This paper shall begin by an introduction of the topic of racism, prejudice and stereotypes by defining some of the significant terms used or commonly referred to in this topic. Further, the paper shall review a video on the same subject and discuss some of the elements and aspects as brought out in the video. This submission will then discuss the topic concurrently illustrating the same from the said video and will then conclude by highlighting some of the aspects to appreciate the occurrences and relate the same with real-life situations.
The words racism, stereotypes and prejudices are more often than not used interchangeably in casual conversations. However, it is essential to distinguish them, more so, when referring to them from a sociological perspective. The term prejudice refers to feelings, thoughts and/or beliefs that a person has towards a group of people. Usually the bearer of the feelings, thoughts and beliefs is not a member of such a group which he or she pictures differently. Racism, from a sociological point of view can be defined as a type of prejudice that involves a particular belief or thoughts about a particular racial group. Stereotypes on the other hand can be defined from a sociological perspective as oversimplified thought and/or ideas over a particular group of people.
In the video, a social experiment is conducted to determine how shoppers in New York respond to the most common forms of racism today. The setting of the experiment is at an upscale New York boutique. The experiment dubbed ‘What would you do’ the researches have and actor and actresses pose as a security guard, store clerk and a shopper. The store clerk spots the ‘black’ shopper and starts following her around in the store telling her that people like her cannot afford certain commodities, asking her to leave because she was tired of keeping her eyes on her stating reasons like people like her are shoplifters and a lot of word to that effect. In the first scenario they target two ‘white’ ladies by ensuring that the exchange of words takes place just close to them. The two ladies listen to the confrontation and upon getting a hint of what was happening they go on about with their businesses, without coming to the aid of the helpless shopper. Upon being interviewed later, one of the ladies stated that she felt sorry for her and the other stated that she could not intervene and could not sound an alarm because she did not know the helpless shopper.
In another scenario, as shown by the same video, the shopper is confronted by the store clerk and is told she could not shop in that sore and the security guards moves in to add salt to the injury by conducting a search on the shopper, the shopper in ‘frustration’ turns to a couple which was going around with their shopping business and told them that she had been searched and asked if the couple had undergone the same; the couple completely ignore her, giving no response at all and go on with their shopping business. After the ‘black’ shopper is taken away, the store clerk goes towards the ‘white’ couple and starts taking about the lady who had just been taken out and the guy comments, “she probably played the black card.” When the same couple is told afterwards that the event was staged, the guy changed the story and said that he felt sorry for her and when asked if it happened for real, could he defend someone? In his response, he posed back the same question.
In the third scenario that this submission seeks to highlight and review, the helpless shopper is confronted in the same manner as before and this time close to a ‘white’ shopper who seemed to be completely distracted by the conversation and after the helpless shopper is whisked away, the store clerks engages her in a conversation and tries portray the helpless shopper as the black type, the ‘white’ lady gets offended and she even bursts into tears. Another scenario this submission intends to highlight and review is the scenario where a ‘black’ guy defends the ’black’ shopper by confronting the store clerk and offered to leave the store.
In the final scenario, the helpless shopper is confronted as before and the security guard even goes ahead to violently frisk her. A ‘white’ lady steps in to her defence and urges her to file a complaint. The lady gets agitated and walks away holding the arm of the already intimidated shopper and other shoppers also seeing what was happening followed suit. The social experiment was conducted and approximately one hundred shoppers witnessed but only about twenty of them reacted.
There is a biased thinking That African-Americans are not rich and cannot go and about doing stuff that normally would require the use of a lot of money and as such when seen in some of the upscale settings, they are closely monitored. Similarly, there is a biased thinking that African-Americans are thieves and/or shoplifters and have criminal tendencies and that is why they have to be closely watched when in upscale social settings; and that is the definition of discrimination and the social experiment was successful in unveiling these unfortunate acts.
Anthropologists and scientists have been behind categorizing people based on races which is primarily is on the grounds of origin. It is true that the problems that are experienced currently can be said to have originated from this anthropological and scientific methods of classifying people. This is so because there are those people who maintain that their race is superior to that of other people. In the social experiment it is evident that the ‘whites’ consider themselves as more superior to the ‘blacks’
Past Research over the past few decades have revealed that racism is on the Decline in the United States of America. Significant strides have been made to try and eliminate racism completely but the same is not easy to achieve. Anti-racism laws that have been past in the United states have also contributed to these statistics. Having the first ‘black’ President of the United States of America is also a pointer that racism is on the decline. Racism being on the decline does not necessarily mean that racism has been eradicated. There are still a number of racist people in the United States of America and perhaps racial discrimination has taken a new dimension which is indirect and the shooting down of the Obama-Care is a pointer to the indirect form of racial discrimination.
According to a number of sources that are conducting current researches on racial discrimination, the United States of America has the highest number of racially charged searches in Google and this is a pointer that a lot of work still need to be done to harmonize the society in America. In the video, a number of whites proved that they indeed were not for racial discrimination and they were more than willing to stop their shopping and go do it elsewhere, where people were not being discriminated against. A good number of shoppers may have not directly discriminated against the helpless shopper but the fact that they ignored or did not seem bothered only pointed to the indirect discrimination. This, therefore, means that sociologists have to employ new methods and tactic of conducting research and to be able to device new ways of encouraging the society to harmonize and unite as one. Discrimination,racism and prejudice if get out of hand and escalates to dangerous levels, they may lead to genocide and even terrorism. Racial discrimination also plays a significant role in the immigration circles and this has been dubbed as the new discrimination.
In conclusion, racial discrimination and prejudices still exist within the United States of America, just as the Video reviewed in this submission brought out; however, the degree has reduced. The only worry is that racial discrimination is taking a new dimension which is the indirect discrimination as portrayed by the video reviewed in this submission and this poses a significant challenge to sociologists and society at large.
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