Three Views
Vanessa Pitones
English 101
Instructor Munoz
18 November 2010
Three essays, three different writers discussing the same subject, three points of view which one is the correct view? Thomas Jefferson’s, “Notes on the State of Virginia”, he reencounters many of the policies he had initiated while working in the Virginia Assembly. He not only talks politics he also talks about race and inferiority between them. Studs Terkel’s, “C.P. Ellis”, is an in depth look into former Ku Klux Klan’s attitude towards everyone else that was not like him, his struggles to his triumphs. Vincent Parrillo’s, “Causes of Prejudice”, essay is an illustrated interpretation that evolves into six individual sections. Prejudice is defined by each person differently whether it is psychological or sociological.
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America from 1801-1809 and the author of the Declaration of Independence. In “Notes on the State of Virginia”, he talks a bit about politics and more about skin color and intellect. He considered whites and natives to be more intellectually compatible and blacks to be inferior both physically and mentally. He did acknowledge some physical similarities between blacks and whites but he still belittled them pertaining to imagination, reason, and even beauty. Jefferson was in favor of integrating between natives and whites but if a black intermingled with a white to him it was considered an act against nature. Jefferson went as far as devising a plan to relocate all blacks to the slave coast of Africa. Being a highly respectable man people supported his ideas. In Vincent Parrillo’s theories Jefferson fits best into the cognitive level of prejudice.
Parrillo’s says, “The cognitive level of prejudice encompasses a person’s beliefs and perceptions of a group as threatening or nonthreatening, inferior or equal (e.g., in terms of intellect, status, or biological composition) . . .” (385). All of those things Jefferson stated
English 101
Instructor Munoz
18 November 2010
Three essays, three different writers discussing the same subject, three points of view which one is the correct view? Thomas Jefferson’s, “Notes on the State of Virginia”, he reencounters many of the policies he had initiated while working in the Virginia Assembly. He not only talks politics he also talks about race and inferiority between them. Studs Terkel’s, “C.P. Ellis”, is an in depth look into former Ku Klux Klan’s attitude towards everyone else that was not like him, his struggles to his triumphs. Vincent Parrillo’s, “Causes of Prejudice”, essay is an illustrated interpretation that evolves into six individual sections. Prejudice is defined by each person differently whether it is psychological or sociological.
Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America from 1801-1809 and the author of the Declaration of Independence. In “Notes on the State of Virginia”, he talks a bit about politics and more about skin color and intellect. He considered whites and natives to be more intellectually compatible and blacks to be inferior both physically and mentally. He did acknowledge some physical similarities between blacks and whites but he still belittled them pertaining to imagination, reason, and even beauty. Jefferson was in favor of integrating between natives and whites but if a black intermingled with a white to him it was considered an act against nature. Jefferson went as far as devising a plan to relocate all blacks to the slave coast of Africa. Being a highly respectable man people supported his ideas. In Vincent Parrillo’s theories Jefferson fits best into the cognitive level of prejudice.
Parrillo’s says, “The cognitive level of prejudice encompasses a person’s beliefs and perceptions of a group as threatening or nonthreatening, inferior or equal (e.g., in terms of intellect, status, or biological composition) . . .” (385). All of those things Jefferson stated