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Sociology
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Sociology
A society is an integrated whole which means that everything that occurs in a community aids in changing all the practices, ideologies and traditions of the community. This idea is rooted in one of the three paradigms of sociology which is Functionalism. When this sociological paradigm is linked with the concept of Racism, it is evident that in the American society, racism is present due to the prevalent stereotypes against other ethnic groups and this leads to increased cases of social injustice and crimes. In 2004 a movie by Paul Haggis titled “Crash” different ethnic groups, clashes between them and flaws in their personalities represents the presence of stereotypes against ethnic groups and gender. The movie sufficiently explains that race and presence of stereotype in the society dominates the action of the people and their interaction with one another. It also describes the impact of race on the justice system and politics. With this discussion under consideration, the thesis statement of this paper is that the movie Crash represents the functionalist school of thought because it explains how one factor that is racism effects all the spheres of life, including the self-perception of the people, their believes and ideologies of the society.
In the movie, there was a scene when Christine, who is the wife of Cameron Thayer, a famous movie director was molested by John Ryan, a sergeant. Christine and her husband are not white; Therefore a white police officer found it easy to molest the woman. The scene also reveals the weakness in the character of Cameron because when his wife was being molested, he only watched the incident and later apologies to the sergeant. It is the most potent example of how race shapes the perception of the people in the contemporary world. Being White John Ryan perceived a woman from another ethnic group as weak and inferior. Likewise being a minority, Cameron regards whites as powerful. Therefore he chose not to fight with them physically or legally. Analyzing this scene from a functionalist perspective, it is apparent that the presence of racial stereotypes impacts the behavior of the people and the justice system. The white supremacy allows the people to commit immoral and illegal acts ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XOuvN6mJ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Cole, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Cole, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":131,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/D8Z22E6X"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/D8Z22E6X"],"itemData":{"id":131,"type":"chapter","title":"White Supremacy and Racism; Social Class and Racialization","container-title":"Critical Race Theory and Education","publisher":"Springer","page":"35-76","author":[{"family":"Cole","given":"Mike"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Cole, 2017)and feeling of alienation by minorities results in a violation of their fundamental rights.
In the movie, the most compelling relationship is between Jean Cabot and her loyal housekeeper, Maria. Jean was a rich racist woman and always humiliated her housekeeper Maria, but when Jean was in trouble, only Maria was present to help you out. It enabled Jean to realize that her hatred for ethnic minorities is from within herself, she apologizes to Maria and calls her, her only real friend. This relationship was convincing to me because it painted the notion of how a simple act can change the perception of a person. I can relate to this incident because at one point I was helped by a guy in school who I thought was not a good guy because of the race he belonged to. My perception was based on the stereotypes against such people, but interaction with him made me realized my mistake, and after this, my whole personality was changed since I became more open towards different ethnic groups. Applying the functionalist school of thought, it will not be wrong to believe that a simple change in the perception of one person can help in ending the stereotypes present in the society as suggested by Yip in his article “To be or not to be: How ethnic/racial stereotypes influence ethnic/racial disidentification and psychological mood.” ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"LY3pvPug","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Yip, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Yip, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":134,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/52MJC2G4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/52MJC2G4"],"itemData":{"id":134,"type":"article-journal","title":"To be or not to be: How ethnic/racial stereotypes influence ethnic/racial disidentification and psychological mood.","container-title":"Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology","page":"38","volume":"22","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Yip","given":"Tiffany"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Yip, 2016).
A profound analysis of the movie reveals that it presents an accurate reflection of American society. There are scenes where racial minorities are treated harshly and blamed for things they have not done. One example of this is the conversation between Farhad, a Persian man, and the gun shop owner. The owner called Farhad, Osama who was the leader of a terrorist group, because of his origin. This incident can be linked with the latest incident when a young Muslim boy in America was labeled as a terrorist because he brought a handmade clock to the school. Thus from the scene in the movie, it is evident that racism lies at the roots of the society and from a functionalist perspective, this can be carted through political correctness since all the institutions of the community are linked with one another ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"bVYtcvaI","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Kivel, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Kivel, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":138,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/XT6SA6JR"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/Tqq4tlqy/items/XT6SA6JR"],"itemData":{"id":138,"type":"book","title":"Uprooting Racism-: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice","publisher":"New Society Publishers","ISBN":"1-55092-657-8","author":[{"family":"Kivel","given":"Paul"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Kivel, 2017).
Thus the above discussion sufficiently proves that the presence of racism in the society results in intense hate against other ethnic groups. Stereotype shapes the behavior of the people towards others, and it also shapes the political and justice systems. The in-depth analysis of the movie and the American society made me realize that many time I link the behavior of the people with the stereotypes present against them. One instance I blamed my housekeeper for stealing my watch because of her ethnicity because my friend told me that such people take things. But after two weeks I found my watch in my bag. It shows my stereotypic behavior which later became wrong, and I realized my mistake.
To cap it all, the movie by Paul Haggis presents the accurate picture of American society. All the actions of the individuals reflected racism and faults within them. These racist practices impacted the political and justice system of the nation which is correct from the functionalist perspective.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Cole, M. (2017). White Supremacy and Racism; Social Class and Racialization. In Critical Race Theory and Education (pp. 35–76). Springer.
Kivel, P. (2017). Uprooting Racism-: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice. New Society Publishers.
Yip, T. (2016). To be or not to be: How ethnic/racial stereotypes influence ethnic/racial disidentification and psychological mood. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 22(1), 38.
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