Racism and cultural issues in both film and life

Learn about the issues that arise when cultures clash.

Learning is a process that helps establish one’s own identity. Identity is not innate; it changes and develops over time. Because of this idea that identity is the product of environmental factors, it can be said that people growing up in a racist society do automatically pick up their racist viewpoints from those around them. Therefore, it can be said that being racist is a learned trait that needs to manifest itself into actual prejudice.

In terms of developmental Psychology, some believe that people are the product of the world around them. With this said, the main idea is that the human mind actually is capable of learning stereotypes and derogatory ideas that have the effect of transforming even those with the noblest of intentions to people that are cold and unloving. Furthermore, the idea of people being the product of their environment asserts that people really do form their own personalities kinesthetically, meaning through their senses. Through observations, sensation, and perception, the surrounding society, therefore, can teach people to become racist individuals. Therefore, people actually learn to be racist by automatically picking up those values in the society they are raised in.

To further emphasize the theme of identity, Roberto, from the film The Color of Fear (1994), believes that the term “American” is really just a label rather than an establishment of an actual identity. The paradoxical idea of people not being considered American when they really are suggests that although people may not be thought of as actually American, they still are, but only through that particular label. Such an idea relates to the concept that something exists only in name. For example, a “pen” may be called a “pen,” but the word “pen” is merely just the label to give an object a name. On a larger scale, the usage of a derogative term, for example, can label another person as a certain type. However, the connotations of that same term involve much more than just the word itself. In terms of identity, Roberto simply points out the power of language itself. It can be constructive if a word has positive connotations, or destructive if the connotations are vulgar and bleak. With these ideas, it can be said that a term may be able to label a person, but it does not necessarily determine the actual identity of that person.

Returning to the idea of labels, Loren complains that white people do not need to concern themselves with knowing who they are because of the idea of white supremacy. In a sense, white really is a label that has its own connotations. The color white usually implies chastity and purity; therefore, white people, in some sense, often have easier lives because they already have a label established for them. However, people of different races, such as Asians and Africans, have to endure the question of who they really are. Since they do not have a color to associate with, these people spend generations trying to establish themselves as fully-realized human beings. In the end, unless it is a given, people have to question and search for who they are by attempting to create an identity that has not already been established.

With both the ideas of the establishment of, as well as the lack of, identities, the idea of hypocrisy comes into play as well. Victor does not fear devout church-women and men; instead, he fears people that really are not true to themselves and that do not establish themselves as actual people with distinct identities. There is an idea that people that say they are not racist are really the most racist ones of all. With this thought, it can be said that people that believe in the search for justice and virtue really just lie to themselves because they are insecure about their own personalities. Therefore, people that believe in these abstract concepts, such as justice and freedom, really are at fault because these ideas are so abstract that to obtain the purest forms of these ideas really is impossible. Freedom and justice are words that express ideals. In addition, ideals are paragons of perfection that cannot be obtained simply because nothing in the world is perfect. Because of this, the search for justice and absolute truth really is just a dream deferred since people that yearn for such perfection believe they can achieve it when it really is impossible to do that. With this, those that desire such ideals actually are hypocrites because they believe in those ideals when they really know that there are dreams that cannot be.

Finally, with the idea of dreams never becoming realities, Victor from the film underwent the most dramatic transformation. The change is realizing that abstract ideas, such as race, class, and gender, actually are just ideas. Identity, then, is an idea of what a person truly is like. The search for one’s identity, for Victor especially, is like the pursuit of a dream and an ideal. Since some dreams can never come true, both Victor and the other men in The Color of Fear all have to realize that the pursuit of an identity is a futile one. In the end, identity really is just an idea about how a person should behave and act. It may define a person, but only through words in any given language. Because of this, an identity is something that can never be tangible; it is merely a thought about who a person is. It is really up to the men in the film, as well as everyone else that undergoes a sense of questioning, to understand who they are as people in the world. Although it can never be felt through the senses, identities still can act as a labels to at least give some sense of an idea about how people really are.