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Prejudice is and has been a massive part of today’s society and has been seen throughout history. Prejudice is the pre-determined hate towards someone or a group of people that belong to a certain ethnicity, or look and act different from everyone else before you have even met that person, prejudice can be harmful to a person and can scar them permanently. This idea of prejudice is shown in The Fat Boy by Owen Marshall, After You My Dear Alphonse by Shirley Jackson, where is Love by the Black-Eyed Peas, and War by Bob Marley All 4 of these texts show the issue of prejudice well, and show that prejudice is dangerous to our society and shouldn’t be something that is accepted.
The first text is The Black-Eyed Peas: Where is the Love? Where is Love speaking about prejudice and inequality not just with race but for every different characteristic people have? One of the times it speaks about this is in verse one when will. i.am sings “What’s wrong with the world, mama, People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas, I think the whole world addicted to the drama, Only attracted to things that’ll bring you trauma, Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism, But we still got terrorists here livin’, In the USA, the big CIA
The Blood from The Crips and the KKK, But if you only have love for your race, Then you only leave space to discriminate, And to discriminate generates hate, And when you hate, then you’re bound to get irate, yeah, Madness is what you demonstrate, And that’s exactly how anger works and operates, Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight, Take control of your mind and meditate, Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all.” This verse speaks about prejudice quite strongly. the first time it mentions prejudice is when Will. i.sings ‘We try to stop terrorism, but we still got terrorists here livin’, In the USA, the big CIA
The Blood from The Crips and the KKK.’ This line talks about how the government is trying to kill terrorists overseas when there are groups of people in the USA like the Bloods, The Crips, and the KKK, that are ‘terrorists,’ will. i.am uses terrorists as a metaphor for people who are racist and prejudiced, this metaphor can seem quite extreme, saying that racism is terrorism, but that is how upfront and serious of a problem it is in society nowadays. He then talks about, if you only love your race, then it leaves room for other people to hate, and this hate leads to anger and ‘madness’. When will. i.am uses the word madness he implies that being racist and showing prejudice is mad, which again might seem like a bit of a hyperbole, but just like before he uses this to show how big and serious of an issue it is.
The Short Story The Fat Boy by Owen Marshall displays the idea of prejudice. Marshall describes that society blames someone for a crime, not because he was proven guilty of committing it, but because he was fat. In this case the person in question, the Fat Boy was “Standing beneath the overhead bridge, among the cars illegally parked there.” The people observing the fat boy just standing there then make a major leap and conclude that “They were sure that he was stealing from the cars.” This assumption that the fat boy was committing crimes is quite drastic, and ironic because if he was, he would be doing something illegal among illegally parked cars. Later on in the story, there are multiple instances of the Fat Boy being blamed for a crime that happened, the only ‘proof’ being that he was near the sight of the crime days before the crime was committed. Some examples of this happening are, “McNulty’s warehouse burned down in November. The owner made a particular mention to the police of the fat boy.” He was also blamed for tying up Mrs Denzil and robbing her house, again the only ‘proof’ being that he was walking behind her. The response by the public was, “Oh, that fat boy, they said, even murder, they said.” Other instances of the fat boy being blamed are, his being around Nigel Lammerton’s house the night he was arrested for beating his wife. Another time the Fat Boy was blamed was when he was found in the IHC center just days before Melanie Lamb was found pregnant. The story tells us nothing about a husband or boyfriend that could have made Melanie pregnant but instead alludes to the fact that the Fat Boy may have raped her. This short story shows very strong examples of prejudice, the Fat Boy was merely an observer of locations of crime, but because of his obesity, he was used as a scapegoat and blamed for the crimes. This shows the awful state the society is in, multiple people see that something bad has happened and instead of being reasonable and rational people, they immediately play the ‘it’s the minority group card.’ This can be very dangerous for people in this group; it can cause major mental health issues and in this case, obesity might make a person self-conscious of their body. The prejudice doesn’t just affect the person but society as a whole. In the case of the Fat Boy, this prejudice becomes so strong that society becomes incredibly violent and kills the Fat Boy. This violence towards fat people might become synonymous across all of society, which leads to a very unhealthy place to live. The Fat Boy has some similar themes to Where Is the Love by the Black-Eyed Peas. In Fat Boy people use him as a scapegoat to try to distract them from the real issues and the real source of the problem. In verse 3 of Where is the Love? apl.de.ap sings about that the only thing people care about is money, and that selfishness has got us following the wrong direction. He also sings about how the media is showing wrong information to people instead of telling people the truth and what is happening. Both of these talk about how people use other things whether that’s a person, group of people, the media, or money to distract us from the real issues and make us focus on things that don’t matter. The difference between these two texts is the context in which these distractions are being used. The Fat Boy has these distractions to distract people from serious crimes. But in Where is the Love, the distractions of money and the media are used to distract us from something generic like racism instead of something that could be disastrous shortly.
The third text, After You my dear Alphonse, written by Shirley Jackson, brings attention to the racial stereotyping towards African American people at the time of the Second World War. The first example of this we see is when Johnny’s mother asks Boyd about his father’s occupation. “There, you, see?” Mrs. Wilson said. “And he certainly has to be strong to do that—all that lifting and carrying at a factory.” “Boyd’s father doesn’t have to,” Johnny said. “He’s a foreman.” Mrs. Wilson felt defeated.” Later on, Johnny’s mother asks Boyd if he wants any hand-me-down clothes they have. “Mrs. Wilson took a deep breath. “Boyd,” she said. Both boys turned to her. Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat. It’s not new, of course, but there’s lots of wear in it still. And I have a few dresses that your mother or sister could probably use. Your mother can make them over into lots of things for all of you, and I’d be very happy to give them to you. Suppose before you leave, I make up a big bundle and then you and Johnny can take it over to your mother right away. Her voice trailed off as she saw Boyd’s puzzled expression. “But I have plenty of clothes, thank
you,” he said. “And I don’t think my mother knows how to sew very well, and anyway I guess we buy about everything we need. Thank you very much though.” From this, we can see that Johnny’s mother has a stereotype surrounding African American people and their families. When she asks Boyd about his father’s occupation, he says that he works in a factory. Johnny then says that he doesn’t work on the ground floor but instead is a foreman. The narrator then says that Mrs. Wilson felt defeated. That line outlines and shows Mrs. Wilson’s racism. She was expecting an African American who works in a factory, to have a job low down in the chain, using his hands so his family can barely get by. But when she learns that he has a job near the top of the chain, she feels defeated. This implies that she wants Boyd and his family to be disadvantaged so she can pity them. Later on, Mrs. Wilson asks Boyd if he wants to take some of their old clothes, her racial stereotyping is that because he is African American, he doesn’t have very many clothes. But Boyd responds that they have plenty of clothes and even if they did take the clothes his mum doesn’t know how to sew. This shows that Mrs. Wilson’s stereotyping is so strong that she seems to completely forget that Boyd’s family is well off and doesn’t need sympathy gifts. Boyd’s mum not knowing how to sew also shows that she isn’t much of a working woman, which means that Boyd’s father makes enough money for the family. The stereotyping that Mrs. Wilson shows is very similar to how people treated the fat boy, in The Fat Boy. Mrs. Wilson makes assumptions about Boyd and his family before even getting to know them, these being assuming his dad has a low-paying job and that his family doesn’t have enough money for clothes because of his skin color. The people who were affected by the crimes happening in the Fat Boy’s city made assumptions about the Fat Boy and assumed that he was the one who committed those crimes, because of his weight and how he looked. The difference between these texts is why they are showing prejudice towards those people. Mrs. Wilson is being racist because of a pre-determined thought that all darker-skinned people are poor, there is no reasoning to this, she just thinks it. In The Fat Boy, people a showing prejudice towards him because they need something to blame, to use as a scapegoat.
The fourth text is War by Bob Marley, War talks about how African people are being discriminated against, that everyone deserves basic human rights, and that the color of one’s skin doesn’t affect their personality. An example of Bob Marley talking about racism is in the first verse. “Until the philosophy which holds one race, Superior and another Inferior. Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned. Everywhere is war. I say war.” A line in verse 2 also talks strongly about racism “Until the colour of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes.” Another time Bob Marley Speaks about discrimination is in Verse 3 “That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race. Dis a war.” These three lines speak very strongly about racism against African people. The first verse talks about how there is a feeling that one race is superior to another. Until this idea is demolished there always be war. Bob uses the word not in the literal sense of two powers going against each other, but instead uses it as a generic word for conflict, even if the conflict is one-sided. In the second verse, Bob says that the color of a person’s skin matters the same as the color of a person’s eyes. The color of a person’s eyes doesn’t affect them in any way. Everyone has equal opportunities and is treated the same. Skin color is a feature of a person, the same as eye color. Bob asks the question, why are we judging, discriminating, and hating against people with darker skin, and not discriminating against people with blue eyes for example? Why skin? It’s just a feature of a person, just like the color of one’s eyes. In verse 3 Bob builds more on what he said in verse 1 and this time he talks about human rights. He says that until everyone has equal human rights, is treated the same, and is entitled to the same things. This is a war. This line talks about how human rights are HUMAN rights and not white rights. African people are humans and should be entitled to basic rights. The way that Bob portrays this fact makes it seem like white people are alienating people of darker skin, making them look like outsiders who deserve nothing. Bob Marley’s, War is very similar to Where is the Love by the Black-Eyed Peas. Both songs sing about how people are not being treated how they should, and both sing about how wrong it is. In Where is the Love, apl.de.ap sings about what happened to the values of humanity fairness, and equality. In War by Bob Marley, he sings about how until there are basic human rights for all people no matter their race. These sing about how we need equality among people. The main difference between the two is why they are singing. Where is Love comes from the angle of wanting love and focusing on the positive outcome and possible future. War is more focused on the now and the issues now, it does speak a bit about the future but in a neutral tone making it sound like the singer is optimistic about the future.
The four texts, The Fat Boy by Owen Marshall, After You My Dear Alphonse by Shirley Jackson, Where Is the Love by the Black-Eyed Peas, and War by Bob Marley all have a key idea of prejudice and racism and how it can affect people and how people react to it. I think racism and prejudice a major problems in today’s society and need to be talked about, in short stories, music, and more so people are constantly aware of the issue. Prejudice can be devastating to people who experience it, they get treated differently, have fewer opportunities, and have a worse life compared to the more fortunate ones. Nowadays people who are shown prejudice are done so because of their skin color, weight, sexuality, and gender. The fact that I had to use the word fortunate earlier on means that society sees certain people as better than others which is completely ill-founded and is a toxic trait that we as a society need to get rid of.
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