Stereotyping, Discrimination and Prejudice in the Media

The movie that I have chosen to watch for this particular bonus assignment is called The Freedom Writers. The movie is about a new teacher and the challenges that she faces in order to make the students in her English class, who come from different ethnics backgrounds and who most hate each other, get along. And, of course, by the end of the movie, she is successful in doing so. Racism played a major role in this movie, seen as a negative aspect in the childrens attitudes and mentalities. Racism is defined as negative behaviour on an incorrect assumption that one race is inherently superior to others. This is one of the many forms of discrimination which is defined as unfair actions directed against people based on their race, gender,†¦show more content†¦When the teacher asked the class who knew what the Holocaust was, only one white person out of the entire body of students knew. That is when she realized that the students had very little knowledge about the outside world. This greatly related to Gordon W. Allports theory. Allport was a psychologist who used questionnaires and interviews to measure the strength of individual prejudice, and who found a correlation between higher education and experiences such as knowledge about cultures, traveling, etc, and tolerance or the acceptance of differences between people. In this case, because the student s were not taught and were unaware that there were similar cases to theirs, only on a greater scale, they continued to prejudge, and discriminate against each other. Later on in the movie though, because they begin to travel more and gain more knowledge about the outside world, they become more aware and realize that they should change. In addition, three other theorists ideas play a role in the movie. The first one is Frances Aboud, who believes that children first learn prejudice from the media, family, friends, etc, when they are bombarded with negative images. In this movie, the girl Eva is a perfect example of how she changed the way she sees people. Since she was a little girl, her father used to tell her that she had to fight for their people as the ancestors fought againstShow MoreRelatedRacial Bias And Racial Stereotypes Essay1127 Words   |  5 PagesThe issue of race representation which becomes even more serious and cause for concern at the moment existed in the past un til now, specifically the problem of racial bias and racial stereotypes. Well development of the media is one of the significant factors which influences the issue, especially in the medium of news reporting, for example, the newspaper, network and television news, etc. News contributes to transmitting incident information, but the appearance of news misrepresentation and theRead MorePrejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination Essay1414 Words   |  6 PagesMost people have experienced prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination at some time in his or her life. 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