Behavior and attutude
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
There seems to be a direct correlation between behavior and attitudes about race. Attitudes on certain subjects are usually taught to a person when they are young, yet while becoming adults people go through experiences and form their own opinions and attitudes, which is based on what they learned as a child. Behavior is a result of the attitude that one usually learns while still young. The movie, Eyes on the Prize, provides factual examples in history to support this.
Firstly, Emmitt Till was a black kid that had lived up north where the attitudes of those of different races were more tolerant and less hostile towards each other than the attitudes of people from the south, so when Emmitt was dared to talk to a white girl "freshly" he thought nothing of it, but to the children from Mississippi that dared him to do so, knew that Emitt was putting his life at risk. Emitt Till was later found brutally beaten to death face down in a lake due to the difference in he and citizens from the south's attitudes toward race. If Emmitt Till had a similar attitude towards race as the southern community, then his behavior would have been much different by being much more respectful, just as the men, who murdered him would not have done so if they possessed an attitude that was more broadminded toward other races.
Next, a Mississippi governor, Ross Barnett, refused to allow nine black students to enroll in an all white school, Central High School, even after he had been ordered to do so by the Supreme Court and the President of the United States. Also, mobs of white people rioted and protested the enrollment of the children into the University of Alabama. Melba Pattillo Beals, a senior at Central High, said that she could get use to going to school with blacks, if she was forced to do so...