Essay Sample on Exploring Cultural Bias and Cry for Freedom

Introduction

Before watching the movie, "cry freedom," I had an idea what cultural bias and a cry for freedom could mean. I have learned about the discrimination of the people of color and their fight for justice through history lessons. Even in modern times that we live in, prejudice and cultural bias are noticeable. Schools are an excellent example of grounds for cultural bias practice. Those who are good with the books would form their own norms and values different from those involved in sports, and at some point, stereotypes about these groups would form leading to certain biases. It is natural for someone feeling oppressed and discriminated to fight back just like the cry for freedom from the white colonialists by the Blacks.

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What Surprised Me as I Watched the Movie

What came as a surprise to me as I watched the movie was a white man helping a black man in a bid to end the apartheid in South Africa. Stereotypes have it that the whites were superior to the blacks; hence I could never have imagined that the black and the white could work together to stop the discrimination and cultural biases. The movie depicts what happened in reality, hence while watching it, I could imagine myself in those times. The film brought out a sincere and heartfelt empathy in me for the South Africans through their suffering.

Lessons From the Movie

From the movie, I was able to understand cultural bias in racism. The film depicted racism between white and black people. The white people came off as superior to the black people even when they were living in a black people dominated state. The black maids had to address the whites as master, indicating that they were inferior. I was also able to grasp the concept of stereotyping where the white people did not take the time to understand black people but instead used the knowledge they already had to pass judgments and take heinous actions. They believed their prior knowledge that the Blacks were backward hence regarded them as inferior. The movie has not only highlighted the cultural biases but also brought to light why South Africans today are as xenophobes.

Lessons from Other Presentations

From other presentations, I learned that even though the South Africans were facing oppression and discrimination, the majority did not dare to fight back, and it only took the likes of courageous people like Steve Biko to instigate protests against the whites. Presentations from others also enlightened us about people who discriminate but never want to appear as discriminatory. I believe this form of discrimination is quite common these days as people discriminate through comments they think are harmless. One could say they are not racist but give racist statements being utterly oblivious that they are racist.

My Sense of Cultural Bias

The society today still regards some races as superior to other races, even with the assumption that the world is connected as a global village. Resentment between races has been carried from one generation to the other, and no one has stopped to think that perhaps how we view other people might not be right. Cultural bias for me would be like, for instance, finding myself without a study group in a foreign language class like Spanish because most of my classmates are from a Hispanic background, and they prefer to work together. I believe that cry for freedom and fighting for justice can only bear fruits if we set out to educate one another about our different cultures, in turn eliminating the stereotypes that seem to be the root cause.