Racism Case
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In this article 7 teens were involved in the murder of a black man in Mississippi. Two of the teens were charged with murder, and one of them possibly the death penalty who was driving the vehicle. The two sentenced teens were 19, and 18. The teens were out one night partying and drinking when they all decided to get into two separate vehicles, one a white SUV and the other a green ford truck. The teens drove 16 miles into the western part on Mississippi to look for any black individual to “mess up.” Once the teens got off of the freeway they approached a hotel right off of the exit and spotted a 49 year old black man standing in the parking lot outside of a motel. The teens got out of their car and started to scream and yell racial slurs and started to beat the man until he was barely able to move. One of the teenagers reportedly yelled “White power.” The black man was left on the side of the curb at this point when the teens in the ford truck decided to run him over and kill him instantly. The man killed was named James Craig Anderson, his family sent the courts a letter saying they did not want the death penalty towards the one boy who has the sentence to go through with that due to religious reasons.
Coming from the anthropological approach to this situation I believe an anthropologist would be asking themselves:
How is the white race different from the African American race?
Why are there such boundaries and discrimination between the two cultures/races?
What is life like in Jackson, µMissipi for the whites, and how is it different and or similar to the blacks who live there?
How were the white teenager brought up? What values, beliefs, and religion did they follow?
What do the teenagers parents believe about religion/culture, what did they pass on to their children?
What created such hate between these groups of teens and the blacks?
In order to understand this issue I believe an anthropologist would have to participate in observation. I believe an anthropologist should communicate in the Mississippi community and observe what peoples opinions are of the African Americans, and or see what messages are being sent to make such differences and discrimination between them.