Preview

The Language of Prejudice and Historical Perspective

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1267 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Language of Prejudice and Historical Perspective
The Language of Prejudice and Historical Perspective Can you imagine living in a world, in which we judge people by the labels that are branded onto their head at the instantaneous moment of birth? According to Gordon Allport, in “The Language of Prejudice”, he believes that “Without words we should scarcely be able to form categories at all” (217). This statement is valid, because today historical events such as the Rwanda genocide have been labeled as a category of “genocide”. And because of this categorization of the Hutu and Tutsi; they became victims of the “nouns that cut slices” (218), a phrase that Allport uses for “the names that help us to perform the clustering” (218). The Rwanda genocide also opened the eyes of the people to Allport’s idea of “emotionally toned labels” (220); the labels of being a Hutu and Tutsi had many connotations both bad consequently leading to their clash because of the “misunderstanding lie in the fact that minority group members are sensitive to such shadings, while majority members may employ them unthinkingly” (222). Also the idea of the verbal realism and symbol phobia label was infringed upon the two categories of Hutu and Tutsis; if one was to look bigger height wise or width wise they were to be suspected as a Tutsi and immediately executed, thus proving Allport’s idea that, “Most individuals rebel at being labeled, especially if the label is uncomplimentary” (222). For these reasons, the historical event of the Rwanda genocide has became a primary target of Allport’s “The Language of Prejudice” containing multiple labels that Allport discusses, thus making his point of prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes valid. These “nouns that cut slices” (218), being so vital and valid have occurred in the historical event, the Rwanda genocide. At first, Allport introduces us to the “empirical world of human beings where there are some two and half billion grains of sand..” (218), he explains to us that our world has an

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Hotel Rwanda Analysis

    • 2525 Words
    • 11 Pages

    The major motives behind any genocide are – Power, Psychological resentment, Purification and Pecuniary gain. Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was backed by all of these motives. The carnage had its origin for power and wealth, which once was in the hands of the Tutsis, later on seized by the Hutus after independence of Rwanda from Belgium. To retain this power, the Hutus elites planned this genocide and exercised their ‘Hutu Power’ over the Tutsis on a macro level. The director wisely linked the all main scenes of the movie in a chronological order to shows the clear picture of genocide. For instance, in one scene of the movie when the local militia leader George asked Paul to join the Hutu politics, but the Paul denied; George argues, “Politics is power and money” (Hotel Rwanda). Purification or ethnic cleansing is another major motive behind any massacre. Armenian genocide and the holocaust are the classic examples of the genocides purely effected by this motive. This ethnic and cultural prejudice often results in the creation of 'in-group' and 'out-group' thinking, where members of a group having same race, ideology or identity treats the member of other groups as their enemies or aliens. The belief behind this is that the ‘out groups’ are pollutants and need to be cleansed for the goodness of the society. Unlike the earlier genocides held in years 1959, 1964 and 1973, in which women and children were not killed,…

    • 2525 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict in Rwanda was caused by many actions throughout history and resentment and anger being built up which led to one swift cruel act - genocide. The road to genocide begins with labels, or classification. The people who brought these racist ideas to a once peaceful Rwanda in the first place were Belgian colonists who believed the white race was superior. Rwanda became a colony of Belgium in 1914, and, gained independence from Belgium in the 1960s (“Year of Africa”). Following Rwanda gaining independence from Belgium began the dispute to figure out who would rule Rwanda after the Belgians left and there was no one the favor, the Tutsis. This was when the genocide broke…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every case of genocide and mass murder has its own story and anotherness, they also didn’t happen in the blink of an eye. The perpetrators of these events have always had a fundamental reason to what led them to execute such gruesome crimes. Most may know, the German holocaust and the Rwandan genocide are the two most known and most terrible violation of human rights because of the amount of people that were killed and the way in which these murders were performed. This essay is a discussion of key similarities and differences of the roles of perpetrators in the two case studies; Rwandan genocide and the German…

    • 109 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    . A wise man, Robert Staunbach said “Discrimination is a disease.” Many people consider the 1930’s to be a terrible time of prejudice, especially to some violent extremes. Between racism, sexism, and social prejudice, discrimination levels were about the highest America has ever seen. Prejudice in the early twentieth century was a very big problem because nobody was treated likewise. Men and women, Whites and Blacks, they were all the same, but at the same time, all were different. In the fight with different types of predisposition, sadly, the majority won the battles, and even today, the war rages on.…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States entered the Vietnam War for a number of reasons. Some reasons were good, others were not. One of the biggest reasons for the U.S. involvement in the War was to stop the spread of Communism. However, the U.S. lost a lot because of it. They underestimated the North, and ultimately paid for it.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thet Sambath

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    History has been no stranger to the multitude of genocides and mass killings in countries all over the world and for various reasons. There are infinite ways to narrate the occurrence of these atrocities; however, they are most frequently characterized as either purposive or illness narratives determined by the culture that is creating the retelling of these experiences. Genocide can be defined as "the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation;" therefore to neglect the impact of culture in the created narrative depicting these atrocities would be deemed ignorant, primarily due to the fact that genocide and mass killings…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first glance, one may agree that Marie Umutesi’s autobiography is a truthful testimony about the historical event known as the Rwandan Genocide and its aftermath, but further analysis proves that the terms “truthful” and “testimony” cannot accurately describe Surviving the Slaughter. Using Jacques Derrida’s Demeure and Umutesi’s Surviving the Slaughter, one is able to analyze the meanings of these terms to reveal that, in the context of Umutesi’s writing, they are not completely valid, and the autobiography can instead be described as a genuine attempt to share her memory of her experiences.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The meaning of Genocide, and the impact it has on a single person and society.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racism has definitely changed it’s course in the 2000s. Now, it has shifted from more hate towards black people to more hate towards muslims . Yes, in the recent 7 years there were many black and white issues that led people to believe that all of it was a racist act. For example, the death of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, black men getting shot down by white cops and people did believe it was because of the color of their skin, and the black lives matter movement. For those who don’t know what the black lives matter movement is, it’s a campaign that is against unnecessary violence towards black people. This organization was created because a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman. Many people that are African-American had believed at the time it was in fact because he was black.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before beginning to analyze the similarities and differences between the perpetrators, one may first discuss the causes of the genocides. Firstly, the Rwandan genocide and the stories surrounding it have led to a birth of different explanations of the crime. According to Hintjenns, some of these interpretations include colonialism, ethnic and analytical conflict, economic and social crisis (Hintjens). Many have argued that even as all these were contributing factors, the main cause of the Rwandan genocide was the involvement of both the Belgian and the German colonial policies (Man 2005). The two main ethnic groups in Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis lived in harmony for many years, but with the new born idea of “divide and rule” brought by…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Prejudice is a controversial matter in which speakers like to blame it on the whole population. It's a way to be biased and talk for the population about the “common belief.” Writer of “One Nation Slightly Divisible,” David Brook, tries to control the audience’s minds by using “we” in his article. Similarly, Jonathan Rauch, writer of “In Defense of Prejudice: Why Incendiary Speech Must Be Protected” argues in a biased point of view in an unique way to attract audience to believe his personal view towards prejudice. Both authors also quote other writers and professionals with bias opinions as as well. Brook and Rauch tend to talk to the reader, ask questions and at the same time answering the questions for the reader, deciding the reader's point of view towards the subject questioned.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” said Maya Angelou. Prejudice is a hateful word with an even more hate filled meaning. It demonstrates the lack of knowledge of the individual showing the bias. The person paints each person who holds specific attributes with a general brush and neglects to truly take a look at every individual as a different and unique person.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All through time, the globe has been racist and impatient of individuals completely different from themselves. An infinite amount of people have been subjected to suffering because of the intolerance of individuals that could not perceive amendment or variations among each other. Even now, once you are not aware, racism remains a substantial downside. However, it generally is not one person being racist against another, rather one person being racist against oneself. Crash shows a multitude of reasons of how racism against oneself, caused by worry and misunderstanding, is simply as malevolent and evil as racism against another person. Misunderstanding…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rachel, I wholeheartedly appreciate the sentiment and ideas expressed in your post. They were well thought out and prompted me to question the whitewashed history we are taught in America. Not only does your creation of this post shed light on the unjust and poor treatment of the (forced) black women who fought for this country, but has pushed me to question just how many minorities went through the war (and the rest of history).…

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Race and Prejudice

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I think it affects everyone, even if it occurs at a subconscious level. I will be the first to admit that I am prejudice: I judge people daily by how they dress, talk, and look. Prejudice has a heavy psychological impact on the ones to whom it is directed at; it shows the ignorance of the person displaying the prejudice; and yes, I believe prejudice can be lessened, but I it will never be eliminated.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays