Racism as a Result of Discrimination Towards The Minorities in a Community

Racism is often the result of discrimination and prejudice towards the minorities in a community. The article that best applies to the third scene is called “Something About The Subject Makes It Hard To Name” written by Gloria Yamato. In her article, Yamato asserts that there is four forms of racism and amongst these for forms is called unaware/unintentional racism.

According to Yamato, an individual who exhibits unaware/unintentional racism are unaware that they a performing racial segregation amongst targeted minority group. This best fits the behavior of Lorenzo who is C’s father. Lorenzo believes that he is not prejudice but firmly believes that it is wrong for Italian individuals to marry outside of their race but C’s tells his father that he is in fact prejudice just but stating that he does not believe in interracial relationships. Furthermore, Lorenzo unintentionally assumed that his beliefs were not racist due to the fact that he gets along with everyone that comes in his bus, as well as, always believing that his traditional ‘norm’ about marriage benefits everyone in the society.

Moreover, this is better explained by Yamato when she asserts that “with the best of intentions, the best of educations, and the greatest generosity of heart, whites, operating on the misinformation fed to them from day one, will behave in ways that are racist, will perpetuate racism by being "nice" the way we're taught to be nice.”When C goes to pick up Jane for their first date, Jane brings her brother who was one of the kids beaten up by Slick and his friends. Jane's brother stated that C “was the one who attacked him” even though he knows that C did not participate in the beating conducted by his friends. This causes C to lose his temper and call Jane’s brother the "N" word. As a result, Jane left with her brother making C to regret his actions. This is a level of discrimination called verbal expression because C’s use of derogatory words created stereotypes between the Italians and African Americans without the aspect of physical harm present.

It also exemplifies the theory coined by Tyndall called Scapegoat theory. Scapegoat theory is a form of prejudice that blames the minority group when the dominant group “experiences frustration or is blocked from obtaining a goal.” In this scene, C’s goal to take Jane out did not happen because her brother, who is also from the minority group, lied and said C was the reason why he got physically attacked. For a split second during the argument between C and Jane’s brother, C unconsciously justifies the stereotype of African Americans created by the people in his neighborhood. This in return caused him to justify the use of a racial slur against Jane’s brother. This is an example of symbolic interactionism. Jane’s brother based his future decision of blaming C for the attack on the fact that he was associated with Slick and his friends and that he had the same ethnic background. He socially constructed the reality of the attack and by doing so, he relied on symbols such as gestures (aka the act of slick and his friends attacking him) and/or words (aka the racial slur both C and his friends blurred out in scenes two and four) to place C in a stereotypical group. Overall, decisions were based on the social interactions instead of personality traits.