In the film, the cop portrayed racism in many ways. The most obvious was when he harassed the african amerian woman and her husband during the traffic stop. This was similar to the racism from Sandra Bullock's character when she loudly accused the locksmith of selling her keys to his "homies". Both were stereotyped racial ideas based upon nothing concrete. Another example of this is when Sandra's character moves closer to her husband while they are about to pass the two african american guys. This was once again an assumption, which although it turned out to be correct, was still racism. The third example is when Sandra beings to harass her housekeeper about small things and assuming things based on her ethnicity of being Hispanic. This was when she yelled at her about the dishes and expressed her disgust about her using the car.
Question #2: Name 2 examples (different from those in Question 1) where people were negatively stereotyped in the movie. How did this make them feel/what was their reaction?
1) The Persian man and his daughter were accused of being Iraqi terrorists by the people who vandalized the store, as well as the gun owner. This upset them all alot because they were unable to understand that people just assume that they are terrorists because of their ethnicity.
2) The black woman at the insurance agency was stereotyped by the angry son who was trying to find help for his father. He retaliated to her using racial stereotypes and all together rude behavior. Her reaction was anger, which ended with the father not recieving the help he needed.
Question #3: Choose ONE of the following questions to respond to. Although the following will be an opinionated response, give at least one example from the movie to support your belief.
· In the movie, it seemed as though at least 90% of the characters were racist in some way. Are that many people still racist in this country, and if so, will it ever stop? How?
· The TV show producer (Terrence Howard) said to the young man (Ludacris) in his car, “You embarrass me; you embarrass yourself.” What did he mean by this statement and what affect did it have on the young man?
He meant that by continuing his life as a thug and committing crimes he only embarrassed his culture even more by adding to the never-ending list of stereotypes the people in this world have against people of African american descent. It helped him wrap his head around the idea of what he was doing and how it affected people other than himself.
Question #4: Choose ONE of the following questions to respond to. Although the following will be an opinionated response, give at least one example from the movie to support your belief.
· Why is it that certain people people look at others and they see their whole race instead of that specific individual? What impact on the individuals and society does this generalization have?
It is because people are more comfortable with categorizing people rather than separating them as an individual. This is because this is the way our brains can most quickly understand information. Because of this, people would much rather group a person to the largest group they fit in than looking at them as an individual. This was shown by the racial remarks on the Persian family's store, the people assumed they were Iraqi, rather than the fact that they were Persians trying to make due in the United States. This generalization further reinforces stereotypes and racist behavior.
Question #5: Is it natural (within our genes) to be racist?
It is in our genes to stereotype based on group generalizations because it is how our brains are able to sort information quickly upon seeing it. However some people take it to a whole new level by reacting and assuming by reacting to these thoughts and verbally stating these ideas.
Question #6: How is race learned? What types of racial messages do people get from their family and the media?
Race is learned from everything around people. The media does have an effect, such as TV shows and their generalizations on certain characters based on their race and culture. Family also has an effect. The way someone is brought up, whether it be very multicultural or not is a large part of how people react and interact with different races of the world.
Question #7: Is it possible to end racism? If so, how? If not,why not?
Probably not. It will always be within us to decide that one group of people is less than another, or is capable of performing acts that are not tolerated by society. Because of this it is not very likely that racism will ever fully be removed from society as a whole, although it may decrease as the years go on.
