For many year humans have been trying to fight against discrimination in their communities, but it's an uphill battle that doesn’t seem like it’s been fully wiped out yet in our society. Discrimination and Prejudice has been a key issue that has affected many people around the world. In the movie that we saw in class, “My Cousin Vinny” (1992) it focused on these key issues of prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes and even eye witness testimonies. In the movie it focuses on these key issues while bringing a little humor to the viewers. In this paper I will be going into more detail of how this movie really brought to light these key issues.
The first issue that I will be focusing on is how much prejudice was seen in the whole
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Discrimination is “Differential (usually negative) behaviors directed toward members of different social groups”(Branscombe & Baron, 2017). So, basically some discrimination that I saw in the movie was in the very beginning where the two old ladies were looking at Billy and his friend drive in their car playing loud music. I considered this to be discriminatory because the ladies didn’t even know the young men but they were making snarky remarks and even disgusted facial expressions. I felt like this was discrimination because they were having negative behaviors towards people they didn’t know and yet they were judging them on just a small factor. Another example of how the judge and jury also acted in a very discriminatory manner was when Vinny first came into defend Billy. The judge and jury acted like he was a horrible person for speaking the way he did and dressing the way he did. So, they went out of their way to laugh and tell him to dress better and be more prepared. Because of this Vinny actually conformed to their standards and gave in to their demands of what they considered to be a lawyer. Conformity is when you comply to fit a standard in society because you want to fit in and be liked as well (Branscombe & Baron, 2017). So, not only was Vinny a victim of discrimination for the way he dressed and talked but because of such discrimination he began to conform …show more content…
Eyewitness testimony is when people who were either involved in the “accident/ situation” give their side of the story, and give a testimony on what supposedly happened all through their eyes (Branscombe & Baron, 2017). In the movie eyewitness testimony was key to convict the “killers” of the store clerk murder, and one example was when each person described the car all from different points of view and distances. I felt like the eyewitnesses just used each other to reference the same car, they all didn’t have an accurate description of the car but when with it based on what the lawyer was say and hinting at. Another way these eyewitness testimonies seemed to be completely wrong and even harmful to the investigation was because everyone said that they saw Billy and his friend running away and speeding off when they could not really describe those two young mans descriptions with great detail. Which this was another form of eyewitness testimonies are really unreliable and shouldn’t really be used in a court of
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
We’ve all done it: walking down a hallway, judging someone or thinking someone is less than what we perceive ourselves to be based on the color of their skin or how they are dressed, or even their physical features. The author of The Language of Prejudice, Gordon Allport, shares how we live in a society where we are ridiculed for being less than a culture who labels themselves as dominant. This essay reveals the classifications made to the American morale. Allport analyzes in many ways how language can stimulate prejudice and the connection between language and prejudice.
Gone are the days of legalized slavery, of Nazi Germany, of women being incapable of having a notable opinion. No longer is there a system of racial segregation adopted by an entire country, complete white supremacy or lynchings performed by the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, although we are no longer exposed to such past experiences and despite us living in a world where diversity is embraced more than ever, the existence of prejudice remains. Today we have universally come to accept multiculturalism, varied ethnic backgrounds and those populations who historically were forever stigmatized. But in spite of these developments prejudice has manifested itself in other, more subtle ways and no matter how modernized society become such unfavourable attitudes
For example, when the victims want to remember something, or someone, strongly and with high confidence, the witness can still be wrong. The eyewitness is given all the photos of the suspects laid out to identify the person they remember committing the crime. Also the eyewitness is asked to identify each photo whether is the culprit or not. Prosecutors should look over the cases before relying on eyewitness. Prosecutors should not depend on eyewitness testimony because that will lead to wrongful convictions. The wrongful convictions span the criminal justice system from investigation and arrest to prosecution and trail(Ferrero). False conviction makes the justice system stronger and arresting innocent is wrong. And picking out person similar to the murder. Not catching the real suspect might cause the public risky. Public safety be in risk."Wrongful conviction is gravest violation of personal liberty and also poses severe public safety risks, as the real perpetrator could remain on the street," an innocence Project news release said. The real suspect might kill many people or if the eyewitness might be in risk. If the victim is still life might be kill again. Lying about someone is not good thing might have miserable life in their future.
Discrimination is too common in the current day and age. It is used to help ignorant, weak people with insecurities to feel better about themselves. Humanity as a whole needs to learn to be more accepting of others, differences and all. Disney Pixar’s “Day and Night” is a short film about two characters, Day and Night, who couldn't look past each other’s differences in the beginning, yet by the end, they developed a mutual appreciation of each other through getting over their fear of the unknown and discriminating others. In “Day and Night,” the characters’ lack of understanding and prejudice paradoxically assists the characters, Day and Night, in developing tolerance for each other and learning to embrace their differences. Ultimately, “Day and Night” proposes that even though the unknown is not well-perceived by others until they experience the said "unknown" themselves, humanity should be less judgmental and more open-minded because nobody is perfect and everyone is different and perfectly unique in their own way.
Eyewitnesses are primarily used by the criminal justice system for investigating and prosecuting crimes, particularly in circumstances where it is the only evidence available (Wells & Olson, 2003). Their testimony is highly regarded as it allows for police, prosecutors, judges and juries to establi...
It is clear that something had to be done about the reliability of eyewitness testimony as there existed a complete paradox about this between judges and juries. Brown reported in 1974 that ‘Judges, defence attorneys and psychologists believe it to be just about the least trustworthy kind of evidence or guilt, whereas jurors have always found it more persuasive than any sort of evidence. Obviously that view may have changed now, the police now have much more sophisticated resources available to them when investigated crimes.
The use of eyewitnesses has been a constant in of criminal justice system since its very beginning. Unfortunately, people do not make the best witnesses to a crime. The person may not have seen the actual criminal, but someone that looks similar to them. The witness may lie about what he or she may have scene. Also the witness can be influenced by the police as to who or what they saw at the time of the crime. The witness or victims memory of the person may have faded so that they don’t remember exactly what had seen, which could be disastrous for the accused.
Eyewitness identification and testimony play a huge role in the criminal justice system today, but skepticism of eyewitnesses has been growing. Forensic evidence has been used to undermine the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the leading cause of false convictions in the United States is due to misidentifications by eyewitnesses. The role of eyewitness testimony in producing false confessions and the factors that contribute to the unreliability of these eyewitness testimonies are sending innocent people to prison, and changes are being made in order to reform these faulty identification procedures.
"Crash" is a movie that exposes different kinds of social and multicultural differences, giving us a quick example of how these conducts affect our society. Two of the behaviors observed, are Prejudice and Stereotyping. Identified as the causes of where all the events eradicate.
Many often justify discrimination through the means of statistical evidence, claiming that groups that are stigmatized deserve their treatment by citing negative attributes about them. However, this paradox is frequently unresolved to even those who realize the fallacy in discrimination. Several researchers in social psychology, including Galen V. Bodenhausen and Jennifer A. Richeson, have offered potential reasons behind this happening; “It should come as no surprise that individuals’ attitudes and stereotypical beliefs affect the way intergroup interactions unfold. Indeed, individuals who harbor negative stereotypes about the group membership of their interaction partners often display behavior that conforms to their stereotypical beliefs”(Bodenhausen & Richeson, 361). This shows how those discriminated against are likely to adapt to their societal status, and thus often behave according to their respective stereotypes. From this, one can begin to infer that this paradox is a reinforcing cycle, and that prejudice forms as a result of discrimination. Building upon this trend, in the final chapters of the text, a Peters reflects on the trends and results derived from Jane’s exercises, and how it related to the act of discrimination itself; “But even more pernicious, [the exercise] also illustrates how the results of discrimination tend
Racism is based on the belief that one’s culture is superior to that of others, and this racial superiority provides justification for discrimination. Racism begins with categorising by race, and therefore stereotyping particular cultures. A simple definition of prejudice given by St Thomas Aquinas states prejudice as “thinking ill of others without sufficient cause” (1. pg 21). Racism is a major issue in today’s society, affecting a large number of the world’s population and causing political and social turmoil. To evaluate the true meaning, effects and views concerning racism in today’s world, a number of literature sources were researched including novel, films, short stories, poetry, song lyrics, textbooks and magazine articles.
This brings attention to why race and ethnicity exist so predominantly in society. There are a number of theories that observe why racism, prejudice, and discri...
It is often one of the most important types of evidence in a court room and plays a big role in the criminal justice system. In court, an individual is expected to remember information they saw while being present in a crime that was committed. Some people might think it is easy, if a person was there at the time of the crime committed there is no way they may get it wrong, but the reality is that many do misidentify the perpetuator and the justice system winds up incarcerating the wrong individual. Eyewitnesses have to retrieve their memories from the time the crime was occurred which can be troubling when our memories can easily be changed with what we believe to be true. Throughout the years, studies have in fact shown that eyewitness testimony is not reliable. There are many factors in eyewitness testimony that can cause a wrongful conviction some of them being, weapon focus, mental state, racial profiling and show-ups versus line-ups. The Innocence Project stated that eyewitness misidentification is the one of the main reasons to wrongful convictions which was proven by 70% of convictions overturned due to DNA testing. Two stories that are constantly used to demonstrate factors that come into play when identifying a perpetrator is the story of “Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton” as well as the story of Brenton Butler which had a documentary created called “Murder On a
Discrimination is a big part of a lot of people’s life. Many people face a lot of racial discrimination but that is not the only kind of discrimination there is. There is also gender discrimination and that was very big before but not as big as it used to be. There are two movies where the main character’s Scout and Skeeter both face lots of discrimination, and they both dealt with racial and gender discrimination. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout deals with racial discrimination towards her family. But in The Help, Skeeter deals with a lot of racial discrimination because it took place in southern alabama when they still had slaves.