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Kara Alexander
Stefan Britt
Eng.111.HO1
2015, May 5
The Land of the Free
America is described as a place where people from all over the world can come and live
in not only a country they can become wealthy but also a place of peace, after all, Americas
ancestors were all immigrants at one time or another. A female in America can go to college, and
get a job the same as a man which in some countries is just unheard of. Yet with all the freedom
in America, one could still look and find that people with certain skin tones get treated differently
than others. People of color, and even in some areas with no color, or the "wrong color," get
discriminated against every day; getting insulted verbally, getting profiled because of their race
and even getting attacked. Though it may not be as severe or as public as it used to be, one can
argue that for evolved people living in "The Land of the Free," such acts of discrimination of
race can be barbaric and hinder the growth of individual people and our country as a whole.
Racism is still alive today despite our countrys efforts to eliminate it, and it could very well be
connected to literacy and learning in America.
In the year 1998 on June 7th, one of the most horrifying things one could hear about
happened. A man of color named James Byrd Jr. was chained to the back of a truck by his ankles,
by three white men, and dragged for miles until he was decapitated, it was a gruesome act done
only because the man had a different skin color. In school, the years of slavery are taught to be

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bad to children but this at on Mr. Byrd was not even 20 years ago. There is an article that
describes this specific act and many more by D. L. Chandler on the web who is a veteran on the
Washington D.C. Metro writing scene. Chandler states "In 2010s FBI report, of the 7.690
incidents, 48.4 percent of the crimes were racially motivated attacks, with sexual orientation bias
coming in second at 19.1 percent"(1). This is saying that just five years ago, nearly half of all the
crimes in America were due to racism; our America the free, is so full of hatred. There are
criminals who are African American but there are also criminals who are Caucasian, Latino,
Indian, Arabian, and Asian, but that does not mean the entire race is because there are also good,
hard-working people of those races.
The movie Crash was released in 2005, it was a movie just full of racism and stereotypes
to the extent that it might make a person mad, but it might also make another person realize how
ridiculous it is to discriminate against another person. In the movie an African American man
was told that he is not black, it was implied that he was not black because he was hard working,
literate, and wasnt a "gang-banger." The incident with Mr. Byrd relates a lot to the movie
especially in one specific part, there was an African American man walking home at night and
was offered a ride home from a Caucasian man (which is exactly what happened with Mr. Byrd)
The difference is Mr. Byrd was then attacked for no reason, whereas in the movie the African
American man was reaching in his pocket to show something to the driver when he got shot
because he assumed he had a gun. It was assumed that because of their skin color they are bad
people, but one cannot determine who someone is or what they do because of the color of their
skin.
Another related term to racism is ethnocentric, someone who determines their opinion of
others based on their own culture and religion. A person that is ethnocentric isnt always racist

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but they are similar in thinking that they are above another person due to something juvenile like
the way they look. Jack Mezirow, who is a professor in adult education, talks about habit of mind
in his article Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice, saying that "habits of mind are broad,
abstract, orienting, habitual ways of thinking, feeling and acting influenced by assumptions that
constitute a set of codes"(268). Meaning that as we grow we adapt to our surroundings and just
like normal habits are formed, we form a habit of mind, which is the way we think and react in
our minds. Mezirow then continues on to state, "An example of habit of mind is ethnocentrism,
the predisposition to regard others outside ones own group as inferior. A resulting point of view
is the complex of feelings, beliefs judgments, and attitudes we have regarding specific
individuals or groups (for example, homosexuals, welfare recipients, people of color, or
women)" (269). What Mezirow is talking about goes right along with what was stated before
about one person believing that others are beneath them and they believe that way because it is
somewhat of a habit for them.
When I got my first job at a local KFC it really opened my eyes and reminded me of
things like racism. On one of my first days there, a man came in and when the gentleman at the
counter went to take his order the man stopped him and said "a man is not supposed to take
another mans order, I need a female to wait on me, she cannot be colored and she has to be
blonde because someone with darker hair and skin is dirty and not pure." Being a brunette myself
I was astounded that I had just heard such a thing, I thought to myself, "Im not pure enough to
take this mans greasy chicken order?" Though the situation was not ideal, it reminded me that
we are all people and that even though it is not seen all the time, stereotypes do still exist. This
goes along with what Mezirow talks about how ones frames of reference are determined by one's
own assumptions which is what leads to racism and discrimination, assumptions. What exactly is

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racism though? According to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, race is determined as "a belief
that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences
produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." This means that a person that is racist
normally believes that his /her race and even they as a person are better than others of a different
skin tone. There is a strong possibility that a person that believes themselves to be better than
others may not feel like they need to go to school or that there is anything left to learn, because
they already know all, resulting in uneducated people that are close minded and have already
decided they have no room to grow leaving them ignorant in their ways.
When one looks at people of different races, they can see that in every race there are
some that are rich or poor, some that are smart and not, some that are thin and some that are
thick, just like every race has good law abiding citizens and some that break the law; it is
completely unethical to try to group an entire race into one category just because one person
might fit the stereotype. A person that is an educator should not have any biases but it does occur
that students get treated and graded differently based on the teacher stereotyping them. A child,
born of a darker skin tone to a single mother who is struggling to keep herself and her child alive,
though he has the potential for a great future, he lives in a bad area and therefore the schooling
he receives is far from superior. A child can grow up in a sub-par learning system that will do
him no justice or being treated differently because of the color of their skin and it can discourage
them from learning or trying to grow as a person because they feel like no matter what they do,
the color of their skin will determine them.
Though there are these examples of racism that happen just about every day, some will
say we can never truly get rid of racism but merely hide it; yet, I believe that every small change
that gets made can help to end it and restore peace among people of all colors. Once the people

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in the country come together and have a well thought conversation about racism people can start
to grow and learn, there will be people that will fight change, and that is when, like my professor
Stefan Britt states, a "continuous conversation" will take place to slowly alter the reality that is
being lived. "The Land of the Free" can truly become the peaceful escape that people of other
countries dream of, once we raise a generation of well-educated and accepting people, personally
I think that is the American Dream.

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Work Cited
Chandler, D. L.. Racist Murder Of James Byrd Jr. Took Place On This Day In 1998. June
2012. Web.
Haggis, Paul. Crash. 2004. Movie.
Merriam- Webster dictionary. 2015. Web.
Mezirow, Jack. "Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice." Exploring Relations:
Globalization in the 21st Century. 268-274. 1997. Print.