Analysis of Racism in News Story: Rescripting Race Assignment

This assignment analyzes a news story titled "YOWELL: Call out the racism in America," focusing on a family's experience with racial discrimination by police officers. The student crafts a fictional conversation among themselves, a bystander, Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, and Robin DiAngelo to discuss the issue. The conversation highlights points of convergence and tension, such as ignorance, stereotypes, and beliefs, while exploring different viewpoints on race and racism. The student's role is to explore solutions and alternative perspectives. The assignment references key concepts like color blindness and systemic racism, drawing on the work of Bonilla-Silva and DiAngelo, demonstrating an understanding of sociological perspectives on race and discrimination.

Rescripting race
Student’s Name:
Student’s ID:

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Conversation
Below will be the conversation between four people regarding the news story and racism. The
four people involve me, bystander, Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, and Robin DiAngelo. The
context of the conversation was to highlight the main issue highlighted in the news story that
dealt with racism. I am the host of the conversation where I have presented a definition of racism
and acknowledged that it is the belief in the superiority of one race over the other. Racism results
in prejudice as well as discrimination towards the individuals based on race and colour.
Myself – From my point of view, racism has become a major concern for the people of the
United States, and it comes from many cultural values, physical appearances and ethnic
backgrounds. I found that racism has become an important issue that the citizens of the country
have to face in their daily life. Moreover, racism can hurt the person in many ways; for example,
in the given news story, the women and the children have to face discrimination from the police
officers, and they had to suffer a lot. The victims of racism felt that their life is meaningless and
started thinking negatively.
Bystander – I found racism as the major issue that caused due to the unfamiliarity of the people
regarding different races and colour. I believed that all the people should be familiar with all
other races so that they could not help racist others. I disagree with racism as it makes the
victims feel bad and alone in life. Racism negatively influences the mental as well as physical
health of the persons that impact the culture of the society. The ancient practices have somehow
set the platform for the upcoming generations to behave in the same manner, which can also be
considered as one of the important reasons for the evaluation of racism in the present world.

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Elizabeth – I partially disagree with racism as the black people discriminated white people in
ancient times. The news critically evaluated the fact that the media plays a vital role in creating
awareness throughout the society and thus, the discrimination against people's colour or skin
should be stopped by generating awareness among people regarding the adverse effects of
racism.
Robin – The news has highlighted the points that were the primary causes of racisms, but there
should have been some crucial aspects which can help in reducing the effects of racism on the
common people. Moreover, the media and common people can play the role of an influencer for
others to stop racism and discrimination.
Discussion of my role in the conversation
My role within the team was to highlight the argument from the side of the fact that was revealed
through the news story. I wanted to get deeper insights regarding the issues of racism, which
made the family in the story to suffer. Moreover, I was keen on knowing the exact solutions as
well as alternative solutions from the other three member's point of view.
Five points of convergence and tension
The five points of convergence are ignorance, unfamiliarity, stereotypes, beliefs of indigenous
people and competition between different races. Lack of education or knowledge is the major
point of tension for the people that cause racism. The persons should not know racist others as
we all are human beings. Lack of education affects the minds of people that people who grow up
in the place where there are no races, and they taught with negative stereotypes about other races.
Unfamiliarity about the other race cause racial discrimination. If a person consistently joins a
group and fed with negative things, then it would affect the opinion of the person regarding other

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races. Beliefs of indigenous people have played a significant role in the rise of racial
discrimination. Different beliefs of people forced them to discriminate and create barriers with
other people. Moreover, it becomes crucial to understand that differences in perception or
thinking level should not create discrimination between people.
Significant of a broader issue developing from the conversation
There was tough discussion from Robin's point of view that the Brazilian families relies on
adopting diverse strategies to reproduce as well negotiate on different matters and this
contributes somehow towards the rise of racism. Moreover, the above point is also justified by
Elizabeth by her quotes, “black Brazilian families, particularly mothers, rely on diverse
strategies that reproduce, negotiate, and resist racism” (Hordge-Freeman, 2015; Pg, 231).
Different strategies somehow help the Brazilians to train their younger ones as per the most
suitable styles, but they also give rise to the beginning of internal racism.
Name of the news story
The name of the news story is "YOWELL: Call out the racism in America." The source of the
news story is https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2019/07/yowell-call-out-the-racism-in-
america
Dealing with the story with racism
The new story explicitly dealt with racism. Racism is considered as the ethical or social issue in
America that need to be reduced. In the original story, a family suffered from racism by the
police officers on the road. The family consists of two adults and two small children who faced
discrimination. Racism is still lavish in the nation and shown by almost all such as neighbours,
preachers and police officers. The Bonilla Silva states that theories of race, as well as racism, are

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mainly focused on individual and small group related to prejudice. The police officers' behaviour
was wholly discriminatory and inappropriate. It has been acknowledged that underlying racism
motivates the violence that was displayed on the family by the police officers.
It was mentioned in the article that if discriminatory behaviour of a person remains
unrecognised, then the offender would never come to know that he or she is doing a wrongful
act. The offender may consistently be continuing his or her behaviour and there would be no
reason to stop discriminatory behaviour. The contemporary sociology of racism primarily
focuses on the people and processes that increase attention to those who experience racism. The
police officers misbehaved with the family members and actions were racist and unacceptable.
Due to the colour of the skin, black people were discriminated by the others either violently or
subtly. Hence, racism can be defined as the discriminating behaviour against someone based on
the colour of skin. Bonilla-Silva argued that racial colour blindness arises from liberalism,
minimisation of racism, neologization of culture and naturalisation of racial matters. Eduardo
Bonilla-Silva argued that the practices of colour blind are nonracial and subtle because race is
explicitly ignored in decision-making.
Viewpoints of the characters on race
Elizabeth viewpoints suggest that the incident was not professional from the police offers as they
have behaved significantly bad with the pregnant woman without asking them about the stolen
materials and this was merely due to the prevalence of systematic racism within the society.
My viewpoint was that the police offers should felt apologies regarding their behaviours and it
should be supported by the media to create awareness.

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Robin's viewpoint reflected that the unprofessional behaviour and the illegal practices from
ancient times have resulted in racism among the black and the whites.
Bystander's viewpoint was to support the family, which was in the news and to legal actions
against the police officers so that the negative influence of racism can be reduced.
Opinions of characters on disagreeing or agreeing on the concept
I was socialised following the readings of the two social analysts regarding racism, but their
viewpoints, as well as the reading materials in the class, has somewhat brought the desired
change in my view to reduce racism and behave professionally with people rather than getting
influence from systematic racism.

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References
DiAngelo, R., & Sensoy, Ö. (2014). Getting slammed: White depictions of race discussions as
arenas of violence. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 17(1), 103-128.
Hordge-Freeman, E. (2015). The colour of love: Racial features, stigma, and socialization in
black Brazilian families. University of Texas Press, pp. 232-237
Yowell, H. (2019). YOWELL: Call out the racism in America. [online] The Cavalier Daily.
Available at: https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2019/07/yowell-call-out-the-racism-
in-america [Accessed 25 Jul. 2019].