EDITORIAL: 'Intolerance' gave context to bias

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April 23, 2008

Anonymous The Herald Bulletin Wed Apr 23, 2008, 06:42 PM EDT

We believe: The Intolerance series is a starting point to accepting those who are different from ourselves.

In 1916, film director D.W. Griffith made his magnum opus, “Intolerance.” The movie investigated intolerance through the ages, from the persecution of Christ and the fall of Babylon to France’s St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and a modern story about bias faced by workers.

The movie was in response to Griffith’s previous feature, “The Birth of a Nation,” which was included in The Herald Bulletin’s Intolerance timeline. Critics and the black community lambasted the movie’s pro-Ku Klux Klan views. There were black actors terrorizing white women while the KKK members, in their white robes, rode to the rescue. Griffith, a Southerner from Kentucky, was appalled at the reaction. Though he made a milestone film in terms of technique, he was labeled a racist.

Many of the racist views first shown in “Birth” persist to this day, though with more subtlety. As The Herald Bulletin has shown in its series this week, “Intolerance: Keeping Us Apart,” bias and bigotry affects many groups besides blacks, such as Hispanics, gays and lesbians and prisoners. Intolerance comes in many forms, and The Herald Bulletin has tried to shine some light on the subject, maybe not as artistically as Griffith attempted in 1916, but certainly as informatively.

We felt it was important to show the depth and breadth of intolerant attitudes that persist through generations. Only by confronting these attitudes and seeking to understand how they’re formed and how they continue to poison American society can we hope to overcome them.

This series was the tip of the iceberg. The Herald Bulletin could do a story a day on the effects of intolerant attitudes and the victims of bigotry. We’ve reported many examples in Madison County, and for every example that’s shown up in the paper, dozens more have gone unnoticed.

Bigots like their poisonous ways to stay undercover, preferring that society doesn’t see their true selves. Victims are often humiliated and scared enough to keep things to themselves.

A good case in point was The Herald Bulletin’s attempts to talk to legal immigrants about their plight. Illegal immigration is such a hot-button topic that those here legally are worried they may be targeted simply because they are Hispanic. The same goes for gay and lesbian people. Should they come out and publicly admit their sexuality, they might be targets for intolerance.

Secrecy perpetuates the biased attitudes.

We at The Herald Bulletin hope a couple of things come from the series. One, that it opens up a dialogue throughout the community toward biased attitudes and the harm they cause. And, two, that victims of bias or hate crimes feel empowered to report their tormentors and eventually stand up to them.

We also can’t forget the groups in Madison County who work tirelessly to combat, racism, sexism and other biases that plague society. Such groups as the NAACP, Urban League and Wilson Boys & Girls Club are constantly vigilant in the area of intolerance.

The series pointed out that we are all different — in skin color, sexual orientation, origin of birth — and only by working together can we turn intolerance into tolerance and, with perseverance, into acceptance.

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INTOLERANCE: Elwood students form group to battle bias ELWOOD — Marisol Salinas, 17, was surprised, not offended, when a supposed friend flashed his Ku Klux Klan card her way.

May 2, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Life outside rough for felons Felons are often the subject of discrimination after getting out of jail, regardless of their race, said Jeffery Cottrell, program director of the Urban League of Madison County.
April 23, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Gangs rule prison life In the Michigan City prison, the black inmates sit on one side of the cafeteria, and the white inmates sit on the other side.

April 23, 2008
INTOLERANCE: View from the street
April 23, 2008
EDITORIAL: 'Intolerance' gave context to bias We believe: The Intolerance series is a starting point to accepting those who are different from ourselves.

April 23, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Churches differ on gay stance Every day for the past 17 years, the members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., have picketed churches, courthouses, gay pride parades and even the White House for one express purpose: to preach that z
April 23, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Gay students still face battle ANDERSON — Nathan Smith looks back at his high school days and is glad that 13 years later gay students don’t have it as hard as he did.
April 23, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Alleged illegal aliens face twisting legal path CHICAGO — Diego Hernandez and Anh Phan have never met, but they may share something of a common path.
April 22, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Red Gold hires migrants, not immigrants ORESTES — Every August, 430 migrant workers flood Orestes and Elwood to spend just over two months sorting tomatoes at Red Gold. According to Steve Austin of Red Gold, the majority of the workers are Hispanic but they are not, as some believe, immigrants.
April 22, 2008
INTOLERANCE: Debate triggers partisan mudslinging An immigration bill that would penalize employers for hiring illegal immigrants sponsored by Indiana Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, failed last month amidst mudslinging between parties and accusations of racism.

Some opponents of the bill, including state Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, question the true motivation behind America’s anti-immigration sentiment.

April 21, 2008
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