Societies Throughout The World

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

Concepts

Societies throughout the world contain peoples with different skin colors, languages, religions and customs. These physical and cultural traits, by providing high social visibility, serve as identifying symbols of group membership (Williams, 2006). In this section we will discuss concepts on racism.

Race

A race is a group of people who see themselves and are seen by others, as having hereditary traits that set them apart (Hirschman, 1987). Race can be understood as a classification system that assigns individuals and groups to categories that are ranked or hierarchical. It is generally depends on the differences in human physical characteristics used to categorize large numbers of individuals (Wu, 2009). The process by which people use understandings of race to classify individuals or groups is racialization. Most of the time, races are characterized not by fixed, clear cut differences, but by fluid, continuous differences and these differences also change considerably with time (Williams, 2006).

For example, we readily recognize that groups of Norwegians, Chinese and Ugandans look different; people in various parts of the world differ in certain hereditary features, including the color of their skin, the texture of their hair, their facial features, their stature, and the share of their head.

Racism

An important concept based on race is racism. Racism did not come into use until the 1930 (Rowley, Helaire, & Banerjee, 2010). This term can be defined in many ways because there are different definitions of what constitutes racism in different national contexts.

Some people see racism as a system of domination operating in social processes and social institutions; others see it as operating in the individual consciousness (Chong, 2009). Racism can refer to explicit belief in racial supremacy-such as the system established in Nazi Germany. Yet many have argued that racism is more than the ideas held by individuals (Blacksacademy, 2005). Rather, it is embedded in the structure and operation of society such as police, health care industry, and educational system. Racism exists at two levels – individual and institutional (Wu, 2009). At the individual level, racism is the belief that some racial groups are naturally superior and others are inferior.

Individual racism. It depends on two ideas that have been discredited in contemporary scholarship: (1) that people may be reliable classified into biologically meaningful racial group. (2) that these groups are inherently different in regard to ability, character, intelligence, social behavior, and culture (Chong, 2009). Generally, this form of racism gives rise to attitudes of aversion and hostility toward others based on their race. It is also related to prejudice. For example, one considers that Black people as a group are inferior to whites because of physical (genotypical and phenotypical) traits. He/she further believes that these physical traits are determinants of inferior social behavior and moral or intellectual, and ultimately presumes that this inferiority is a legitimate basis for inferior social treatment of Black people (or people of color) in American society.

Institutional level. Racism involves discriminatory policies and practices that result in unequal outcomes for members of different racial groups (Wu, 2009). It often being discussed together with discrimination. For example, "those established laws,customs, and practices which systematically reflect and produce racial inqualities in American society… whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have racist intentions"

Prejudice

Prejudice refers to attitudes of aversion and hostility toward the members of a group simply because they belong to it and hence are presumed to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to it (Williams, 2006). As such, prejudice is a subjective phenomenon- a state of mind. Racial prejudices generally have three components (Collins & Williams, 1999).

A cognitive component that provides a description of members of the target group, often including negative stereotypes such as "lazy", "thoughtless," "criminal"

An affective component that involves negative reactions and emotional feelings about the group;

A behavioral component that may include the tendency to discriminate/ behave negatively toward members of the group.

Discrimination

Discrimination is action as compared to prejudice who see it as a state of mind (Chong, 2009). Discrimination is a process in which members of one or more groups or categories in society are denied the privileges, prestige, power, legal rights, equal protection of law, and other societal benefits that are available to members of other groups. Discrimination is forms of racism when those discriminated against are a racial minority (Collins & Williams, 1999).

Symbolic Racism From "old racism" to "new racism"

As traditional racial prejudice declined, a new forms of prejudice emerged (Ouellet, 2007). This new complex of attitudes is termed symbolic racism, modern racism or racial resentment. It has been increasing in recent years. It stereotypes African American as people who do not share the American work ethic, who would rather be on welfare than work, who would be as well off as whites if they would "try harder". The concept of biological racism based on differences in physical traits is rarely expressed today. Racist attitudes have not disappeared from modern societies. Rather, some scholars argue, they have been replaced by more sophisticated "new racism" (Bair & Steele, 2010). According to this view, hierarchies of superiority and inferiority are constructed according to the values of majority culture. Groups that stand apart from the majority can be marginalized for their refusal to assimilate. It is alleged that new racism has a clear political dimension and increasingly based on cultural grounds.

Problem Statement/Significance of Study

Racism is the main discussion in this report and perceive as an important social issue to be study as a Malaysian because our country is a multi-races country with Malay, Chinese, Indian and other minority groups. According to the research in Nakamura (n.d.), there are nine hundreds eighty-four articles contain the term racial and two hundreds sixty eight articles contain the term ethnic were published in the heading of English newspaper since 1975. Therefore, we can see that the racial issue is a very common discussed topic in Malaysian since more than three decades ago. As we are living in a multiracial and multicultural country, being more understanding of racism can help us to avoid conflicts and quarrels among the races and ethnics which move forward to achieve solidarity among Malaysian.

Psychological/Developmental theories

Social learning theory. The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished. This was first being proposed by Albert Bandura (1997) to explain how aggression was being learnt. People can learn by observing others. As with most social behaviors, we acquire aggression by watching others act and noting the consequences. It was believed that everyday life exposes us to different social behavior in the family, in one’s subculture and also mass media. Family influence appears in higher violence rates in cultures and in families who disciplined their children by modeling aggression.

Realistic group conflict theory (RGCT). RGCT is one of the most established theories about inter-group hostility (Ouellet, 2007). In-group identification is the process of basing self-identity and self-interests on group membership. The fundamental proposition of RGCT is that conflict is produced when multiple parties contest common goods, ideas, or perceived resources. Conflict can only be reduced through inter-group cooperation and sharing control over the desired item (Odina, et al., 2007).

RGCT explains when and why prejudice will arise. The theory is based on two primary assumptions. The first is that real groups actually exist and have a history of shared identity and shared fate. Second, it is assumed that groups believe themselves to be in zero-sum competition over valued resources. Theoretically, inter-group conflict leads to negative stereotyping and prejudices, which give rise to greater intra-group solidarity.

Social identity theory (SIT). According to SIT, attitudes toward inequality result from specific social identity concerns that arise from the position of the in-group or majority in the social structure (Giscombé & Lobel, 2005). SIT takes into account the differential powers held by privileged and disadvantaged groups and the different psychological issues that arise from these groups interpreting and responding to the social context from the in-group’s unique perspective (Giscombé & Lobel, 2005). The theory claims that it is the group that interprets the social standing of groups and identities. This interpretation creates more discrimination towards those groups that are "culturally inferior."

Contact hypothesis. Allport first proposed the notion of the contact hypothesis (Federico & Sidanius, 2002). The contact hypothesis stated that under certain conditions, intergroup contact can reduce negative attitudes toward different groups (Chong, 2009). Situations in which this reduction in prejudice did not occur include when "the inner strain within the person is too tense, too insistent, to permit him to profit from the structure of the outer situation, suggesting that when an individual’s own preconceived notions and opinions were strongly and deeply ingrained within his or her identity, that contact may not be successful in reducing prejudice. The four key conditions for the reduction of prejudice through contact were: (1) equal group status in the situation, (2) sharing common goals, (3) intergroup cooperation, and (4) support of authority, law and/or custom (Harris et al., 2012).

Equal group status occurred when in any situation two groups had the same power, authority, and rank. Sharing common goals and intergroup cooperation were closely related and occured when two groups must work together to achieve a mutual objective. Lastly, support of authority, law, and custom established norms and rules in how two groups should have behaved and interacted with each other. When these four key conditions were integrated and used together, prejudice should have been dramatically decreased (Bair & Steele, 2010).

Case Study

This is a story about two brothers, Derek Vinyard, the eldest brother in the family and Daniel Vinyard (Danny), the young brother. Story began after his father’s death, a firefighter being murdered by black drug traffickers while performing his duty. Since then, Derek became a racism and he hated those ‘social parasites’ like blacks (African community), brown (Spanish/Latin community) and yellow (Asian community) who he thought that committed crimes and brought a lot of social problems to the country. He then joined a gang called The D.O.C (Disciples of Christ) which led by Cameron Alexander (Cam), advocated Neo-Nazism among frustrated and insecure children and teenagers in the community. Derek became the second leader in the gang. When there were activities of D.O.C., Derek brought along Danny where this actually influenced Danny accepted concepts of Neo-Nazism and White Power.

One evening, Derek and his gang had a basket ball battle with some blacks at the basket ball court of their neighborhood. The stake of the battle was whoever lose are not allow to use this basket ball court forever. At the end, Derek and his team won the game and this incident strengthen their gang. Besides that, Cam incited Derek led the gang to destroy Archie’s Ranch Market which was owned by a Korean and workers in the store are mostly ‘social parasites’. This incident led D.O.C became more powerful and Derek himself became violence and feel like own doings and notion are right.

One evening during dinner, Derek and his girlfriend had an argument with his mother’s new boyfriend, Murray about some racist issues. He scolded at his mother and sister and throw Murray out of the house. His mother asked him to leave the house where he replied he will out tomorrow. Later in night, Danny found that there were three blacks trying to steal Derek’s car and he run to inform Derek. Derek got into anger and took a pistol before run out from the house. He killed two of them. He was arrested in front of Danny and was being sentenced to 3 years at the prison.

In the prison, Derek joined a group of white supremacists. He also develops a friendship with a black prisoner called Lamont who performed duty together. One year later, Derek found that his group leader actually deal with a Mexican in trafficking drugs. This incident threatening Derek’s notion. Thus, he quit the group and showed his objections obviously. The supremacists group wanted to give him a lesson as the group was trying to protect him from being bully by others. They attacked him in the shower room by savagely beat and rape him.

Derek was being sent to prison ward for treatment after the attack. He was visited by his former high school teacher, Dr. Sweeney. He asked Dr. Sweeney to help him leave the prison and miserable life. Dr. Sweeney informed him about Danny’s recent development was on same path as Derek. Dr. Sweeney wanted Derek to realize his responsibility to his own life and now for Danny. Derek feel frustrated and confuse, he found that a lot of things in reality were not consistent with what he thought. Dr. Sweeney motivated Derek by revealing his own past as a hatred youth who dislike white people. However, he realized that hatred is pointless and he changes his thoughts and perceptions towards white later in his life.

This series of event actually gave Derek a turning point to change his outlook on life. He far away himself from the group and spend remainder of his time in the prison alone. During rest time, he read books that Sweeney sent him to enrich himself. Derek feared that those black prisoners will attack him. However, they just leave him alone and never attack him until he left the prison. Derek knows that this must be effort of Lamont. Finally, Derek change and leaves the prison.

During the day Derek released from prison, Danny went to school and was being sent to Dr. Sweeney by his history teacher due to problem of his history report. Danny praised Hitler (German Nazism leader) a civil-rights hero and advocated racism in his report. Dr. Sweeney gave Danny another chance but the condition is Danny must attend a personal history class called "American History X" with him. First assignment given was a new report that writes about his brother, Derek, and all the incidents and factors that leads to him in prison, how this affect him and his family, and view of contemporary American society. Danny reluctantly agrees. After that, Danny went to toilet and had a confrontation with a black student called Little Henry.

After school, Danny returned home and share with Derek about his experiences in D.O.C. these 3 years. Derek tried to persuade Danny to leave the gang but failed. Later in night, there was a Neo-Nazi party at Cam place where Derek was forced by Seth to attend. Derek warned Danny not to attend the party but end up Danny attended the party too. At the party, Derek found that Cam praise Danny for the report he passed up that morning. Derek confronted with Cam and told him that he will leave the gang. Cam’s word provoked Derek and Derek impulse to beat him up. Seth discovered this and he ran out from room with pistol to chase after Derek. Derek defended, scratched the pistol and point to the crown angrily before running away.

Danny confronted Derek for his change toward D.O.C. Derek knew that this was the right time to persuade Danny to leave the gang. Derek confided all his experiences in the prison. These prompted a change in Danny. Both of them remove all the white power and Neo-Nazism posters on their bedroom walls. Derek took a shower and reflected on all the events that had happened while Danny completed his report in the room. Danny found that Derek’s racism and Neo-Nazism thoughts would be started during his high school times where his father who himself a racism tried to persuade Derek not to believe in Dr. Sweeney taught as Dr. Sweeney is a black.

Next morning, Derek needed to meet with his parole officer and he walked with Danny to school before meeting. They stop at a café for breakfast and meet Dr. Sweeney and a police officer. They told Derek that Cam and Seth were being assaulted last night and have been hospitalized and they needed Derek’s help to soothe others D.O.C. members. Derek reluctantly agrees. At school toilet, Little Henry shoots Danny with a gun and kills him to revenge on the confrontation in previous day. When Derek gets back to school, he run into the toilet and embraces his brother dead body with tears.

At the end of the film, Danny narrating a quote by Abraham Lincoln which is also part of his report of American History X. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Movie Analysis

The concept of racism is beliefs that humans can be categories into several major group or races, and that these group mark the superiority or inferiority of those who belong to them (Hollinsworth, 2006). Furthermore, there is several form of racism like individual racism, culture racism, and institutional racism.

Individual Racism

In American History X, the main character, Derek had exhibit many individual racism behavior, for example, he called social parasites like blacks (African community), brown (Spanish/Latin community) and yellow (Asian community).

Relevant support. Jones (1972) describes individual racism as a person’s race prejudice based on biological considerations and involving actual behavior that is discriminatory in nature (). The example of individual racism is calling someone a racist name and making a racist assumption.

Cultural Racism

In American History X, Derek always think that those African community are always commit crimes and brought a lot of social problems to the country like AIDS, welfare and others. The thinking of Derek is one of the examples of culture racism.

Relevant support. Culture racism the more subtle form of racism and the most pervasive and sinister. This form of racism includes the individual and institutional expression of the superiority of one race’s cultural over that of other races (as cited in Ponterotto, 2006). The example of culture racism is women on welfare are assumed to be black or brown and are portrayed as irresponsible.

Institutional Racism

In American History X, The D.O.C (Disciples of Christ) which lead by Cameron Alexander had not allowed other race like African community, Spanish/Latin community and Asian community to join their gang.

Relevant support. The last form of racism is institutional racism. Institutional racism includes intentional or unintentional manipulation or toleration of institutional policies that unfairly restrict the opportunities of targeted groups. The example of institutional racism is a school had set special admission criteria for African community students.

Role of Family as Factor of Racism.

In American History X, Derek’s father has a negative thinking to the black community, he doesn’t support the activity of Black recognition or Black equality and he also think that Black community people can get the job not because of their ability is because of law of government. This kind of racism thinking had been transmitted to his son, Derek, and when his father had pass away because murdered by two black guy and this event had strengthen the racism thinking of Derek mind and make him because a racist.

Relevant support. The first factor contribute to racism is the role of family. Parents may influence their children to become racist through their own endorsement, precerption, prejudice thinking and display of racist attitudes (Duriez & Soenens, 2009). Racism can be transmitted from one generation to the next through modelling processes (Duriez & Soenens, 2009). In Mosher and Scodel (1960) research, their result had shown a positive correlation between mothers racism and daughters social distance from African Americans and Jews (as cited in Sinclair, Dunn, & Lowery, 2005). Futhermore, Carlson and Iovini (1985) result also had reported the same result. In they result had found that social distance from African Americans among White fathers and sons was positively correlated (as cited in Sinclair, et al., 2005). This two study had proven that the parents had the effect to lead their offspring to become racist.

Social Learning Theory as Factor of Racism.

In this fiim, another main character, Danial, he see her brother, Derek as his idol and follow all his brother behavior and finally his also become racist and exhibit all racism behavior and thinking.

Relevant support. Bandura (1997) had stated that according to social learning theory, children develop beliefs and behaviors by mimicking others person around them (as cited in Sinclair etal., 2005).

Tendency to Simplify as Factor of Racism.

In the film, before Derek enter prison, he always think that all people from black community also angry with and wont help people from white community and not try to get to know more about the people from black community but when Derek had trouble in the prison, only Lamont (his black prisoner friend) to protect him and support him in the prison.

Relavant support. One factor that contribute to lead people became racism is the tendency to simplify. In social cognition, people are function cognitively with stereotypes and establish categories; this is a psychological mechanism that helps people to simplify reality and to be able to function in a more flexible way in our daily lives (Odina, et al., 2007). The tendency of simplify is a started point of racism. The emphasis on difference and not sameness distances people from those minority or groups that their categorize as "others." By establishing categories, people are unavoidable making value judgments that lead to a different way to creating a hierarchy of social group. This differentiation and classification can "blind" people try to get to know the other (Odina, et al., 2007).

Realistic Group Conflict as Factor of Racism

Another factor that lead people became racism is because want to protect their own right. For example, in the film, too many immigrant come to American either legal or illegal and this decrease the working opportunity for Native American because the salary of those immigrant is lower than Native American. At the end, Derek and his friends want to do something to express their angry and give warn to those immigrant.

Prevalence

It is found that some children as young as 6 are aware of racism, the proportion of children who are aware of racism increase between the ages of 6 and 10; by the age of 10, it is showing that 80% of Latino and African American children while White and Asian children are aware of racism (McKown, 2004).

The existence of interpersonal discrimination in the UK has been cleared clarified. In the 2005 and 2006, British Crime Survey figure out a total of 179,000 racially motivated crimes; and the Forth National Survey on Ethnic Minorities (FNS), which is a national survey with an over-sample of ethnic minorities found that in the year prior to the survey has been shown that 22 % of whom experienced repeated victimization, 13% had experienced any form of racial harassment, 12% of ethnic minority people reported racially motivated verbal abuse (Becares, Nazroo & Stafford, 2009).

Besides, early research examined the academic success of African-American undergraduates reveal that 89% had heard disparaging comments about Blacks on campus, always in the form of direct verbal insults. Moreover, more recent research also found that African-American students at predominantly White colleges reported experienced racist incidents about once every two weeks, one quarter were comments or jokes directed at the target or the target’s racial group and majority a of comments came from peers (Bair & Steele, 2010).

In a research examines the difference in self-reported experiences of US-born and foreign-born black pregnant women, it is shown that US-born women are more than twice as likely as foreign-born women to report that they had ever experienced personal racism and three times a s likely to report that their ethnic or racial group in general had ever experienced in racism. In addition, the prevalence tended to be higher for racism directed against one’s group than against oneself personally (Dominguez et al., 2009).

Past research has also reveal that White Americans tend to perceive less overall racism as compare with Black Americans. This discrepancy is larger when racism is in an institutional as compare to individual terms. Past work also shown that Whites are less likely than Black to perceive non-Whites’ lack of knowledge about opportunity in an organization as indicative of racism. Thus, it display that Whites are less willing to consider disparate outcome that fall along racial lines as an indicative of racism when such outcomes are caused by the institutional practices (Unzueta & Lowery, 2008).

From these movie, we also can see that Derek’s father, Derek and Danny who are White Americans are having stereotype, discrimination, prejudice and racism toward those Blacks (American community), Brown ( Spanish and Latin community) and Yellow (Asian community).

Effects of Racism

Attributional ambiguity. Danny’s history report with the title of Mein Kampf which Danny praise Hitler (German Nazism leader) as a civil-right hero, and advocate racism in his history report. Thus, Danny’s perception on differentiate the roles, attitude and belief are impacted.

Stereotype threat. Derek perception toward those who are not White American as social parasite that who he think commit crimes and brought a lot of social problems to the country like AIDS, welfare and others in society.

Relevant support. Racism can negatively affect children’s academic achievement, self-perception and mental health. Racism also can affect children through a variety of social processes involving attributional ambiguity, stereotype threat and interpersonal expectancy effect (McKown, 2004).

Discussion

Western Country

Along the years, we can see that the view of racism has been improved. For example in the America, Barack Hussein Obama II became the 44th and current President of the United States and he is the first African American to hold the office. This is a historical moment for America because it proved that the social acceptance towards other races has been improved and chances are given to people who are capable regardless of racial issues.

Effects on Individual

Health. In a recent years, the evidence of indicating racism as an important determinant of health has grown considerably. Racism can affect health in a different ways. It is claimed that racism is causally related to ethnic disparities and health status through the physiological response to chronic psychosocial stress that resulted in mortality and morbidity (Williams & Mohammed, 2009).

Psychosocial stress responses to racism also revealed to impact health through health related behaviours such as alcohol consumption, smoking and individual’s interaction with health care systems. Racism can also have direct impact on health through the experience of racially violence and motivated attacks (Bécares, Nazroo, & Stafford, 2009).

In a less direct, racism can affect health through the structuring of societal resources and health determinants such as education, employment and housing by ethnicity and as well as by affecting access to quality of care received and healthcare. So, racism generally showing a negative effect on a range of risk factors, ill health (Harris et al., 2012).

Effects on Society

Racism caused May 13 Incident in Malaysia. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country where we accepted all cultures, religions and celebrations, to demonstrate the importance of upholding harmony among races. The most famous racial issue in the Malaysia history is happened on May 13, 1969 due to the refers to the Sino-Malay sectarian violence in Kuala Lumpur and this incident causes many death and injuries (Nam, 1973). The riots led to a declaration of a state of national emergency and suspension of Parliament by the Malaysian government, while the National Operations Council was established to temporarily govern the country between 1969 and 1971. Officially, 196 people were killed between May 13 and July 31 as a result of the riots, although journalist and other observers have stated much higher figures. Other report at the time suggest over 2000 were killed by rioters, police and Malaysian Army rangers, mainly in Kuala Lumpur.

This can be explained as negative emotion being produced because of racial stereotype and discrimination. According to a quantitative research with Aboriginal people using the Measure of Indigenous Racism Experience (MIRE) scale examined a number of "reactions" to racism which including anger, worry, sadness, shame, physical reaction and feeling sorry for the perpetrator and also "responses" toward racism such as avoiding situations, keep it to yourself, trying to do something about it, change the way you are and talking to your friends and family (Ziersch et al., 2011).

However, after the lesson learned, Malaysia shows positive signs of having a maturing society because the election results on March 8, 2008 were accepted without violence. Besides, all the races in Malaysia are living with peace and harmony as we can see the Government pays great effort on it by introducing the Slogan of 1 Malaysia calling for the cabinet, government agencies, and civil servants to more strongly emphasis ethnic harmony, national unity, and efficient governance.

Elimination of Racism - Contact Hypothesis and Malaysia National Service (PLKN)

As discussed earlier, contact hypothesis proposed that under certain conditions, intergroup contact can reduce negative attitudes toward different groups. This means that when fulfilling these conditions, it can actually help a group of people to reduce prejudice toward other races. When we interpret it in Malaysia context, we can found that the national service (PLKN) was a suitable example that can prove the contact hypothesis.

In PLKN, different race of students are being gathered and stay in a same camp site together for 3 months. Different activities and training were carried out. We found that PLKN actually provide a circumstance that fulfills the four conditions of contact hypothesis. The first condition is about equal group status in the situation. In PLKN, no matter what race you are, you will be treated just like any others. For example, Malay, Chinese, Indian and others minorities have same chance to pick up any positions in their group like leader and commander. Besides, this program also met second condition of sharing common goals where all the members are aimed at serving the country and communities. Furthermore, intergroup cooperation can be also found in PLKN as all the activities involve member’s cooperation to complete like marching, ‘gotong-royong’ within the community and others. Lastly, this program also met the condition of support of authority, law, and custom. For examples, all members in PLKN are requested to wear same uniform according to different situations; there are rules that need all the members to follow. Thus, we can see that PLKN was actually fulfills all the conditions in contact hypothesis. As a conclusion, PLKN was a program that artfully integrated all the four conditions where this can help to promote national consciousness, solidarity among different races, self development and more importantly reduce prejudice among Malaysian.

Conclusion

Much like a chef puts together few items and makes them into something worth eating; we have put together a wide range of racism issues into this report that we hope will have value for publics. When come to racism issue of youth and our society culture, the parable of "boiled frog" comes into our mind.

"Picture a heated saucepan of water on a stovetop, hot to the touch. Now imagine placing a live healthy frog in the heated water. No surprise! The frog leaps out of the pan, recognizing the immediate danger and the threat to its survival. Now, imagine placing a similar frog into a pan of room temperature water. Let the frog settle in. Then, very gradually, start turning up the heat, starting at very low temperature settings. Feeling complacent and comfortable, the frog won't realize that the temperature is gradually getting hotter. It gets more and more groggy, less and less conscious, until it eventually succumbs after being virtually boiled to death" (John, 1996).

Sometimes, we are like living in a culture where the heat (racism) gradually increase. Effects of racism can begin long before students reach adulthood, the "kettle" can boil over in their stage of adulthood. We don’t even know we are sometimes involved in racism issues.

Strengths

In short, racism problem is an issue that the society has to pay attention to. In this study, we have discovered prevalence, factors, causes and effects of racism. There are few factors of stress including role of family, social learning, tendency to oversimplify, and group conflict theory. This study also shows few effects of stress in 2aspects: individual and society. This study generated result which can be used by educators including teachers and counselors. Awareness and understanding of racism can assist them to come out with targeted prevention programs to solve the potential problem before they occur. Specific intervention activities can also be organized to help those with serious racism problem.

Limitations

While this study brings significant meanings, it also has few limitations that need to be known. Firstly, this study was being conducted with one movie review from western perspective. Result may be different across different movies on different culture and countries. Therefore, the generalizability of these findings is only limited to individuals who are similar with those in this movies.

Another limitation was that only qualitative method (case study) was being used in this report. It remains unclear on Malaysian’s current racism level, its’ effects, and to what extent contact hypothesis can be applied in Malaysia context. We suggest that questionnaire (quantitative method) should be used in the future to counter the limitations/weaknesses of qualitative method.

Insight Gained

They are many important issues to be learned in this study such as racism, hate and violence. The issue racism and discrimination delivers the greatest impact through this movie. Unity among races plays a very important in the development of society and country. For example living in Malaysia, our living society and neighborhood may involve people with different races and culture which differ from us. Therefore, with tolerance and cooperation among races, we could live in a harmony and peace society with the absence of problem and worry provokes by racial issues.

Besides, the feeling of hate delivered through this movie brings many negative effects to individual and society. Hate is a form of negative emotion that normally associated with anger. Therefore, people should minimize or transform their feeling of hate to a more positive emotion or choose to forgive and forget because hate is simply an emotion that doesn’t provide any benefit or solution for problems. In contrast, through forgiving, misunderstanding and problem may be solve and the feeling of forgiving is definitely better than anger and hate.