Peters 1

Kerrigan Peters
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-017
1 October 2015
Reflection: (2)
What I need the most help with on this part of the essay is just thinking of more ways to lengthen
it. As you can see, its definitely not 8 pages. I feel like once I find enough stories and articles Ill
have what I need. Im just not sure if I am doing a good job at tying all of the stories together
into a cohesive and readable paper. This draft I did more research than the proposal so I had
more depth and more information in it. I just need to come up with other instances that would fit
well with the rest of the inquiry.
Reflection: (1)
The main thing I need to work on for this project is finding more evidence. Once I find more
evidence and more sources, I feel like I have an excellent topic that can easily fit in 8-10 pages.
With that being said, if anyone as any suggestions on how to make this proposal and this inquiry
better, Im definitely open to hearing them. I think with this paper I may take a more personal
approach with this and maybe involve first hand events that I have witnessed or heard about.
Another thing is I feel like I should brainstorm some more sub-questions for inquiry. What other
questions would fit well with my main topic of inquiry? How can I tie all of them together? After
getting more constructive feedback, I truly feel like I can turn this inquiry into a good paper with
this being such an interesting subject to me.
Opinions, Are They Taught?
Answer me this, do we as people form our own opinions on other races or ethnicities, or
are we taught them? Sure we have our own opinions about things, but I doubt someone has ever
taken the time to sit down, and think how they actually formed said opinions. There is always a
little extra to why someone thinks a certain way. What constructs someones thought? Is it the
media? Their peers? Or did they form their thoughts all by themselves? It is crazy to think about

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how sometimes it is a mixture off all these things or maybe even just one. Who knows, maybe it
is something completely different.
How does one form their own opinions? Recently, Ive had some discussions about this
topic with many people to try and get their input on the subject. With that being said, my topic of
inquiry is, do we as people form our own opinions on other races or ethnicity or are we taught
them? Racism has always been a big problem in the world but how did it begin? More
importantly, how has it been maintained? Racism and discrimination against other ethnicities and
races has been an epidemic in society for a long time. Whether it was back in the 50s with
segregation, or the 21st century with the U.S.s discrimination against those with a Middle
Eastern appearance following September 11th. Civilizations have improved and grown but we
also still carry a lot of old prejudices.
From personal experience, as I mentioned earlier when it came to 9/11, I noticed many
Americans of Middle Eastern descent being judged and looked at differently. The perfectly
innocent were being called terrorists. While talking with my roommates and watching
documentaries this year on September 11th, we began to discuss our stories of what we remember
from that day since we were only in kindergarten. Then, my roommate, Alyson, said something
that stuck with me. She talked about a time following that day when she was at the airport about
to go on a family trip. She was in line going through the security check points and there was
someone of Middle Eastern descent in front of her. Alyson told me that her and someone she was
with began talking to each other about how scared they were of that person and how they felt
uneasy about him riding on their plane. That seems like a normal fear for a person during that
time right? Wrong, she was only in first or second grade. How did someone so young already
think that a person was bad without even knowing them? Did Alyson actually decide for herself

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that the man in from of her was a terrorist or had society convinced her that she should think this
way?
The Critical Media Project stated the media plays an influential role in shaping how we
think about other races. After reading that it made me think back to all of the commercials,
television shows, and movies that are out these days and I tried to think of key points where they
couldve influenced my opinion on others. People like to think that they are their own person and
that theyre not prejudice but if you take a hard look at society you will find that maybe thats not
the case. Most advertisements show white woman and white families, does this not shape us to
affiliate them as the normal race?
Professor Gil Diesendruck, from the Bar-Ilan Universitys Psychology Department in
Israel created a study to test if racism was innate or taught. Diesendruck believes that it begins at
a young age which helped him construct his research. In his study, he plays with children and
talks with them. In an article from the Haaretz Daily Newspaper, it mentions an interview with
the professor who talked about his research and how he did it. The professor explained, We told
4- and 5-year-olds a story about people who live someplace in the world and think that dogs and
cats are the same kind of thingWe asked the kids if these people should be corrected and they
said yes. Then we said that the same people also think that Jews and Arabs are of the same kind,
and here too the children thought it was a mistake and that it was even more important to correct
it. Because these are two groups that are even more different. It was later revealed that the
children felt more of a need to correct him on dividing race than genders or professions.
In another instance he said, We showed children a drawing of an Arab boy and we said
that he likes to play a game called Jimjam (a made-up name). We also showed them a Jewish
girl, and we said she likes to play a game called Tibbits (another made-up name). When we
showed them an Arab girl and asked what she likes to play with, most of the children inferred
that she likes to play Jimjam. They deduced it on the basis of the ethnicity category rather than

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going by the gender category. At the conclusion of this experiment, Professor Diesendruck
suggests that it is our primal instinct and we go with our gut or what we see to categorize
people. With that being said, with proper education and the showing of what is right and wrong,
these behaviors can be changed.