RE B604 Topic 2 notes

B604 Topic 2- Equality:

STEROTYPE: general opinion of someone or group of people based on prejudice e.g. hoodiesà teenagers

MODERN EXAMPLES OF INEQUALITY:

1)     2 Asians with no bags were pushed off the underground train by fellow passengers in London after the 7/7 bombing. But it is easy to see why the people were behaving like this

2)     A man was refused first class ticket for cruise liner in Titanic because he was black

3)     Black Footballed had been faced with “banana and monkey” comments thrown at him from the options team’s stands. This happened to Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand and other England players when playing in Spain.

4)     Lewis Hamilton was mocked by some people in the crowd at Grand Pix.

HISTORICAL EXAMPLE OF INQUALITY:

ROSA PARKS. Because she was a black woman, she was told to give up her seat for a white person on bus. She refused so she got arrested

Equality and Law:

Human right states:

·         All humans are born free and equal in dignity

·         Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedom

But this is in theory but is it in practice? If it is, why is there the Ku Klux Klan still there?

Christian Teachings:

·         “love one another as I have loved you”à Jesus spent a lot of his time with Outcasts so we are meant to love them too

·         “love your neighbour as yourself”

·         St Peter: “God doesn’t show favouritism” àbut he dad a chosen people- the Jews. But this could mean that he had a specific task for them not that he loved them more. This is reinforced in St Paul’s teaching: “there’s no Jew nor Greek, Slave nor free, Female nor male, for all one in Christ”

Martin Luther King

·         Born in 1929

·         He was a pacifist and black people joined in his pacifist protests.  He managed to stop all the black people using the bus until they all received equal rights on the bus as a white person.  Finally the bus owners had to give into them

·         He carried out many boycotts and peaceful protests to gain equal right

·         1963, I have a dream that people will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

·         1968- James Earl Ray assassinated him

Racism can occur:

1.   When it’s allowed. Martin Luther king said: “if all people wore a yellow star when Jews were ordered to, Hitler’s strength would have been greatly diminished”

2.   When an authority gives the command but also says it will accept responsibility for the immoral act. E.g. the Milgram experimentà during the experiment the “teacher” was prepared to inflict pain to a stranger they never met before in the name of science, nearly to the point of death.

Also the Stanford Prison experiment by university…