Ignorance in Society

The question in the socratic seminar for The Power of One that says, "The photography captured the exact moment when I understood with conviction that racism is a primary force of evil designed to destroy good men" Discuss the photograph and statement. Peekay realizes that these group of men he looks up to and trains along with are outraged with taking a picture with Geel Piet. Peekay realizes that since Geel Piet is a boer he is a lower figure in society because that is how they view him by color. Even though it is clear in the story that Geel Piet is qualified to be an amazing boxing coach which is shown by how well he coaches Peekay. Geel Piet is only respected when it has to do with boxing, this racism destroys those group of men good qualities and the chances of Geel Piet having equal opportunity. The issue is that often instead of judging someone for their character and their capability people judge them by their color. This issue is presented in literature in Invisible Man when the narrator is just used to start a riot by The Brotherhood for his color and not to be the leader of a revolution. The Power of One is another example of a piece of literature that shows how color is used to judge someone. The people of Africa instead of joining together they separate themselves in tribes. In society and media it is shown that the problem of race often comes up in court cases and police brutality. When the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson happened the saying "hands up, don't shoot" became popular. It is deluding to the fact that police tend to shoot a person of color before they seem to actually become a threat. The issue of racism whether the police act too rationally or not is that it is destroying several good men; the police whether guilty or not and the victims of these situations like Michael Brown. I think this issue is a really big problem in society because it is affecting people's lives and is taking away the authority of the police force. When police forces like the ones in Ferguson are shown in this light it gives the sense that the police can not be trusted. I do believe that police officers at time see color before they take in facts but that is not every case. Until the problem of not seeing color first is attacked head on it will always be a factor in a case like Michael Brown. This problem also puts into light other court cases like Michael Brown against another court case where for example a white police officer and a white man gets shot. Before that picture was taken Peekay did not understand that racism destroys people and I believe that people should start to put racism aside and look at the facts.