Intolerance – the Unwillingness to Accept Views

There are several forms of intolerance such as: racial intolerance, political intolerance, social intolerance, etc. Racial intolerance affects people all over the world with things such as rights, respect, and many other things. Political intolerance affects our view of politics and can also affect things such as the outcome of a presidential election. Social intolerance can affect the way people see other cultures and cause some people to not advance in society. Intolerance of any kind can affect many aspects of everyday lives in a negative or positive away.

Agreement of intolerance against racism, religion, politics, etc. can bring society closer together and help it achieve many goals that could help this civilization advance in a peaceful way.

The definition of racism is, “”prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”” (dictionary.com). Racial intolerance is seen all throughout the history of this nation. One of the most controversial topics of racism is slavery. “”Racism was at the heart of North American Slavery and the colonization and empire-building activities of western Europeans, especially in the eighteenth century”” (Smedley, Audrey) Racism was a very dark time for our nation and most want to erase it from our history. Race was created to point out differences between those of African descent or those who came from the Europeans.

This way the Americans could separate the Europeans and Africans that were offspring of their ancestors that were involuntary brought to America and enslaved. The 1900s is when racism really began to spread, and it became more mature during this time as well. Caste systems for race were being created in many different countries by their governments. The races that were lower on the caste system were forced into more manual labor and harsh working environments.

They were abused and mistreated by the higher classes that had lived more luxurious lives. They had more comfortable lifestyles and cleaner work environments (Smedley, Audrey). Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, talks about the phrase “”color blindness””. She talks about how the African American race isn’t always treated as well because of the history of the legalized discrimination in America. She says that “”color blindness”” is a dangerous approach to racism because us as a society is ignoring the problem instead of taking it on head first (Hobson, Mellody).

With all of the media bias against the democratic and republican parties, political tolerance is becoming more well known. Relationships are being broken apart because of differences in political views. Liberals are more discriminating than conservatives when dating partners’ political opinions are concerned according to a pew poll. Nobody has respect for anybody’s opinion except for their own. This generation of society in America has become painfully selfish due to lack of discipline in homes.

There has been many changes over the years that has influenced people to have opinions and beliefs that most would believe to be absurd. “”America, according to this worldview, is today locked in a mortal struggle between inclusiveness and open-mindedness on the one hand and intolerance and bigotry on the other”” (Most people are basing their votes on who they would rather want and would hurt our country the least amount instead of voting on who they actually want and think can make an actual positive change in the United States of America. Most of the state senates or representatives aren’t trying to make a positive change or help the state they are representing, instead they are running for their party only and nothing else (Americaninterest.com).

The Bible has many instances where intolerance is used all throughout its books. One of the best examples of intolerance used in the Bible is the events that happened at the Tower of Babel. Religious intolerance is shown through these events. The people were ignorant of God’s blessings and they basically challenged him. They weren’t happy enough even with all that God has done for them, and they tried to reach him with a tower and gain his power.

God instantly destroyed their tower and gave them all different languages. The Lord said, “”If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other”” (ESV).”” (ESV). With all of them speaking different languages, they couldn’t communicate or understand each other so it was impossible to plot another scheme like that and challenge God’s position as almighty.

They disobeyed him even though he was their creator and loved everyone with all of his heart. God only wanted the best for his people, and the only thing he asked from them was to put their faith in him and live for him only, but they still tried to build a tower to reach heaven. This is an example of intolerance against authority too. They tried to go behind God’s back, and they disobeyed him by trying to build a tower and reach him. They wanted to reach him in hopes of gaining his power to overthrow him and make a name for themselves (Esv).

To Kill a Mockingbird has many types of intolerance. One of the types of intolerance that sticks out the most is racial intolerance. Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell accused Tom Robinson of raping Mayella even though that Bob was the one that was abusing her. Bob Ewell expected to easily win the cause just because of the fact that Tom Robinson is an African American. Atticus tried to defend Tom Robinson to the best of his abilities.

When Tom was a boy he got his left arm extremely injured due to a cotton gin accident. Because of this his left arm renders useless, and he cannot use it at all. Mayella’s right eye was bruised which was concrete evidence that it was obviously not Tom Robinson that had hit her because he cannot even lift his left arm much less punch someone with it. Tom Robinson walked up to the stand and told the crowd what happened, he told them that he often helped Mayella with handiwork and jobs around the house. One day she “”attacked”” Tom in a sexual manner and Bob saw her.

He said that Bob didn’t chase after him but he heard Bob call her vulgar names. Even though there was concrete evidence that Tom Robinson did not rape Mayella Ewell, the jury still deemed him guilty, and it was just because of the fact that he was an African American. Even though that Tom Robinson was deemed guilty, it took the jury a really long time to come out with the verdict which meant that they had a conversation and someone disagreed (Lee, Harper)..

Racial intolerance is a problem that revolves around the entire world and has been floating around for years without hardly anybody trying to make a change that will affect the whole nation. Most people become extremely uncomfortable when the topic of racism comes up. “”Now, race is one of those topics in America that make people extraordinarily uncomfortable. You bring it up at a dinner party or in a workplace environment it is literally the conversational equivalent of touching the third rail. There is schock, followed by a long silence”” (Mellony, Hobson).

Political intolerance is a problem of immaturity, opinion, and selfishness. This society has to be able to be mature enough to accept other people’s opinions and respect them. The everyday lives of citizens in the United States and around the world are affected in either a negative or positive way by intolerance of any kind. Society could be brought closer together and achieve many more goals for our country if we could all have agreement with everything. The agreement of racial intolerance, political intolerance, religious intolerance, etc. could substantially assist with this problem.

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