ATTITUDE

The sense of differences creates conflict and animosity about life. Race is a category that separates the indifference of people according to skin color. This is a typical, although challenging, subject to address. There are views about race that are intangible to certain groups and the system that created race seems obliviously concrete. The significance of difference among race is that it deprives those who do not fit the hegemonic script of race. The attitude of race continues to be a skeptical social issue that rarely gets attention in positive ways. The complications still reflect the lack of commonalties among black and white. Therefore, it remains a binary standard that displays color-blindness throughout society which is portrayed as a “good” deed being done by silencing the problem when in reality it “hurts” the situation by not acknowledging the “benefits” of attacking the dilemma to come to an agreement and understanding of differences. This is a positive process to accomplish in ways that disregards negative notions about particular groups and it fights the system of oppression. The people’s attitude is what can reconstruct the negative notions about race into positive ideas about race; essentially executing the race as a category like any other category. This opens many opportunities to the better conditions of life as a nation. The article, “Intergroup Contact: The Past, Present, and the Future” by John Dovidio, Samuel Gaertner, and Kerry Kawakami, entails the theory of the Contact Hypothesis as a long and considerable psychological strategy for improving intergroup relations. The contributions to this theory highlight common themes and identifying findings that discuss directions for future change. This correlates to Thabo and his views about white people. Throughout the discrimination and Apart-heid era, his experiences as a former military servant and other relevant situations that pertained to dysfunctional events, conceptualized negative notions about other groups, dealt with the issues he faced as an African.
The significance of this representation includes weight from both ends of the spectrum of white to black. Without addressing the race problems like if it was not a problem creates a massive destruction of animosity and conflicts throughout the nation. The value of participation is highly needed from all individuals, whether it is at a fast pace or slow pace, involvement is key to the collectiveness that matters as long as both in the end agree upon the same goal-equality. To accomplish this goal as an entire nation takes various forms of communication and understanding. Comparing and contrasting meaningful terms and deconstructing the stereotypical barriers of each group. It is the direction, we as a whole, take in order to achieve by the freedom of choice and not by forced choice meaning. For instances, Thabo talks about his transformation about the ways he thought about white people back in his military service compared to now. It was a process that took time to recover and reconnect to the white people as an African. It was the hate and disadvantages that he faced because of white people put Black Africans through. He also goes to say that he thought that it was impossible for him to overcome the hatred and continue to fight the system of oppression created by society with power. But with more interaction with whites and his job description as a tour guide, helped him overturn most views about the past; like forgiveness of the past but not forgetting the problem. The article explains how there is substantial evidence that intergroup contact is effective at reducing intergroup bias although it does not eliminate the features of intergroup contact successfully and completely. There are still some questions in regards of the attitudes and stereotypes about aspects of contact.
I thought that in Thabo’s relationship to white people happens to similar incidents back in the USA and among the issues that it is the victim’s “duty” to reconcile the past and not the offender’s responsibility to help along the process. Support from the authority to create change is an important aspect to reconcile the past and have positive effects on the future. To achieve the common goal of a nation through influential guidance and acknowledgment from each other can be practice through intergroup contact; meaningful dialogue everyday improves relationships and balances out settlements.