I am old enough to have grown up during the latter part of the Civil Rights Movement. I was five years old when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, ten when Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were also assassinated. I also remember watching the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (we only got two channels back then) and the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. I thought nothing like that goes on around here but, I grew up in a small rural town not far from University Park. When it came to diversity in this town it was somewhat limited. The town was made up of Irish,, Polish, or Slovakian. You were Protestant or Catholic and even the Catholics had three separate churches, one for the Irish, one for the Polish, and the third for the Slovakian. The adult males either worked in the coal, lumber industries or worked at one of the brick yards. The women who worked at that time generally worked in one of the sewing factories. The adults I knew at this time in my home town in 1968 were also very prejudice. It was like Norman Lear took bits and pieces from this town to create Archie Bunker his main character in the TV sitcom “All In The Family”.’
In the 47 years since 1968 the issues of prejudice, discrimination and racism had been making improvements. Recently though is seems like we are going backwards. There have been incidents of white police officers shooting unarmed African Americans, issues at major college campuses that have put college presidents under fire for their actions or lack of actions dealing with racial problems. One of the most egregious acts of prejudice and discrimination showed its face in the past week or so. After the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday November 13, 2015 President Obama spoke of accepting Syrian refugees. I was not surprised that 47% of the American public is not in favor of this (Beinart , 2015). What was shocking is that 37 Governors and Congress are overwhelmingly against allowing Syrian refugees into this country. So much for Congress and Declaration of Independence’s, “all men are created equal” (The Declaration of Independence , 1776). It is just surprising to me that people who have sworn to protect the United States Constitution can be so discriminatory, racist and prejudicial towards one group of people.
As described in a 2012 American Psychological Association report, “Discrimination creates substantial harm, for individuals and for U.S. society as a whole” (APA, 2012). It is hard to believe that an elected official would state that his state will not allow one Syrian refugee to cross his borders. Governor Paul LePage of Maine made the statement, “…I adamantly oppose any attempt by the federal government to place Syrian refugees in Maine, and will take every lawful measure in my power to prevent it from happening” (WCSH & NEWS CENTER, WCSH, 2015). At that time he was one of nine governors that shared the same view, since then the number has grown.
I do not think we will ever be without racism, prejudices, and discrimination, people have dealt “with is since the beginning of time. Noticing differences in people is natural” (APA, 2012) but how we judge and classify others is something we often pick up from our environment as we grow up and develop a part of how we were nurtured. Unfortunately some develop the perception that one race, religion or ethnicity is superior to another race or races (APA, 2012). It is wrong to believe that all members of one race, religion, or nationality process all the same characteristics or one specific group. Such as the case of thinking all Muslim’s or Syrians are terrorist. As humans we can have prejudicial thought without even having intent and even this can be harmful. We need to stop hiding behind the silence of not talking about racism, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping and bring it out in the open and have honest true discussions about it. Perhaps Congress and Governors need to replicate the Miss Elliott’s, “A Class Divided” experiment, but divide them by eye color not political party.
References:
APA. (2012). Race, prejudice and stereotypes: APA report on preventing discrimination and promoting diversity. Retrieved November 21, 2015, from American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/pi/about/newsletter/2012/04/discrimination-diversity.aspx
Beinart , P. (2015, November 23). Why Obama Is Standing by the Syrian Refugees. Retrieved from The Atlantic : http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/obama-syrian-refugees/417222/
The Declaration of Independence . (1776, July 4). Retrieved November 24, 2015, from Charters of Freedom: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
WCH, & NEWS CENTER, WCSH. (2015, November 16). LePage on Syrian refugees: “will take every lawful measure in my power to prevent it”. Retrieved November 22, 2015, from WCSH 6: http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/2015/11/16/after-paris-attacks-gov-lepage-refuses-to-accept-syrian-refugees/75876664/
Such a true statement and very relevant to what is happening in our current day situations. Not only are we rejecting cultures deemed terroristic into our nation but we are, also, discriminating against our own people, right here in this country, because of their skin color. The ERA changed laws but apparently it has not changed the way people think. This is going to take a lot more than a legal intervention. This will take generations of education to try to get people to understand that the color of someone’s skin doesn’t make someone different on the inside.
This is such a relevant topic, i’m glad you brought light to it. There was a study by Stanford’s Department of Psychology, where when shown the disparity between races in prison, people actually supported harsher punishments. Of course, since african americans are more likely to go to prison or be charged than they’re white counterparts, this implicates support for harsher penalties on them. This just goes to show that when you try to expose institutional racism, it often is misrepresented or misinterpreted in people’s mind to be justifiable. It’s a cognitive dissonance that is quelled by finding a justifiable reason for why the discriminated deserve to be discriminated against, rather than acknowledging or rectifying the biased system. I believe a lot of it has to do with not understanding the historical aspects of racism. Some would like to believe that discrimination seceded slavery, the holocaust, the passing of the 19th amendment, civil rights, or any other historical moment for minorities but it didn’t. We don’t need to be color-blind or ambivalent to our differences but accepting that we can be unique and still understanding and engaged with one another. From other psychology courses, i understand that prejudice can be resolved from having various backgrounds come together on an important issue that impacts all, and that collectively everyone works on an equally vital task to improve this issue, in a casual setting. Maybe we need more mixed background communities.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/08/05/0956797614540307.abstract
Great blog entry! I agree with you, I think that the issues of racism, prejudice, and stereotyping will ever be completely eliminated. There will always be people who have strong prejudices against other people who are different than them. I think the media plays an important part on this issue as well. When you watch the news of an African American person killed, often you see the media portray them as someone who did drugs, had a criminal record, or was not perfect. When you see the news of a Caucasian person committing a crime, more often than not, he is portrayed as a person who had mental problems. I recently saw a documentary about four black girls who were killed in a church bombing back in the 1960’s in the state of Alabama, and one would think that those situations would not happen again, but then you have someone go to a church and just shoot at people attending it happening in the year 2015, and it just makes you sad.
I think that we all should come together as a society to try to educate everyone about what is wrong with racism and prejudice. We need to stop judging others based on their religion, background, culture, etc and start accepting them. This could start at the homes with parents teaching these values to their children, and then it could be taught at schools with lessons similar to the ones used in “A Class Divided.”