Nowadays, it seems that the term “equality” is popular with people throughout the world with the development of social civilization. Tracing back to the 19th century in the United States and taking the most sensitive problem – racial discrimination an example, I’m wondering whether there’s absolute equality in the world.
In the United States, some prejudices against the blacks still exist although continuous efforts to eliminate racial discrimination have been making throughout centuries. For example, in the movie To Kill the Mockingbird, despite the evident and undoubted evidences that certify the black “criminal ” is innocent, those so called gentlemen still stuck to their just judgment which results in tragedy to the victim as well as to entire black people. I’m really impressed by the disappointed expression by the blacks who held hope at the very beginning. Living in such a social background as few people showed respect to the black, what they could do was just obedience because at any time they were considered to be in the wrong… More exactly, it is the problem of their different color. But how about the word promoted by people and ignored by people in the meantime —do not judge a person only by appearance. Most people admire it to show their sensibility and ignore it to show their dominance, making it absolute empty talk. I think the primary reasons for racial discrimination are that they do not understand the blacks and most of them are influenced by social environment. Namely, they drifted the mainstream oblivious of reality. Moreover, it is the problem of responsibility. On the one hand, after the whites have made mistakes, they refused to take their responsibility and even shirked it to the black. Just like the lawyer said, “Everyone should be responsible for what they have done”. On the other hand, it was the social responsibility for such a problem for establishing related rules or laws was not enough. A few activities should be held o raise he awareness of racial equality of the public and to enhance mutual understanding among different races, which is the most direct way to better the racial environment. Besides, to solve the problem, public efforts should be involved, not individual ones. Just like the lawyer in this movie who had tried his best only to find that he was isolated in terms of this sensitive problem.
As regard to the problem of racial discrimination, different people hold different points of view. In the movie, the majority followed the customs but a group of people showed their sympathy and stuck to justice. Like the lawyer who defended the blacks, many people wondered why he involved himself in such a complicated matter and some even advised to give up by a kind of threat. We can not say such a group of people were ignorant or insensible. They were just in a certain social environment which made them to hold a different opinion from the lawyer’s, and they were neither in the right nor in the right. As for the lawyer, what touched was that he said even though there was no absolute just judgment in the world, he would not abandon his own justice.
In this movie, what is related to racial discrimination is women’s position at that time. As we all know, it was not until the Feminist Movements in the 1960s that women in the United States gained themselves some basic rights and women were always in an inferior position in history. The white women in this movie made great efforts to break through common rules to love a black person. However, under the pressure of her father and social environment where the whites were superior to the blacks, finally she yielded to racial discrimination and accused the black person wrongly of a crime. That is to say, women at that time had no right to choose what they like or love and they had to be subordinated to everything. In modern times, although sexual equality is given enough publicity, prejudice against females still exist in various aspects. For example, the employment rate of females lags behind of that of males. In some undeveloped countries, women have no right to work at all and they are in the position of inferiority.
Society is a huge mixture and different people hold different attitudes and points of view. In order to establish a more harmonious society, mutual communication and understanding are called for.