Racism and Freedom of Expression Now more than ever we are able to witness racism at its most severe. With rising hostilities and racism between nations, inter – ethnic racism and institutional racism. Racism As the world becomes a smaller place and the with emergence of globalisation we may expect racism to be a thing of the past. However, this is not the case. For reasons I have trouble understanding, the world is coming to a point where racism is widespread and the situation is becoming increasingly becoming worse. Institutional racism There are loads of examples of institutional racism in currently in Britain. In the police, education system and the media. It was found that a police officers of Merseyside police force circulated offensive and racist images. One which was the image of a decapitated black man and others with messages of racial hatred in them. But what is astonishing about this story is that these officers were allowed to keep their jobs and were fined no more than 3 days pay. Around £350. Ten uniformed officers and 3 civilian workers were disciplined for processing and circulating the images within the Merseyside police force – one of Britain’s biggest forces. A former Merseyside detective also found that racial abuse was often used within the force and used to refer to those from ethnic minorities. It was also reported that three police officers at the largest police training centre where racial threats were sent by an anonymous fellow trainee officer who said he was part of the neo – Nazi group. The letters were sent to one black and two Asian trainees and contained reference to “... ... middle of paper ... ...the cartoon depicting prophet Mohammed with no one being punished and the case of David Irving illustrates do we really have the right to say what we wish? Yet when fundamental Muslims protest and dress as suicide bombers they are reprimanded. It is a case of double standards. When Salman Rushdie published the Satanic Verses there was a fatwa issued against him in Iran. Should people be able to die for a particular belief. The racial hatred bill threatens our civil liberties – the government now tells us what we are and are not allowed to believe. Should we be able to believe what we want as long as we don’t act on it? In London alone over 50 percent of reported homicide victims are black people, this is disproportionate to the population and disproportionate to the media reporting of such incidents.
belief is not to produce true belief. Instead theistic belief allows the believer to avoid
Many of us hold onto our beliefs or myths even when we are presented with evidence proving our beliefs to be false. In the article, “When ears don’t hear, truth is futile” by Leonard Pitts Jr. he states, “When people are determined to believe a lie, there is nothing more futile than the truth.” (para. 16) Why is that? As human beings sometimes it is easier to hold onto our fabricated worldviews, this allows us to stay and rest in our comfortable bubbles. If we were to appropriately assess truthful information presented to us, we might experience cognitive turmoil, our biased truths becomes lies, and ultimately we now have information that would either force a lifestyle change or we “bury our head in the sand” so to speak. In the article Leonard
It is crucial that every belief must be thoroughly explored and justified to avoid any future repercussions. Clifford provides two examples in which, regardless of the outcome, the party that creates a belief without comprehensive justification ends up at fault. It is possible to apply the situations in The Ethics of Belief to any cases of belief and end up with the conclusion that justification is of utmost importance. Justifying beliefs is so important because even the smallest beliefs affect others in the community, add to the global belief system, and alter the believer moral compass in future decisions.
In the early 1920's, many generational Americans had moderately racist views on the "new immigrants," those being predominantly from Southern and Eastern Europe. Americans showed hatred for different races, incompatibility with religion, fear of race mixing, and fear of a revolution from other races. At the time, people believed the Nordic race was supreme.
Human beings’ belief systems don’t always work according to evidence. Belief is made up of
At the end of the day we are all going to believe whatever we want and nothing will change our mind, however we will never know the truth, we are never going to be able to to find the
Clifford’s arguments for this conclusion is that if we are gullible enough to believe something without evidence then we are not only harming our individual credibility and intellect but also polluting the rest of society...
The Freedom Writer tells a story that taken place among a first year teacher and a group of different students that own all kinds of origin, color of skin and background. Erin Gruwell came from Newport Beach while the students came from East Los Angeles. In the movie, racism is a problem that cannot be neglected. It is the root cause of hatred, as well as a global issue.
In the United States, free speech is protected by the First Amendment in which it states, “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion … or abridging the freedom of speech.” Now, nearly 250 years into the future, the exact thing that the Founding Fathers were afraid of is starting to happen. Today, our freedom of speech is being threatened through different forces, such as the tyranny of the majority, the protection of the minority, and the stability of the society. Now, colleges and universities in the United States today are also trying to institute a code upon its students that would bar them from exercising their right to speak freely in the name of protecting minorities from getting bullied. This brings us into
While racial prejudice and racism may seem and sound similar, they are different. According to the Oxford Dictionary racism is “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races” (Racism); whereas, prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience” (Prejudice). An important difference between racial prejudice and racism is that prejudice is a part of individuals, and racism is a part of a society. Racism is far more powerful than racial prejudice, even though it takes racial prejudice for racism to exist. Racism is where a “racial group has the social power to act on racial prejudice and negatively impact the lives of another racial group” (Harvey & Allard, 2012, p. 72). Racism is far more impacting and damaging than racial prejudice, even though racism cannot exist without some form of racial prejudice being present. An example of racial prejudice would be to assume that African American teenagers tend to be thieves. An individual store owner may have such racial prejudice simply based on an unfounded preconceived opinion. The store owner may be more suspicious of African American teenagers when they shop at his store that that of White teenagers. Racial prejudice can also happen when a person sees a group of African American teenagers, and automatically views them as gangsters and trouble makers simply based on an unfounded preconceived opinion. An extreme example of racism is when African Americans were not treated as equals in many parts of America before and duri...
There is no country in the history of the world in which racism has had such an important role and for as long as in the United States. The problem of racial barrier or color line still exist. How did this begin? In the British colonies, slavery became quickly a stable institution, the normal working relationship between blacks and whites. Next to them is developed that feeling special racial - whether hatred, contempt, pity or paternalism- to accompany the bottom position of blacks in America during the 350 years following that combination of lower rank and pejorative thought that we call "racism".
...at people say even though when it is not true because we tends to believe what others says. Our memories in our mind can be tricky and get mixed up by what people say; it can trick us in to believing that it is true. In which that makes them unable to separate what is fake, fantasy, from reality.
Pregnancy outcomes are affected by racism and chronic stress due to many life’s factors such as social and economic. Studies have proven that the majority of African American babies are born premature and with weight problems in comparison to white American babies, and it is no a coincidence that these race is the one most affected by discrimination. Racism could be the answer to this dilemma because it is an issue people have been dealing with for decades, which has increase people worries to the point of becoming a chronic stress. A century ago, the average American lived only about 48 years, but as living conditions and medical care improve, people began living longer as mention of the “In Sickness and in Wealth” video. The society made possible for living conditions to improved, but still was not able to fight racism. For example, in the 1930’s the new social programs prevented an economic crisis from becoming an even worse health crisis by providing services that protected children and good health. The same happened when the returning veterans got the GI bill, offering them home...
Can one say that Americans have become tolerant or is racism alive and thriving in America? In recent news reports in print and televised, intolerance of others has been a hot topic. From the Clippers basketball franchise owner to the brothers that host a show on HGTV (Home and Garden Television). Have we not gotten past the racism that saw people sprayed with high pressure water hoses and attacked by trained dogs or has it become culvert to the point where most feel secure to be who they only to be shocked back to reality by things such as aforementioned?
Human beings decide our own uncertainty and fate. In The Will to Believe, James discusses choice and questions genuine choice. He categorizes these choices as ones that are lived, force and the ones he calls “momentous”. For the first option, we have the choice on whether we conceptualize a thought in which we agree with opposed to being against. Second, the option of either being forced to choose something or doing the exact opposite and deny the belief by not choosing at all. Lastly, we have this “momentous” understanding that affects us and can be one occurrence in a lifetime. Based on these selections, we can shape what we believe in. There are different situations that play out when it comes to believing in something. In other words, whether we want to admit it or not, there are many outside factors that influence our own beliefs. James considers the notion that we sometimes look to leaders and people in power and shape our beliefs through them. Also, occasionally when have a choice that can’t be answered logically, we have to make the choice whether it’s ok to believe that is true or not and live with the fact that we may have been wrong. William James states “Do not decide, just like “yes” or “no” and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth” (James WTB 334). The two things that dictate how we form our beliefs are the desire to know it and the