Prejudice Destroys

While many of the prejudicial injustices have faded into the past a recent one is still at the forefront of our minds: the Rwandan genocide. It started out as just a Tutsi rebel group that murdered the president of Rwanda who happened to be Hutu. The Hutu rebel group backed by the government, with their insane prejudice towards the Tutsi, decided that all Tutsi were evil and had to be exterminated. The fighting and the slaughtering went on for days and the UN were no help. Some managed to escape the worst of the calamity but many were killed and no one was spared; Tutsi women, children, unborn babies, and Tutsi supporters died at the hands of the Hutu. It is disgusting that people of the same country can turn around and do these things to the people that they have lived with all of their lives. Rwanda is recovering but there is much left to heal, and it will be a long and difficult journey.

Literature in the past century has had a dominance of the theme of prejudice in many different forms. It is there to show the importance of unity and the outcome if such a thing should continue in the world. In Animal Farm, the pigs became the rulers of the farm and thought all of the other animals were beneath them, leading to the overworking and underfeeding of the animals. The end result was near slavery like levels as they were only fed enough to stay alive, weren’t educated, and worked from sun up till sundown. Another few examples are Afrika Road, and Sorrow of Sarajevo. Even to a lesser extent you can count Harry Potter as an example; Voldemort led a movement to take over the world by killing all muggles and muggleborns. Prejudice had permeated all sectors of society and, as people become more aware, they can do something about it.

There is a great significance set on getting over and through prejudice. When people do they tend to come together, even stronger then before. An example could be the movie Remember the Titans, it was based off a true story where in 1971 in a town called Alexandria they brought together the two high schools into one. The two schools were separated into black and white students and there were high tensions between the two groups because of the prejudice. However, when Herman Boone, and African American, came to coach the football team there he changed everything. The players on the team came together and made friends and eventually the whole town did too. That team, the Titans went on to be undefeated for the whole season, winning the state championship. That is the power of what can happen if even one person can put aside their prejudice and show that to everyone else, things can change, and in a big way. No one thought that team would make it, many were even counting on it, but they pulled through and strengthened the bond between the races. If the whole world could do that with everyone, there would be no more fighting, no more war, about beliefs or race or anything, society would be strong.

Prejudice is a terrible disease that infects too many corners of society and the world. It has affected too many people in terrible ways, from the Holocaust to the Rwandan Genocide and slavery. Some people are still unable to let this go, and society, as a whole needs to let it go, to move forward in life and try to do the best that can be done. These prejudicial attitudes are becoming more and more pronounced through many diverse forms of literature in recent years. Luckily there are countries where prejudice doesn’t run rampant and these are the best places to be in the world. Acceptance, not just tolerance, is the only way for society, as one, to survive.