Racism, An Institutional Ideology

1178 Words5 Pages
Racism, an institutional ideology In 2006, the movie Crash presented many challenging portrayals of racial and ethnic issues. Crash is set in Los Angeles and portrays the ways in which people often show evidence of racist behavior, even while shielding themselves from the same kind of conduct, during confrontation. They do so when apprehensive and insecure: when discouraged with tribulations beyond their control, when threatened with a loss of self-esteem, and when frightened that racial others may extricate them from their place in the social structure. Racist behavior is an easy response because racial categories were fabricated to present superior and inferior status. Race is an influential idea and a continuing concept, made-up by society. It has also fostered inequality and discrimination for centuries, as well as influencing how we relate to other human beings. A “stereotype” is an oversimplification about a person or a group of people. We utilize stereotypes when we are incapable or reluctant to attain all of the information we would need to make impartial judgments about people or situations. In the absence of detail, stereotyping in many situations allow us to arrive at a general conclusion of these groups. Although we may innocently generate and be responsible for stereotypes, it can, and does, often lead to unfair inequity and discrimination when the stereotype is inauspicious. By stereotyping, we take for granted that a person or group has some definite distinctiveness. Television, books, comic strips, music, and theater are all copious starting places of stereotyped characters. Stereotypes also progress out of trepidation of persons from minority groups. This may be how some stereotypes developed in the first place; a series of isolated behaviors by a member of a group which was unfairly generalized to be viewed as a character of all members
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