What is race and ethnicity? Can racial conflicts be eliminated by education? Can there be a time where one’s colour or background did not matter? Every modern day society faces racial conflicts. Humans are equal, whether they are white or black, etc. Hatred among different racial groups is common in out modern day society. Ignorance of the equality of every human causes racism. Humans need laws to follow and the lack of these laws cause conflict between humans. Erin Gruwell was optimistic about teaching a class of so many different backgrounds but it was much more challenging to get through to such angry teenagers. Racial conflicts in America include gang violence, and even murder. The Freedom Writers movie gives a clear description of the life that every teenager has to go through while there are racial conflicts. In that environment, teenagers struggle to live through a single day having to deal with the fear of getting hurt even inside their homes.
“I hate white people. I hate you” (Eva Benitez). This student was angry and frustrated with racial conflicts because she lost her friend and had her father taken away from her by white police officers. She said this quote to her teacher, Erin Gruwell after a heated argument about the holocaust. From this quote, one can understand why Eva and many black/brown people don’t like white people. Family can be a big part of hatred towards a certain race. Children see their parents as role models and often have similar beliefs as their parents. If a child is brought into an environment hating a certain race, they will most-likely keep that opinion throughout their whole life.
Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings...
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...ut The Holocaust to enlighten her students, none of them turned out to know what The Holocaust was. This is an example that hatred among racial groups is caused by ignorance of the equality of humans. Tito didn’t know what The Holocaust was and if he did, he might not have drawn a picture of Jamal. In conclusion, Tito was not educated enough to know that in history, people went through the same struggles he’s going through and the ways they used to overcome these struggles.
Racial conflicts are like a virus, spreads out in all modern day societies. In the Freedom Writers movie, one can see that this virus has taken over many people in America. Erin Gruwell was successful in curing her students from Racism. She opens up their minds and gave them a new perspective to look upon. She can be looked at as their new role model since their family is either in jail or dead.
The Untied States of America was built on the exploitation of others and the expansion of foreign lands. Anglo-Saxon superiority and their successive impact on governing policies and strong domination throughout every social institution in the nation allowed discrimination to prevail. Scientific Racism reached new heights of justification towards slavery, the massive eradication of the Native people, colonialism and daily occurrences of unequal behaviors and treatments towards colored people. The strong presence of polygenesis helped spur along and justify racism; the idea that all non whites were groups of individuals who ultimately came from another type of species supporting the idea that Blacks, Natives and other colored people were not ‘real’ human beings. Traditions, legislation, domination and acceptance of such social norms allow racism to be principal whether it was apparent through slavery or hidden in new laws and policies to come. Every aspect of a colored person’s life was affected upon, Education, economic status, environmental location and political rights. Those who had the power within the court system followed the Anglo-Saxon ways, making any change difficult and time consuming to come across.
Racism and ethnicity continue to affect the sector of education in most parts of the world. More often, it influences adults and children’s experiences in education at all levels and in various ways. These include professional employment, academic performance, parental involvement, social interactions, assessment issues, and curriculum development. Certainly, the terms racism and ethnicity identify as problematic and arise socially. Therefore, many people fail to recognize that racism is a perception about the color of the skin and traditions of a particular group of people. Racism and ethnicity exist in quite blatant and subtle forms. As such, racism and ethnicity usually lead to negative consequences for the group that does not belong to the dominant culture. The contemporary racism originated from various avenues, one of it being the society norms and upbringing. Indeed, as children grow, they exclusively rely on their parents or guardians to learn new things. Moreover, part of the upbringing involves teaching the children things about the society and the
Over the course of history, racism has become far more institutionalized and still affects people to this day. In the book, Uprooting Racism, by Paul Kivel the institutionalized racism and its effects are thoroughly discussed, as well as possible causes and ways to work toward ending racism. In the film, Walkout, by Edward James Olmos, the way institutionalized racism affects not only the adults but as well as the children is explored. In the film, Teenagers in the east side of Los Angeles fight for equal rights as well as equal opportunities in school. The book and film work together to show the situations that integrated racism places these young adults in. These situations can vary widely from simply having lower school budget, to being embarrassed in front of other students as punishment, not being allowed to speak spanish in school, and even being purposefully shied away from going to college.
The town I grew up in is Show Low, Arizona. Surrounding Show Low are many small neighboring towns. These towns all come together to form the White Mountains. Most of the citizens of my community are of a Caucasian background. There are also some different minority groups that come from different background that also live there. The majority of the non-Caucasian residents are of Native Americans decent and Mexican decent. There are Native Americans because of the Apache Reservation that lies to the East, and the Mexicans have immigrated because of the vast amount of construction jobs. The mixture of these different groups has caused many different problems with in the community of the White Mountains. There lies within the community old roots of prejudice and discrimination towards people of different cultures. Not only does prejudice still run high, but has also been a hindrance to the progress of the community, which has not just affected the progress of the community, but most likely the traditions will be passed down of prejudice and discrimination to the children of Show Low and the rest of the White Mountains.
With all three of these aspects of racism in consideration, race was a prevalent theme in the book that couldn’t escape the reader’s consciousness. Whether it was through showing the division of the communities, or through the feelings that each race held about the other race, the book portrays the history of racism in America.
In this world we are constantly being categorized by our race and ethnicity, and for many people it’s hard to look beyond that. Even though in the past many stood up for equality and to stop racism and discrimination, it still occurs. In this nation of freedom and equality, there are still many people who believe that their race is superior to others. These beliefs are the ones that destroy our nation and affect the lives of many. The people affected are not limited by their age group, sex, social status, or by their education level.
Last semester when I signed up for classes, I thought Sociology 260: Social Problems in the US would be a course where a minimal amount of time would be spent on discussing social problems and a maximum amount of time would be used to discuss public policies to combat such social problems. I wanted to jump the gun. I did not see that in order to implement a public policy, which would be of use, I had to fully understand all facets of the problem. Through these various books and articles, The Condemnation of Little B by Elaine Brown, "The Ghosts of 9-1-1: Reflections on History, Justice and Roosting Chickens," in On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill, Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Angloamerican Law by Ward Churchill, No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Justice System by David Cole, Welcome to the Machine: Science Surveillance, and the Culture of Control by Derrick Jensen and George Draffan, "Mastering the Female Pelvis: Race and the Tools of Reproduction," in Public Privates: Preforming Gynecology From Both Ends of the Spectrum by Terri Kapsalis and "Race and the New Reproduction" in Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts, a better understanding came to light on social issues currently seen as problematic like poverty, health care, race and discrimination, gender inequality and crime.
The connection of race and race relations in the United States was an ongoing issue, and while much progress was made, there are still people who revert back to old and ignorant takes on different races as the white man. This clearly relates to my own history based on the fact that various races are still being discriminated and treated unfairly and looked at as unequal. I can only hope that one day the whole population of the world can do the right thing and look at everyone as equals.
Family has the biggest influence on how race is perceived for some. Read stated, “children begin to develop attitudes About race between the ages of two and five, that not talking about race leaves them vulnerable to misinformation and stereotyping, and that children 's acceptance of differences among ethnic and racial groups is essential if we are to create a society with freedom and justice for all” (Readman, 2011, p.50). Educators need to teach an understanding and acceptance of our differences. The exposure of other races and ethnicities
Erin Gruwell began her teaching career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California where the school is integrated but it’s not working. Mrs. Gruwell is teaching a class fill with at-risk teenagers that are not interested in learning. But she makes not give up, instead she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning for their future as she assigned materials that can relate to their lives. This film has observed many social issues and connected to one of the sociological perspective, conflict theory. Freedom Writers have been constructed in a way that it promotes an idea of how the community where the student lives, represented as a racially acceptable society. The film upholds strong stereotypes of
Even though racial discrimination may not be as prevalent in the present day society, many African American men and women believe that they do not experience the same opportunities as the white race. Media in general plays such an active role in bringing more information about racial discrimination and how it is still occurring today. But media can also bring negative effects to the struggle in living up to social standards to today’s society “norms”. Anna Mae was very brave in lying about her identity to become someone she really wanted to be. But, I feel she should have never had to have done that. He story just goes to show how the power of society can change you as a human being. It can make you believe that you must change your identity in order to “fit in” which I find to be very sad. I think that more people in this world need to stand up to theses stereotypes of being the “perfect American” and say that no one is perfect in this world and everyone is created by the most perfect human God. Overall, racial discrimination is a part of our everyday lives and "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark" can still speak to us today, even with the play set in a time 80 years
The 2007 movie Freedom Writers gives a voice of hope and peace in a fragile environment where hate and sorrow battle in the life of urban teenagers. This drama film narrates the true story of a new English teacher, Erin Growell, who is designated to work in an inner-city school full of students surround by poverty, violence and youth crime bands. During the beginning of the movie, the teacher struggles to survive her first days at this racially segregated school in which students prejudice her for being white and ignore her authority in the classroom. The teacher encounters the life of students who are hopeless for a better future and attached to a delinquency lifestyle of survival. In addition, she confronts a reality of lack of educational
The film Freedom Writers directed by Richard La Gravenese is an American film based on the story of a dedicated and idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell, who inspires and teaches her class of belligerent students that there is hope for a life outside gang violence and death. Through unconventional teaching methods and devotion, Erin eventually teaches her pupils to appreciate and desire a proper education. The film itself inquiries into several concepts regarding significant and polemical matters, such as: acceptance, racial conflict, bravery, trust and respect. Perhaps one of the more concentrated concepts of the film, which is not listed above, is the importance and worth of education. This notion is distinctly displayed through the characters of Erin, Erin’s pupils, opposing teachers, Scott and numerous other characters in the film. It is also shown and developed through the usage of specific dialogue, environment, symbolism, and other film techniques.
...n people have nothing. If people had more compassion for others the United States would not have all the problems that it does today. Mrs. Erin Gruwell had compassion for the students; when they saw how much she cared they changed their perspectives on life. Against all odds toward against Mrs. Erin Gruwell, she had the power of human will to teach the student. The writer introduced several scenarios on how young innocent children were influenced by family and friends of the same racial background to create hatred and gang’s violence against other races. Five messages in Freedom Writer are: Non judgmental, Racism, having compassion, the power of the human will, and education. Being non judgmental, having compassion and having human will helped Mrs. Erin Gruwell educate the children at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. Segregated by race, united with education.
Freedom Writers is exalted by a true story and the diaries of real Long Beach juvenile after the LA riots also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest. Hilary Swank a two-time Academy Award winner stars as Erin Gruwell whose interest in becoming a teacher is soon ruined by a bunch of Blacks, Asian, and Latino criminals who disrespect her more than each other. When Erin prepares to concentrate on them like no grown up as ever done she soon realizes that for these kids getting through the day alive is good enough, they are teenagers fighting a war long ago before they were born. Like no other teacher in that school, Erin gives the students respect and dignity. For the first time, these teens soon understand that their lives matter and they have something to say.