...The film shown in class, The Color of Fear, featured a focus group of men representing multicultural America, who held an open and often frank discussion of racial issues in the United States. Among the many topics and issues mentioned included the notion of White over Black, or persons of color. Closely related to this is White Supremacy and White Privilege. Other things mentioned by the participants include: being invisible, disregarded, ignored, that minorities held themselves back from progress, and color-blindness to name but a few. In the interest of previewing the content of this course, what was it about the film that got your initial attention, revealed something new in the discussion of race and racism, or made you think closer about everyday events in your personal experience? Reflecting back on the movie and the end of the quarter and all the things I have learned through out, the part of the film that got my initial attention was David. To me he summed up the saying “ignorance is bliss”. He seemed to come from a world where in his mind, equal opportunity was everywhere and he felt very strong about the best person for the job should be the one that gets it based on qualifications not skin color. In actuality, the world outside his own small town was quite the opposite. Minorities that he would consider a friend and look at the same as he would a white person where getting treated bad in some cases and would have to deal with the “white man” always trying to...
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...The Color of Fear video was extremely enlightening and truly made me think more in depth about many factors regarding race. It was interesting to watch men of all different races and backgrounds come together to discuss the issue of race. I enjoyed witnessing how all of their reactions to race differed. I found it immensely beneficial to hear the perspectives of men that grew up as minorities and to hear their reasons as to why the color blindness approach is not helpful at all. It was interesting to see how all of these men had a different interpretation of what it meant to be American. For instance, the man who was Chinese-American in the video explains that he feels offended when others consider him to be just the ordinary "American"....
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...Jessica J. Ordonez CSLG – 6145 Dr. Ceballos Color of Fear Analysis Paper Question #1 The 3 major themes that are highlighted in David’s utterances are the following: 1. White people are seemingly unaware of their White privilege and the fact that they are part of a group. Throughout the video David clearly expresses that he does not feel that being white makes him any special. He finds the topic of racism “extremely exciting” because he never really understood why “they” had to cause struggle and strife and why “they” couldn’t feel happy. ------------------------------------------------- And when the subject of racism was mentioned to me I found it extremely exciting because I grew up in this area with friends of all races and we would read in the news - see on the television of racial struggles in other areas and could not comprehend how that could be - why they had to cause struggle and strife for each other. Why couldn’t they be just like at home, happy and productive together? (Transcript) David’s comments clearly demonstrate how clueless he is about his own White privilege. In the beginning of his dialogue David explains that he has never felt that he was “in control” of anything. Yet, in the same statement he goes on to explain how he has owned vineyards and orchards that employed several minorities. David’s own words appear to be oblivious to him. It appears that he is speaking without even listening to himself. In one sentence he states...
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...The narrator, in Brent Staples' Black Men and Public Spaces, finds himself bothered by the fear response that he invokes in others. He attributes this response to his being black. He too though shows himself to get caught up in the fear of stereotypes, attributing their response to his skin color and failing to see the natural fear response that is evoked in people when they are in a situation that is unfamiliar to them, and through conditioning, perceive it to be threatening to their fundamental, all encompassing, humanistic need to survive. He overlooks these details in many situations. Because he feels that they are stereotyping him based on the color of his skin he allows himself to get upset over these situations rather than understand them. He speaks of giving other subway goers room to ease their worries about his skin color but it has become natural for subway goers to be weary of other passengers because of the extensive amount of talk or writing that goes around about all of the subway fatalities and incidents that occur by men and women, whites and minorities, young and old and even the ones that appear to be normal and the ones that obviously seem disturbed. Him running into the office of a magazine he works for with a deadline paper in hand and being thought to be a burglar is also something he attributes to his race; "Black men trade tales like this all the time" (para10). He fails to make a paralleling scene in which a white man is running into the office of a...
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...I believe Frederick Douglass would find Melville’s chapter 42 of Moby Dick, titled “The Whiteness of the Whale,” most compelling. Moby Dick’s whiteness may symbolize nobility, virtue, fear, and racial superiority. We learn that most men fear Moby Dick, and Ishmael focuses on the fear his color creates amongst them. This all correlates with the fear of the unknown and fear of the white man. I say this because of Ahab’s relationship with the whale. Moby Dick took away his leg, which is a representation of his inability to fully assimilate into society, just as slaves had a hard time becoming equal citizens. Ahab’s missing leg can parallel to the missing rights of slaves that white man has taken away. Also I found the way Melville speaks about...
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...RD 6 Rough Draft Thesis: The Masque of The Red Death and Inside Out utilize darkness and the lack of color to portray and explore the essence of fear through revealing situations that impact one’s life. The film Inside Out illustrates the main character, Riley, response to the fact that she and her family have moved from Minnesota to San Francisco. Her life would change completely with this move; everything will be new for her. She would have to link up with the people from San Francisco and for this; she will need help from inside her brain. Riley’s life is described with colorful characters that represent emotions, living in the Headquarters, the control center in Riley’s mind. Inside Headquarters, Riley’s brain has 5 tiny characters in her mind: sadness, joy, fear, anger, and disgust; Joy is being the leading one or the boss (Inside Out, DVD). All 5 characters represent Riley’s emotions that take an important role in her life. “Inside Out is about how...
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...senses. The latter happens not just to the victim, but their loved ones as well. All they can smell is fresh dirt from the graveyard. All they can hear is their own thoughts drowning in the abyss of their mind. All they can taste is the metallic flavor of blood in their mouth. They touch everything but feel nothing. It’s only their sight that doesn’t fail them. They see everything crystal clear, just painted in a different color: red. It’s the one color that won’t leave their mind, haunting and confusing them with its’ ambiguous nature. Red could mean something...
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...Buffett and the Jew’s Lives, positively or negatively, in the three books, the main aspect is racism. Racism plays an enormous role in society. Racism can affect where someone sits on the bus, and how you are treated. In the first paragraph, Atticus and Scout have a hard time because of liking black people. Warren Buffett will have to face his fear of public speaking, overcoming with the thought of racism. In the plague strikes, the Jews have to deal with getting blamed for causing the diseases just because they have a different religion. In To Kill a Mockingbird, racism was negative towards people in society. Mr. Ewell is an example of the racism in the book. He accused an innocent black man of raping his daughter. Due to the negativity in society, everyone had believed he had done it, simply because the color of his skin. Another example in the book is when they made fun of Atticus and Scout for liking black people. Mr. Dubose and Francis affected Atticus and Scout negatively because of how they like black people. Due to the racism in society, innocent black people live in fear of getting killed,beat up, or put in jail, just because the color of their skin, and or sothey are affected negatively. Racism was negative...
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...racial profiling is, “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense” (Dictionary.com). Law enforcement agencies all around the country use racial profiling to find suspected criminals of crimes, which is completely flabbergasting. Racial profiling in police officers is a continuous problem because it leads to innocent civilians being prosecuted, a fear of police officers, and contributes to societal prejudice. Countlessly, blameless civilians are pulled over, stopped on street corners, or bombarded with questions by people in the...
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...The Gray Between Black and White- there are many challenges to defining people with such color characteristics. The color black holds many negative connotations in today’s world. The color black, to many people often times, means dark and not pure. For years, before, the country decided to evolve and politically correct black was coined for the slaves because of that meaning as a color of inferiority and subliminal message sent to people of African American race that they are inferior to a white person in an effort to keep a constant defined box, and a role for people to fit in and describe to. White terminology was created in an effort to create an attitude of superiority towards other races of that time. Literally speaking, white people are not literally a white color and black people are not of black color. Why was it that and is it that we are defined as such and that this age old tradition continues. I have noticed that there are no other races within America that are defined by colors. On anything that you fill out, it says white, inclusive to Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon, European, etc., and continues to define what is considered to fall in the category of white; and on the other end black is inclusive to African, African American and now Caribbean places; the other defined categories are Asian, Hispanic/ Latin and others. But black and white are the only two races defined by color. America claims that they are accepting of all, but I truly don’t feel this is the case. I believe...
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...public company, they definitely will notice that almost all the department managers are good looking and wear luxurious clothes, while on the other side cleaners are usually old and fat. What’s more,According to the article “The Price of Blackness” author Lanre Akinsiku used his own experience to present several “unfair” he met in his daily life, because of his black skin. Recently, several critics indicate that one’s personality and outer appearance are both essential, although the public seems to prefer judging by appearance instead of considering both aspects. Therefore, adopting this sort of method to judge a person has several side effects and does create loads of problems happen, particularly about unfair treatment, discrimination and fear. There is no doubt that depending only on outer appearance to estimate a person will bring injustice judgements and offer people unfair treatments. No one can deny that all the human beings live in the same world but because of both the genetic destiny and the acquired disposition, everyone is unique let along the outer appearance. Thus, there should not be a standard way of good-looks to evaluate a person. In the article “The Price of Blackness”, author Akinsiku complains about the unequal treatment to people with black skin and he presents his experience, “ Then he would go back to his car and dally a little, pretending to check on...
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...Poe writes about how Prince Prospero’s fear and obsession leads him to an inevitable, psychological death. Through the setting, characters, and symbolism, Poe reveals the message that phobias can cause people to lose their sanity. The setting in "The Masque of the Red Death" symbolizes Prince Prospero's mind and his isolation from the terror that haunt him. The story demonstrates this by taking place in a palace that exists detached from the chaos outside. Everyone in the fortress remains oddly cheerful even though an unruly disease kills people outside the castle walls. In actuality, the villa symbolizes the Prince's mind and his mental solitude from the...
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...being used. In U.S. history, the meaning of the label “white” has changed over time, eventually adding groups like the Italians, Irish and Jews. Other groups, mainly African, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islander, and Asian descendants, have found the path for worldwide social acceptance much more difficult. The irregular border of ethnicities touches educational and economic opportunity, political representation, as well as income, health and social mobility of people of color. So where did this type of behavior begin? There are many ideas thrown around as to how racism began, though the truth lies in the history of mankind. Before people were able to travel and experience difference groups of people, we stayed in the same kind of area with the same kind of people. We feared things that were different, and were lacked the power to face those kinds of things. All this changed once we did but the fear never left. The truth is racism began as soon as people faced those of different races. We’ve always the fear of change or the unknown. It seems that is racism has been around so long because of cases or who gets better job opportunities but contact with those of whom we are afraid of often leads to arguments. In time, does what caused racism to transform from people simply dislike each other, to the permanent and unbreakable foundation of common racism and prejudice? Racism is said to have been attain from many places,...
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...Schindler’s List Essay Oskar Schindler would never have been anyone’s ideal savior, especially for the Jewish community. He was an open member of the Nazi party, a womanizer, a gambler, an alcoholic, and an extremely money hungry man, but insight of all of this he was successfully able to rescue over twelve hundred Jewish men and women from death. Schindler was a very tall and handsome man. Needless to say, he was adored by all the young women he met eyes with. However, Schindler fell for a beautiful young girl named Emily. After only six weeks of courtship, they were married. Sadly, after only a few months of marriage, Schindler began to heavily abuse alcohol. He also had several affairs resulting in two children out of wedlock. In 1929, during the Great Depression, the Schindler family business went bankrupt. At this time, Schindler’s father left his mother, and she died soon after. Finding himself jobless, Schindler sought work in nearby Poland as a machinery salesman. The saving of the first Schindler Jews began in 1939, when he came to Krakow in the wake of the German invasion. In Krakow, he took over two previously Jewish owned companies that dealt with the manufacture and sales of kitchenware products. In one of the businesses, however, Schindler was merely a trustee. Looking more for his own power, he opened up a small enamel shop right outside of Krakow near the Jewish ghetto. Here, he employed mostly Jewish workers. This in turn saved them from being...
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...According to “What are Facts on the Cause of Police Brutality’ by Dina Gilio-Whitaker, “Racial Profiling assumes guilt for a crime based on the presumed criminality of people of certain racial characteristics, with African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans disproportionately affected.” This means that you are assumed of doing things because of your color. This is important because Trayvon Martin was killed because a man believed he was suspicious because he was black and wearing a hood. Trayvon Martin is not the only one who has been accused of a crime because of his color. We can fix this problem if we stop accusing people of doing crimes without any evidence. Many people have died because of this based on their color or religion. We need to keep the true American Dream alive by treating people equally and not different because of their color. According to “Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling”, “One commonly held stereotype associates minorities, particularly Blacks, with crime.” This means black people are connected with crime. This is important because people are judged based on their color which is wrong many black people have been killed because officers thought they were doing something wrong where evidence shows they did nothing wrong. Stereotypes is an issue we can fix by treating everybody equal and not connect them with something because of their...
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