that lead actors to give and get appropriate responses. It not means that actors are passive but the actor or person makes creative modifications as he
internalizes culture.
2.1.1 Racial Issue: a Consequence of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Stereotype
Racial issue is not a strange one for every people anymore. Almost every time we hear, we see, and we watch it in our daily life as if it is a usual
thing. Racialism has been a part of human life in the whole human history. Racial issue is the prejudice directed at people because of their race. It
has brought destruction to human, social and individual life. In social life, it makes the deep gap in society, between black and white, rich and poor. And
the most seriously, it could bring war and death. In individual, the racial issue affected human sense of self and it also influences human social
behavior, psychology, health, and so on. It can destroy our innate, cannot accept ourselves and it also makes us in loneliness, low self esteem, in fear,
uncanny emotion, unsatisfactory relation with others, increasing anxiety and even madness.
According to Feldman 1995:80, there are three aspects that make hatred, including racism, come into existence; they are prejudice, stereotype
and discrimination.
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a Prejudice is the negative or positive evaluations or judgments of
members of a group that are based primarily on membership in the group and not necessarily on the particular characteristics of individual
members. b
Stereotype is a set of beliefs and expectations about members of a group that are held simply on the basis of their membership in the group.
Stereotype could provide a framework for prejudiced individuals to view others’ behavior. Ultimately, stereotypes may increase the chances of
discrimination to occur. c
Discrimination is the behavioral manifestation of stereotypes and prejudice. It refers to negative or sometimes positive action towards
members of other group due to their membership in a group. Although prejudice and discrimination often go hand in hand, one
may be present without the other. A person who harbors prejudice may not necessarily engage in overt discrimination, because the target of his or her
prejudice may not present. For example, someone may dislike Indonesian without ever having an opportunity to interact with them. Furthermore, laws
against discrimination, as well as strong social norms or standards, may prevent overt discrimination, although it still may occur in more subtle ways.
Hence, the presences of prejudice dose not always lead directly to discrimination.
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Usually discrimination, prejudice, and stereotype in racism towards minority groups, their right has been destroyed by the majority groups.
Minority here are not just groups that are numerically smaller than majority groups.
Feldman in Social Psychology 1995:81 states that minority group means a group in which the members have significantly less power, control,
and influence over their own lives than do members of a dominant group. In African-American, minority group is Blackman or African and majority
group is Whiteman or American. In the twentieth century, Blackman was made as a slave to Whiteman.
They had no right for their self and as if no hope and better future for them. We can see it also in a novel written by Ralp Ellison, an African-American,
Invisible Man. He wrote, “I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to posses a mind.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” Ellison, 1954, p.3. Eugene O’Neill in All God’s Chillun Got Wings also gives his
opinion to this statement as if he wonders when the unity will be. He makes it to be the theme of his play All God’s Chillun Got Wings and summaries it
in Jim Harris argument with his sister, Hattie Harris, he says: “You with your fool talk of the black race and the white race Where does the human race
get a chance to come in?”
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Du Bois in his most famous concepts, The Veil, reflected the condition on his best and most lyrical statements:
“And then-- the veil, the veil of color. It drops as drops the night on southern seas—vast, sudden, unanswering. There is
hate behind it, and cruelty and tears. As one peers through its intricate, unfathomable pattern of ancient, old, old design, one
sees blood and guilt and misunderstanding. And yet it hangs there, this veil, between then and now, between Pale and
Colored and Black and White—between you and me…. We may feverishly unravel its edges and even climb slow with giant
shears to where it’s ringed and gilded top nestles close to the throne of Eternity. But as we work and climb we shall see
through streaming eyes and hears with aching ears, lynching and murder, cheating and despising, degrading and lying, so
flashed and flashed through this vast hanging darkness that the Doer never sees the Dead and the Victim knows not the Victor
and Each Hate All in Wild and bitter ignorance. Listen, O Isles, to those voices from within the veil, for they portray the
most human hurt of the twentieth Cycle.”
They were also sexually abused and brutally beaten into submission as if they were not human.
Bracey On Racism 1984:31 states that: “… black slaves were being maimed for constantly
running away, sexually abused and assaulted, terrorized and brutally beaten into submission – to work for mostly
white slave holders.”
Nowadays, Racism still exists in our life, especially in America even though it is not as extreme as in the twentieth century. It is called Modern
Racism. Feldman 1995:95 defines Modern Racism as a subtle form of prejudice in which people appear, on the surface, not to harbor prejudice, but
who actually do hold racist attitudes. It arises because people often hold several competing beliefs and values. They want to see themselves as part of
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the mainstream of society and as fair, humanitarian, and egalitarian. They still hold on negative views of groups out of their group and think that their
group is better than others. In most cases, they could wrap their prejudice and try to live as if there are no differences, but when they are placed in a
situation in which they are given social support of racism, they are willing to express and sometimes to act on, their unfavorable opinion.
According to statistic data of FBI there are the increasing of racial criminalities in that country. Reformation in the year of sixtieth until this day
can not perfectly guarantee the right of Blackman in America. For example, Obama, the candidate which is chosen to be a president of America is stuck
because of his race. The views of whites and African-Americans are almost the mirror image of one another. White tends to feel that race relations
between White and African-Americans have been improving, while African- Americans tend to think they are become worse and unworthy. The Racism
not only happens between White and African-American but also with other ethnics. For instance, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 1990 record that
Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian refugees, resettled in the United States, are facing a rash of physical assaults, including beating, rock throwing,
vandalism, arson, intimidation, and racial slurs. Often these individuals cannot even walk along the public street without being physically attacked
and threatened because of their race or national origin.
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2.2 Society and Literature
