Prejudice and discrimination
Summary of the movie
A very rich and powerful man known as Philip Colbert who comes from Chicago and who had plans to construct a factory in a rural southern town called Sparta in Mississippi was found murdered. The regional police boss Chief Bill is under pressurre to investigate the murder of Philip quickly. A well-dressed African-American northerner named Virgil Tibbs, who was waiting for a train in a deserted station, is picked up by a police officer who is a racist. Virgil is found with a lot of money in his pocket. After being arrested, he is brought to Sheriff Bill Gillespie, who is an overweight and fast talking man. Gillespie, who is prejudiced heavily against the black American, concludes that he has his criminal. He is embarrassed when he knows that Tibbs is an honored Philadelphia homicide detective who was visiting his parent. After this, Tibbs wants to leave, but he is requested to stay and help in the situation by his captain.
The wife of the killed man is impressed by the ability of Tibbs when he clears another suspect who was wrongly accused on flimsy evidence. She is frustrated by the incompetence of the local police officers. She threatens to stop the factory construction unless Tibbs leads the murder investigation. Gillespie asks Tibbs to lend his services through orders from the town mayor though he was unwilling to accept Tibbs help.
Even though the relationship started in a rocky state, the two police officers came to respect each other since they are required to work together to solve the murder issue. A wealthy farm owner Eric Endicott is suspected by Tibbs, who was opposing the construction of the new factory. During the interrogation of Eric by Tibbs, Eric slaps Tibbs on his face which forces Tibbs to slap Eric. Eric sends a gang of redneck thugs after Tibbs. Gillespie saves Tibbs from the fight with the gangs and command Tibbs to stay away from that town for his security and welfare. Tibbs says he will not leave till he has fully resolved the issue.
The police officer who discovered the body of the murdered man, Sam Wood, is asked by Tibbs to review his movements before the night of the crime. They are accompanied by Gillespie on Sam’s patrol route, stopped to have a dinner but the counterman named Ralph refuses to serve Tibbs based on the fact that he is black. Gillespie suspects Sam to be a suspect after Tibbs notices that Sam has deliberately changed his route. Sam is found to have deposited huge amounts of cash into his bank account one day before the murder, but Sam claims he got that money from gambling. Lloyd Purdy also charges Sam for impregnating his daughter Delores where he is arrested by Gillespie for murder even though Tibbs was against it. Purdy wants to take revenge to Tibbs as he gathers a big mob to follow Tibbs for he was there during interrogation about her daughter’s sexual abuse.
Tibbs saves Sam after as he finds the original killer and states that he is unable to drive two vehicles consequently to throw the murdered body and the car of the victim while he was still on patrol. He traces a local physician who says that somebody has given him cash so that he can assist in the abortion of Delores pregnancy. Tibbs is confronted by the killer when he pursues Delores as she arrives as Ralph acts as, the counterman. Tibbs is tracked down by Purdy mob after which he tells Purdy that it was Ralph who impregnated her daughter and not Sam. Purdy attacks Ralph but he is killed in self-defense by Ralph. Ralph is arrested where he accepts to have murdered Colbert. It is found that he tried to rob Colbert to have money to carry out Delores abortion but accidentally killed Colbert. After this, Tibbs boards a train to go back.
Discussion of relevant course concepts raised in the film
There exist a well-manifested murder cases that seem not to solve the problem of prejudice and racism. Tibbs shows his excellent characters since he is a self-controlled and intelligent person who allows himself to racial stereotype plays. He lets himself stay within the lines drawn to him as that allows him to govern his situations (Crosby et al., 1980).
This film shows a high level of racial tensions. The chief of police, Gillespie, through murder solving of Colbert has shown his capability to overcome racial discrimination. He portrays attitudes in the movie which enables us to understand the problems faced during changing attitudes of a white southern town toward African-American, who stay there. He is moved by his desire of maintaining the peace as justice is better than peace as shown in this two occasions. when Tibbs was arrested because he is a black who was found with a large stash of cash and the second is when the man who stole the dead mans wallet was arrested, where the murder case was laid on the man by Gillespie without investigation. He realizes that the police needs to do more than maintaining law and order.
The chief tries to overcome his racism as he tries to risk his life several times by maintaining a good relationship with Tibbs, as he can be friends to African- American. When four hoodlums tried to attack Tibbs, he comes to rescue Tibbs. The boys named chief a nigger lover, which he just ignored and did not let it get to him. This event showed that the chief evaded the racist ways of the whites.
Gillespie learns that Tibbs has no difference with him, and they are equal and he is not minor, he tries to start a relationship with Tibbs, a black man. During the post-mortem, Tibbs indicates his ability of superior forensic science knowledge to all police officers. Gillespie identifies that Tibbs has better qualities than him, and he starts to consider Tibbs as his equal. Later, Tibbs is left in the office as the small girl explains to Gillespie how Sam impregnated her. The chief listen to Tibbs about this conflicting issues showing his trust in Tibbs.
How this film fitted well with on material on prejudice and discrimination from class work and textbook.
The prejudice corrosiveness is demonstrated by a group of white police officers and red-necks toward Tibbs, who is an African-American detective from the north. The police arrest Tibbs as a suspect in the case involving the murdering of a wealthy man, Colbert, while at the railway station. The African-American, Tibbs, also shows prejudice when his case is cleared of being a suspect and remorsefully engaged to aid in solving the murder crime. This opposition of hatred between the blacks and whites is mostly showed in various dilemmas of the present world (Schmitt et, al 2002).
There seems to be prejudice when the local police officers confront Tibbs and arrests him because he was a black. This police based their judgment on a racial basis. They showed mistrust to the African-American detective. These two professional police officers, overcome prejudice when the white police, Gillespie, respects the black man, Tibbs, because of his evident skills and where later he was enraged and repulsed by those whites with abusive arrogances and behaviors. Steiger and Poitier have magnificent manners where each of them each gives natural power and individual depth to the imperfect people.
During dinner where Sam starts a conversation with Ralph as Ralphs fails to serve Tibbs. In the wells, discrimination occurs when Ralph and Sam chat about Italian boxer as they hope he will conquer one of the black fighters. Sam says that black have the same nervous system as the whites, but he compares them to animals thats why they win. Sam arrest Tibbs at the railway station just because he is black and looks suspicious. All these cases are discrimination cases which correlate to the definition of discrimination from the book.
References
Crosby, F., Bromley, S., & Saxe, L. (1980). Recent unobtrusive studies of Black and White discrimination and prejudice: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 87(3), 546.
Fishbein, H. D. (1996). Peer prejudice and discrimination: Evolutionary, cultural, and developmental dynamics. Westview Press 65-81.
Stone-Romero, E. F., & Stone, D. L. (2005). How do organizational justice concepts relate to discrimination and prejudice. Handbook of organizational justice, 439-467.
Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Harvey, R. D. (1999). Perceiving pervasive discrimination among African Americans: Implications for group identification and well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 77(1), 135.
Schmitt, M. T., Branscombe, N. R., Kobrynowicz, D., & Owen, S. (2002). Perceiving discrimination against one’s gender group has different implications for well-being in women and men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(2), 197-210.
Elliot Aronson, Timothy Wilson, Beverly Fehr, Robin Akert. (2012). Social Psychology (5th ed.). Canada
Cabrera, A. F., Nora, A., Terenzini, P. T., Pascarella, E., & Hagedorn, L. S. (1999). Campus racial climate and the adjustment of students to college: A comparison between White students and African-American students. Journal of Higher Education, 134-160.
Crosby, F., Bromley, S., & Saxe, L. (1980). Recent unobtrusive studies of Black and White discrimination and prejudice: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 87(3), 546.
