The Power Of One

Through the various in class discussions, our class has concluded that the achievements individuals can determine the reputation of an entire community. However, the question arises of whether this should be considered a legitimate representation of a community of people. The generalization of a group or race can lead to severe and unjustified actions and treatments towards that group. Such scenarios have occurred to American-Japenese people after Pearl Harbor;and also to Arabic people after the nine-eleven incident and the war on terrorism in the Middle East. Sure, Louis's boxing match helped the Black community gain power in society;but Joe also had the choice to display his race as weaker than his opponent and worsen the situation for the Black community. The fate of multiple individuals depending on the actions of a single person simply seems unfair; especially since our country lives by the belief that everyone has their own freedom to decide the outcome of their lives. Even so, the human mind has a tendency to engage in procedures such representative heuristics to judge people by the stereotypes and instinctively create a potentially fake profile of a person whom they never met before. This is a curse and a blessing in ways, since it saves time and lets the brain operate more efficiently while it can lead us to misjudge some people. Thus, we as humans may never escape the cycle of misjudging and mistreating people.