Prejudice In The Power Of One

At the ending of the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, the two aboriginal girls, Molly and Daisy, successfully escape and run back to the aboriginal community from the residential school. The scene shows that after the girls and their family’s reunion, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, Mr. Neville, is reporting to the public about the fact that they have no founds to support further pursuit of the missing girls. He states that this is an “uphill battle” with the aboriginals, who have to be protected against themselves. The related legal principles in the scene are the Aboriginal Rights and Children and Family Law. The residential schools infringe the fundamental human rights of the aboriginals and prevent them from freely living

Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

The rights and freedoms of Aboriginals have improved drastically since 1945 with many changes to government policy, cultural views and legal rules to bring about a change from oppression to equality. Unfortunately on the other hand, some rights and freedoms have not improved at all or have even worsened.

Prejudice is the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. In

As Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Prejudice is an issue our society face today that has been continued from the past. Prejudice is a negative attitude or an unfavorable opinion that one has against another formed without reason nor knowledge. There are many types of prejudice including racism, sexism, classism, nationalism and many more. However, they all induce discrimination and stereotyping.

Many Aboriginal people have lost all they had and have been disadvantaged because of the Indian Act and the theories of

racist attitudes towards Aboriginal peoples; and a continued lack of vision in terms of the effects

I think the aboriginals were treated wrong back in the days. It is not right to take children away from their mother. The children didn’t even get to speak their own language, and they were forced to forget about their cultural heritage, and taught to be “white”.

Many aboriginals were not accepted. Ever since the first fleet, many aboriginals have not been truly accepted. In the poem ‘Grade one primary’ it displays a child being treated badly just because of his race, “You half-caste dog, you coon, you boong, You stinking bloody abo” are just some of the words the child is called in this poem, the author of this poem gives a voice to many brutal realities aboriginal people faced. In ‘the burnt stick’ it is said that the mothers and other families will 'soon forget' as the children don't belong to them. it also states that they 'don't have feelings' calling them sub-human. Even now many aboriginals are still treated differently.

Prejudice is a large problem in today’s society. Prejudice is having a preconceived opinion not based on reason or fact. Prejudice is all around us and is extremely prevalent daily lives. Because of bias, people are often judged, mistreated, hurt, and abused unfairly. Prejudice is such a widespread problem in society that many people have accepted, and even encouraged it because of its many examples in history, literature, and current events.

Indigenous Australians developed trust issues during colonisation. When the settlers invaded, life would never be the same for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people. Land that had been theirs for roughly 40,000 years was stripped from the Indigenous Australians and all rights were taken away. Most settlers were extremely racist and wanted the Indigenous Australians gone. One settler from Hunter Valley went as far as comparing the Aborigines to apes (Wilson-Miller, 2011). The 1905 Act in Western Australia was then drawn up to provide the Aborigines care and protection. The 1905 Act with its long list of rules and regulations did everything but provide care and protection. Aborigines were carefully watched and everything they did was monitored.

A more precise definition of the term would be the following: “a preconceived judgment especially one arrived at with sufficient information”. Prejudice by no means is only limited to race relations, it has been an issue of these relationships-Jews, Italians, Irish, Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and others also have been the sufferers of oppression caused by prejudice in America (Prejudice, 2010). Prejudice has two forms, Negative and Gender. Negative prejudice is the affliction of cruelty to others who are different from us, while, gender prejudice occurs because of people’s gender (Prejudice,

Aborigines were not considered as part of the Australian community and were deprived of their rights in everyday activities. Continuing into the 1960’s Aboriginals were denied their basic rights. They were not allowed to raise their own children, had no access to education, they didn’t receive award wages, they weren’t allowed to marry without permission, they weren’t allowed to eat in restaurants, enter a pub or swim in a public

Whether they admit it or not, all people are guilty of prejudice. It may be against people of a certain occupation, race, gender, or just anyone who acts different from themselves. Prejudice can be literally defined as pre-judgment. But just because we are genetically pre-disposed to judgement, can we not still treat everyone equally and respectfully? Can we put aside differences and embrace diversity? I believe that people should love and tolerate everyone.

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is an example of prejudice. Prejudice is having an opinion on something before having information. If you were to judge someone by the way they looked and nothing else, that would be prejudice. Prejudice is not necessarily thinking poorly of someone or something else, it is just a preconceived opinion. You could see someone and think they look really smart, but they really are not. I think prejudice exists because it is instinct to recognize a threat, as part of nature, but as humans are so advanced, those instincts have changed a bit, to recognize people and things as what they are or are not before even knowing anything about it. There is not much to do to counter this, as it is human instinct. Prejudice