Racism's Crashes

Officer Hanson exhibits racism when he is talking to Peter in his car. He doesn’t believe anything Peter is saying, and eventually gets fed up and tells him to get out of the car partly out of aggravation, and partly out of fear. This is like when Jean is yelling at her husband about getting scared of the two black men who stole their car; both are examples of being covertly racist in situations where one was warranted and the other maligned. When Hanson is trying to help Cameron out by letting him off the hook for speeding, this is similar to how Peter and Anthony are talking about how it makes no sense that white people should be scared of them just for being black. In both cases, the offended feel like the outsiders don’t really know them and are making assumptions ignorantly about them based on previous experience. This is also kind of like when the shopkeeper and his daughter were called Arab when they are really Persian. Many people are ignorant to differences like these, where someone from the Middle-East’s name must be Achmed and all “Arabs” are undoubtedly terrorists.

As the Peter was getting a ride home from Hanson, they made small-talk, and the Hanson stereotyped the brotha’ a whole bunch. Peter talked about writing a country song, which he sort of did, and Officer Hanson didn’t believe him. When Peter gets angry and tries to get out his replica of the cop’s dashboard Jesus, the cop assumes he is taking out a gun and shoots him. Peter was frustrated with how the cop didn’t believe anything he said just because he was a lower-class African American, and when he finally tries to provide evidence of his honesty, Matt Dillon shoots him.
After the stupid bitch gets her car stolen, she begins to think negatively about all the minorities around her. Since she’s rich and has servants, this is very bad news for them. Right after the car gets stolen and the mayor is having their lock replaced, she asks him to have the locks changed again in the morning because a Latino is replacing the lock. The beeyotch whispers extremely loudly, and the lock repairman hears her accuse him of being in a gang and untrustworthy. Daniel is obviously offended by this, but he keeps his dignity and also makes her look like a total bitch by giving her both the keys to the door, meaning he couldn’t possibly have kept a key for his chicharrones on the South-side.

When Graham says “You embarrass me; you embarrass yourself.” to Ludacris in the car, he is saying that his actions are shameful in their own right, and also that his criminal ways give cops reason to not trust honest black men like Graham. Stealing cars and carrying guns only perpetuate the stereotypes which Graham has had to deal with when dealing with the cops and his wife earlier on. Ludacris listens to this and takes responsibility for his actions when given the chance to sell the Cambodian immigrants at the junk-yard. Instead, he takes them to the center of town and lets them go free, which was a far nobler fate than selling them as if they were property. In the end, he feels good about himself, goes against the grain of the stereotypical black man, and gets a free car.

People look at others and see their race instead of the individual because humans observe patterns. We are one of the only animals to do this, and while it can help with things like learning languages or predicting rainfall, when we use it blindly with people and their race, our generalizations often prove to be false. Someone may observe in the news that there are many robberies by African Americans in New York City, but that does not mean it’s okay or at all reasonable to think that every black person who walks into a store is there to rob the place. When we judge people based on their race, we fail to take into account that patterns do not speak for everyone and that each person is independent of these patterns. At the very least, people are offended when thrown into a general grouping based on the color of their skin, but racial prejudice can make or break landing a job, affect one’s ability to get a loan, and even cost his life. When the brotha’ is trying to get his dashboard Jesus out of his pocket, the cop takes into account the stereotype that the news portrays African Americans as a dangerous, violent race, and shoots him with the conviction that he was getting a weapon from his pocket. When he threw Peter in with the pattern he had in his mind of black people, Officer Hanson grossly assumed his intentions incorrectly, and cost a decent black man his life.

I think it is in our genes to observe patterns and make generalizations about the world, such as the observance that beer tastes like piss, always has tasted like piss, and will continue to taste like piss till the end of time. However, when people start to apply generalizations to other humans, they oftentimes will find themselves mistaken, for humans have individual minds which make decisions not based on a species standard, but on a personal basis. Beer does not wake up each morning and say, “I’m in a rotten mood, I think I’ll taste like piss today.” People do. Also, part of the reason racism exists is the human desire to feel good about themselves, and what better a way to do that than to put other humans below you based on some physical nuance? If we believe that we are innately better than people of a different skin color, it boosts our status as human-beings, and allowed us in ‘ye days of yore to justify our maltreatment of Indians, Africans, Chinamen, etc.

Race is learned by both families passing along the stereotypes through words or actions, and also the media. In the South, African Americans were treated horribly during and still after slavery. This is because many racist white parents tell their children they are inherently better than blacks, and this belief is passed down from generation to generation. If a neighborhood is specifically avoided on a tour of a city, and a certain ethnicity is prevalent there, one might start to believe all individuals of that color are to be avoided. The media loves throwing down the race card whenever possible. They will take care to mention the race of someone who commits a crime, not making any conclusions themselves based on this, but this hint usually will help the viewers along in forming their own opinions about people of that certain race.

I do not believe it’s possible to completely put an end to racism, although it certainly has been declining over the years. I don’t want to make it sound like there’s no hope for humanity in a racial perspective, but I think the fact that it once was makes racism an indestructible evil. Being an idea you hold in your mind, it’s very hard to know of its particulars and not take some part in it. No matter how well we educate people about tolerance, there always will be those few who harbor racist sentiments towards others. Although, we definitely can reduce racism’s prevalence by introducing diversity to neighborhoods and schools, and teaching kids from a young age that skin-color does not have any predestinations.

Privileges of Wealth

All of the social classes have different privileges which others higher and lower don't have, yet it seems the privileges of the wealthy make life much easier than those of middle and lower class. With wealth comes the ability to make money, which speaks through the saying "It takes money to make money." In our REAL game of Monopoly, the wealthy had the money to buy up property to then make it all back through rent. People with less money couldn't afford the expensive properties, even when they were lucky enough to land on them, and certainly couldn't make houses/hotels if they managed to "acquire" a monopoly. In real life, the rich can buy property for prices only they can afford and become real-estate moguls.

The rich also have the privilege to not have to worry about where their children will grow up (mobility)/schooling. They can choose to live in the safest, cleanest neighborhoods, unlike the poor who tend to be forced to live in areas either in the middle of nowhere or in less desirable locations with others of the same class. Ehrenreich experienced this in her account "Nickle'd and Dime'd," as her choices of places to live were very limited by her income. Rather than being confined to the public school system, the wealthy can pay large sums of money to send their kids to private school to give them the best educations to get high-paying jobs which will keep the families rich.

Finally, with wealth, one can run his own business which offers more freedom than the typical 9-5 shift. As the owner of a corporation, far more time is spent on the start-up of the company than running it. There are people in high places who take care of managing all aspects of the company, so unless a company-crippling problem arises, the owner can sit at home, slowly stroking the arm of his red velvet throne-chair for hours on end. In the People Like US video, the obnoxious snooty rich guy with the comb over was excreting his high-pitched screeching sound in the direction of the cameraman's face during the middle of the day. Why wasn't he working? The cameraman had the right idea as he was on the job. The SRG either owns a few companies, which is how he could afford to not be working for the interview, or is unemployed. With great wealth comes little responsibility. Any responsible individual knows that having a comb over is a sure-fire way to get yourself made fun of both amongst your peers and teens in Sociology classes.

It would be difficult to fix these class problems and still keep the idea of the American Dream. You try to limit the wealth and the people cry "dictator." You try to redistribute the wealth of the absurdly wealthy and the people cry "communist." We don't live in a very egalitarian society anymore, as if you are born in a certain class, everything you learn in and out of school prepares you to survive in that same class. The only way I can think of to possibly help with this is making college and universities less expensive. I don't understand how Universities are so cheap in Europe, how my German friend can get a PHD in Halle for the same cost as 1 year at private college here. However they do it, the U.S. should follow suit, because we're limiting our progression as a society by only having those with money getting terciary education.

It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it with Class.. Specifically, your Class.

"What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what
we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that
ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another."

With this quote, Shaw is saying that every man is to his own, but the specific kinds of things which he chooses to do and how people around him perceive those actions depends on his class. Certain things which are taboo or looked down upon in some classes make one a hero in others. This is especially true for wide class differences, such as from working class to "world-class." In the lower classes, women (and men too) are expected/encouraged to know how to clean up after themselves around the house, be it in the kitchen, bedroom, and even the bathroom. For the upper class, cleaning your own bathroom would be seen as a disgusting misuse of money, since everyone in the upper class should have maids. In middle class, parents will often say "Is there a maid here?" when a careless child leaves a mess on the table. Rich commie bastards say the same thing ironically, with their pointy-noses held high, if a child begins to clean up after himself. ('Cause they really do have a maid)

Also, Shaw spoke of the standards in each class of society. "Success" has many definitions depending on which rung of the social-ladder you are from. The lower-class would consider success as having a job and being able to get by with the bare necessities, and maybe 'un 'uh tham intertubes too. Middle-class wants not only that, but to move a step up compared to their parents both economically and socially. Success is being able to afford nicer things with savings, being an upstanding and respected individual in the community, and perhaps having a happy family. The upper-class wants money, wealth, and coin. Looking wealthy is extremely important to the wealthy, so success would be considered how prestigious a name one's family has. Everyone is capable of success, but due to character and economic differences, we are mostly limited to success within our own class.