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“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.” The Cambridge Dictionary defines prejudice as, an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge. In a world where prejudice is seen on a daily basis, it is not uncommon for children's books and movies to address this concept indistinctly. In both stories that I will be focusing on, there is an overhanging theme of prejudice, racism, and discrimination, but is this due to a lack of evidence in each situation? With an absence of evidence, we fall back onto these preconceived ideas, that influence how we look at people and events. But we have to ask the question, does the absence of evidence lead to an enhanced state of prejudice? We could also ask, what is an opinion that persists in the face of evidence to the contrary?
To Kill A Mockingbird is a story that explores and unpacks the ways in which prejudice was shown in American society in the 1930s. This story is set in a town called ‘Maycomb” in America's deep south, it is a troubled and broken town that is set in the traditional ways of the white Americans and has the same mindset as the people from the civil war. In the town, there is an abundance of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, especially towards the black community. This can be seen in multiple ways, the segregation of both the black and white communities within the town. This is a result of the Jim Crow and Black Code Laws that were around in America during that time, these laws separated black and white people, making sure that there was no interaction and making sure that there was white superiority. These ideas lead to the main complication in the book, which involves a black man named “Tom Robinson” and a white woman named “Mayella Violet Ewell”, she accuses Tom of raping her. This is where Atticus Finch steps in as Tom’s lawyer, he attempts to prove Tom’s innocence, and he takes the case to uphold his sense of self-respect, and because he has a strong belief that black people and white people should be equal. In this situation, we see Tom as the mockingbird because as both Atticus and Miss Maudie say 'but remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.' 'Your father’s right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy….. they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”, Tom was only trying to help Mayella, he felt sorry for what she was going through, and because he tried to do something good, sadly the good thing that Tom did was overruled because of the absence of actual evidence, the word of a white person (In this case Bob and Mayella Ewell), came first over that of a black man. It is in this absence of evidence that prejudice won and caused a young innocent man to lose his life. This book resonates and relates to audiences today because of the historical events that have taken place and how they have affected a certain group of people. This book teaches us to keep an open mind when approaching a new group of people and to get to know them before we judge them.
Zootopia is a children's movie that has been recognized as dealing with the real-world issues of discrimination, prejudice, and racism, the movie focuses on white supremacy and the war on drugs in black communities, specifically the giving of crack-cocaine to people, to cover up the political corruptness of the 1970s-1980s. These drugs were given to black neighborhoods so that the media would focus on that and move away from the corrupt white politicians, it also made it easier for the white supremacist politicians to say that black neighborhoods were full of ‘crackheads’, ‘crack babies’, superpredators’. This in relation to Zootopia is addressed when the lead protagonist, a young rabbit named Judy and her partner a fox named Nick Wilde, both police officers notice that there is a drug going around making the victim crazy. This is given to predators, multiple different breeds of animals to represent multiple ethnicities, and how they are discriminated against by the government leaders. Not only does the movie deal with white supremacy but it also references the civil rights movement, as one of the main character's celebrities ‘Gazelle’ goes to a protest for the predators to have more rights, this is like the protests to give black people more rights and more freedom. The inclusion of racial slurs is also noted as the word “cute” when talking to a rabbit is seen as derogatory or demeaning it is the equivalent of saying “nigger.” It is also mentioned in the movie that the world is made up of 10% predators, and 90% prey, and how people judge the predators for what they have done before, they are basing their opinions on preconceived ideas and lack of evidence, and they are making the predators into something bad and therefore splitting themselves away from them. Predators are seen as inferior in comparison to the prey, this is like how black people were seen as inferior to white people. This movie includes many themes that are exemplified in society even to this day, it is very interesting that a movie that is aimed at young children is dealing with such major and mature topics as discrimination, racism, and prejudice. This movie links to the real world in many ways as we see the recognition of certain historical events and it also demonstrates the length that some people will go to get what they want, this is what happens in the world today, and this movie is highly relevant in today’s society because it shows the harm and hurt brought upon by racial discrimination and prejudice, and teaches many children a lesson, that they should treat everyone as equals and work together to fight for what they believe in.
In both texts, there is an overarching similarity in the way that prejudice, racism, and discrimination are represented. They all have protagonists that are optimists who respect people of the opposite color, race, etc. In each text, there is a lesson, that strings off both, that we should treat others with respect and not make preconceived ideas and opinions of people that we don't know. This is a lesson that can be taken into the world today and be used to limit the ways prejudice is harming the people around us.
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