Black People and Prejudice Essay

â€Å"Ahhhhhhhh! † I squealed and jumped for joy the moment I dropped the phone. I hurrily scurried over to my mom to share the news. â€Å"Mommy, I got my first job! † This was the stepping stone to me being an independent young woman. I was officially employed at Hollister Co. as a sales model. I was ecstatic and excited to make some money at the tender age of 15. My first week was definitely a learning experience; from learning how to maintain a cash registrar to folding tons of polos and jeans. Soon through this journey, it started to become bittersweet. With three months of being employed, my shifts were diminishing from 4 shifts a week to 1 shift a week. As I looked at the schedule postings for the week, I noticed a trend with the scheduling of the shifts. Ironically, most of the employees that were working more hours and more shifts were white females. I figured it might have something to do with the fact that my supervisor is a white surfer-boy who is infatuated with beach-blonde beauties. However that did not stop me from asking him to put me on the schedule more. Sadly, I resent the day I had asked him. Unfortunately, he felt that I didn’t have the â€Å"natural beachy look† that Hollister Co. was trying to perceive. I am of Malaysian decent and have tan skin color. Hearing that definitely bruised my ego and made me self-conscious about my appearance. I felt this was a tactic for me to quit, and so I did. Over the months I begin to realize that ultimately there will be people in the world that have a perspective of life that I cannot seem to change. I had realized that this was not my fault; it was his own personal judgment that led him to think that. I was treated this way because of how I looked not on who I am. Many people have tried to explain the reasoning of why people are prejudiced and discriminate against one another. Two readings that are eye-openers about prejudice are â€Å"Causes of Prejudice† and â€Å"C. P. Ellis. † In the essay, â€Å"Causes of Prejudice,† the author Vincent N. Parrillo explains the reasons for racism and discrimination in the United States. Which brings us to Studs Terkel’s essay â€Å"C. P. Ellis,† he tells us the story of C. P. Ellis, a former Klansmen who claims he is no longer racist. With Parrillo’s essay, we will analyze what caused C. P. Ellis to be prejudice and how he changed. Parrillo’s Causes of Prejudice outlines reasons how and why prejudice exists in today’s society. Parrillo first starts out telling us that prejudice is the rejection of a member of a certain culture, and that ethnocentrism is a rejection of all culture as a whole. He then states that there are four areas of study to consider when dealing with prejudice; levels of prejudice, self-justification, personality, and frustration. This theory is ideal to the root of why and where prejudice starts. He explains that the first level of prejudice is the cognitive level of prejudice. This is a person’s beliefs of a culture. The second level is the emotional level of prejudice. This level includes what kind of emotional response a culture has on a person. These emotions for example can be that of hate, love, fear, etc†¦ The final level, explains Parrillo, is the action oriented level. This is the desire to physically act upon their prejudice feelings toward the person or culture. As stated in the text, â€Å"The emotional level of prejudice encompasses the feelings that a minority group arouses in an individual. Although these feelings may be based on stereotypes from the cognitive level they represent more intense stages of personal involvement† (Parrillo 386). His statement holds true. In the sense of economic competition prejudice occurs frequently. We need to realize that jealousy is an important factor of prejudice. There would still be competitions, hatred, and stereotyping. It is just in our human nature. The story of C. P Ellis begins as he discusses his life as being a white male from a low-income class. His frustrations and misfortunes lead him to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan. His father always told Ellis to stay away from blacks, Jews, and Catholics’ and he obeyed his father’s wishes. In a sense, it seemed as if Ellis truly admired his father. At 17 years old, his father soon passed away and Ellis was forced to work to tend to his family. Ellis discusses his frustrations on having to make ends meet with four children, the eldest being mentally challenged and the struggles he has to endure to make it happen. Ellis begins to blame the black people for his tragedy and his misfortune of not being able to have sufficient funds. In relevance to Parrillo’s essay, he explains that â€Å"frustrations tend to increase aggression toward others† (Parrillo 393). This ties into the anger that Ellis began to direct it towards as he stated, â€Å"I didn’t know who to blame. I tried to find somebody. I began to blame it on black people. I had to hate somebody† (Terkel 400). Ellis believed that blaming others rather than himself was the best way to get over his frustrations. We are then exploited to the self esteem Ellis had and his state of mind when starting his racist rampage. To begin with, Ellis shows throughout the essay that he is weak minded and has very low self-esteem. Ellis states, â€Å"The majority of ‘em are low income whites, people who really don’t have a part in something. They have been shut out as well as the blacks†¦ So the natural person to hate would the black person† (Terkel 401). Ellis started to hate the fact that he was poor and turned to the KKK. He felt the KKK opened opportunities he could achieve because of the stability and members of the group. Parrillo states that â€Å"self-justification† is lead to believe the main cause of prejudice. He states â€Å"a person may avoid social contact with groups deemed inferior and associate only with those identified as being of high status† (Parrillo 387). We can identify the behaviors and personality Ellis displays is relevant to the same behaviors and personality of his father. Throughout the story, Ellis directed his hatred towards blacks just like his father did. Ellis states â€Å"The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan. As far as he was concerned, it was the savior of the white people† (Terkel 400). We can recognize that his racist ways came from his father who told him what to believe. We can identify this as the â€Å"socialization† factor of prejudice. When one is taught something which they live by all their life they begin to play a role just as the one who taught them those ways. Parrillo elaborates, â€Å"We thus learn the prejudices of our parents and others, which then become part of our values and beliefs. Even when based on false stereotypes, prejudices shape our perceptions of various peoples and influence our attitudes and actions toward particular groups† (Parrillo 394). We can make the connection that Ellis’s father was racist he gained his father’s characteristics as well as his beliefs. This also ties in when he begins to blame black people because he was taught they were the cause of the economic problems he was facing. Ellis states â€Å"If we didn’t have niggers in the schools, we wouldn’t have the problems we got today† (Terkel 402). Here he did not truly experience what he believed but he was told this and began to live by it, which was passed down by his father. Over the time, Ellis and his views about the blacks changed altogether. In the end, Ellis has an epiphany once he realized how much in common he really had with blacks. He soon began to realize that black people were just as normal and looking for the same thing in life. He tells us what he realized later in his life â€Å"As long as they kept low-income whites and low-income blacks fightin’, they’re gonna maintain control† (Terkel 403). The revelation is going to change his life. He refers to they as being the politicians and government. He began to have his own mind set and realize that all are alike and should not be treated differently. Some white people had just as low incomes as some black people, which led him to realize that they were all at the same level. There is no explanation as to why Ellis really decided to all of a sudden change his views. We can relate this to Parrillo’s statement, â€Å"Although socialization explains how prejudicial attitudes may be transmitted from one generation to the next, it does not explain their origin or why they intensify or diminish over the years† (Terkel 394). In conclusion, both Parrillo’s essay and Ellis’s story go hand in hand in showing us the real reason why prejudice and racism still exists today. Vincent Parrillo exemplifies valid points and key notions on why cause a person to be prejudice and racist. C. P Ellis provides an insightful eye and truly gives us hope that maybe people will change their views over the years. Both showed us that prejudice is a prime factor in this society and this is because everyone was born and raised differently. Everyone has their own beliefs and ideas. Value, attitudes, beliefs and culture all are targets of prejudice. Regardless of anything, we will never be able to change that. People just try to persevere to the stereotyping and criticizing of other races and their own. Works Cited Parrillo, Vincent N. â€Å"‘Causes of Prejudice. † Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2010. 384-398. Terkel, Studs. â€Å"C. P Ellis. † Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2010. 398-408. Self-Editing Checklist: 1. Do you have a sufficient number of quoted passages from theoretical essay you have chosen and have you commented sufficiently on each? List the page numbers of the passages below. Page 386 Page 387 Page 393 Page 394 2. Do you have a sufficient number of quoted passages from personal essay you have chosen and have you commented sufficiently on each? List the page numbers of the passages below. Page 400 Page 401 Page 402 Page 403 3. Explain the order in which you chose to make your points via the passages you quoted. Studs Terkel then Vincent Parrillo? Page 386 ? Page 393 ? Page 400 ? Page 401 ? Page 387 ? Page 400 ? Page 394 ? Page 402 ? Page 403 ? Page 394 4. Name three writing errors you are likely to make in your prose and check the rough draft for these. Use the OWL website if necessary to look for examples of how to address these problems. List the likely errors below. Alternating long and short sentences. 5. Read your final draft of the essay aloud so that you do not allow your eyes you’re your brain to self-correct the errors in your essay. List the kinds of errors you found below. Spelling, grammar, punctuation.