year, the verdict of Rodney King’s case outraged the black community and sparked riots lasting six days with over 2,000 people injured and 55 people killed (“Riots Erupt in Los Angeles”). In March of 1996, the three white law school candidates charged that they were unfairly discriminated against and rejected for entrance into the school for less qualified minorities in the famous case Hopwood v. Texas Law School (“Hopwood v. University Texas Law School”). Just prior to the release of American History X in 1998, California enacted Proposition 209, which amended the state’s constitution to ban preferential treatment of any persons based on race or gender in public sector education, employment, and contracting (Parker).
Topic: racism

All of these enormously impactful events and numerous others shaped much of the discrimination that occurred in the 1990s. In fact, sociological research confirms “discrimination is more often the result of organizational practices that have unintentional effects” or predispositions “linked to social stereotypes and does not so much stem from individual prejudices” (Tomaskovic-Devey). Nevertheless, the culmination of these types of incidents led to a demand for Hollywood to “headline positive characters of color” (Hughey 549). Producers and directors felt pressure to make-up for their own history of racist filmmaking and, consequently, this also gave rise to the development of a veiled type of racism within films referred to by Hughey himself as the “cinethetic racism”(550).
Topic: racism

Cinethetic racism in the 1990s was typically found in films that have a black character whose purpose in the film is to support the white protagonist. Typically this black character, coined the “magical Negro” by Hughey, was portrayed as the voice of reason, or having some other type wisdom, within the film and who selflessly helps the white character achieve his goals. “These films rest on friendly, helpful, bend-over-backwards black characters that do not seek to change their own impoverished status, but instead exhibit a primordial, hard-wired desire to use their magical power to correct the wrongs in a white world” (Hughey 556). The concept expressed in this quote is clearly evident in the film American History X during the many scenes of Derek in prison working in the laundry room with Lamont, a friendly black prisoner who attempts to befriend him. Eventually Derek is able let down his guard and the future interactions between them usually consist of Lamont humorously explaining how things work within the prison.
Topic: racism

There is one scene, however, that does somewhat contradict this concept of a “magical Negro” and, instead, causes Derek to experience a form of guilt. This contradiction is depicted in the scene of Lamont and Derek working in the laundry room and Derek very genuinely asks Lamont why he is in prison. Lamont explains how he was sentenced for assault on a police officer because he accidently dropped a TV on the officer’s foot that he was trying to steal. Derek initially resists and jokingly asks Lamont to tell the truth, but Lamont insists that he did not assault the police officer and only dropped the TV on the officer’s foot. This is the pivotal moment within the movie that shows Derek’s guilt and sympathy for the first time towards a black person.
Topic: racism

I think this is the most important scene throughout the entire film because it gives the audience exactly what they want: they want to see Derek experience this epiphany and for him to recognize how he has perpetuated discrimination against black people. But it does not take very long for the film to revert right back into the traditional cinethetic racist ways. In Derek’s last interaction with Lamont, the audience learns that during Derek’s stay within prison Lamont was protecting him from further beatings and rape after Derek chose to no longer affiliate with the Neo-Nazis within the prison. That scene ultimately preserves the concept of the “magical Negro” and that black people have this underlying desire to serve to the needs of white people. I liken this idea of cinethetic racism to what actors refer to the subtext of a script.
Topic: racism

Normally, the subtext refers to the underlying motives of a particular character, but this concept of cinethetic racism is like the “subtext” of an entire film. “Of greatest critical concern is how [magical Negro] films advantageously shore up white supremacist and normative orders while ostensibly posturing as an irreverent challenge to them” (Hughey 553). On the surface it appears to be a film that tries to defeat racism, but ironically there are hidden agendas that completely go against the moral of this story. Just as magical Negros are a disguised form of racism found in American films in the 1990s, there were also disguised forms of racism going on politically throughout the nation, more specifically in California.
Topic: racism

During the 1990s, racism and civil rights disputes were approaching the heights they reached in the civil rights era of the 1960s. However, after many decades of affirmative action policies attempting to right the wrongs minorities faced and with California experiencing an economic downturn, many whites became less tolerant of minorities receiving preferential treatment through affirmative action programs (Alvarez). Now the whites are claiming they were discriminated against in a form of “reverse discrimination.” What I find so interesting about the idea of “reverse discrimination” is that it implies that discrimination only naturally goes in one direction: whites against minorities. And, furthermore, that there will always be a certain level of racism, as if to suggest that there is a threshold for which it is acceptable, but also that it is the responsibility of the majority, white people, to keep it in check.
Topic: racism

Yet the moment any form of racism or discrimination is felt against whites, it is completely intolerable and demands political action. It was the supporters of Proposition 209 that argued that current affirmative action programs led public employers and universities to reject applicants because of their race, and that Proposition 209 would “return [us] to the fundamentals of our democracy,” as summarized in an article capturing the main arguments of Proposition 209 entitled “Prohibition Against Discrimination.”
Topic: racism

With in the same article it preached, “let us not perpetuate the myth that ‘minorities’ and women cannot compete without special preferences…vote for fairness not favoritism.” The fairness of Proposition 209 has been hotly debatably ever since it was enacted in 1997, but I think the dinner scene with Derek and his father in American History X most succinctly sums up the mindset of the many supporters of Proposition 209. The scene opens with a dinner table conversation between Derek and his father about the material he is learning for his English class. His father than expresses his distaste for such material with the following monologue:
Topic: racism

“All this stuff about making everything equal… it’s not as easy as it looks…you gotta trade in great books for black books now? You gotta question these things Derek. We are not just talking about books here, we’re talking about my job. I got two blacks guys on my squad now that got their jobs over a couple of white guys who actually scored higher on the test. Does that make sense? They got their job because they were black not because they were the best? America’s about if you do your best you get the job…not this affirmative blacktion crap….it’s nigger bullshit.”