Ignorance Is Not Bliss: A Problem Solution Report

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is the belief of the superiority of a population over the other. It is done not always by explicitly stating the greatness of a population (such as Hitler’s race ideology), but by actually showing and classifying the others as an inferiority, an enemy or a second-degree individual. Ignorance generates discrimination, described briefly as the treatment of an individual solely based on its belonging to a specific group. These prejudiced actions can take many forms, such as skin color (racism), nationalities, religions, sexual orientation etc. Slavery, for instance, is one form of this biased treatment. It alludes to a condition in which people are possessed by others, who control where they live and what they work. A slave is a person classed as property and who is compelled to work for nothing or for way less than deserved. According to the CNN Freedom Project, there is an estimated 20 to 30 million slaves across the world today and an estimated number of 800,000 people illegally trafficked across international borders every year. In addition, 78% of modern day slaves are in the Labor Industry. Based on a true story that happened in Riyadh, Almaza, a migrant labor, revealed her story by explaining the harsh conditions she was living in and the oppression of the family that she used to work for. Not only she was responsible for doing the entire house and cooking, working without receiving a salary, she was mistreated, insulted but most horrifically sexually abused by her owner (Dix and Pollok 177). When someone treats anybody as a slave, he is intentionally depriving them of their human rights. Making use of somebody’s needs (such as financials because of poverty) and weaknesses (such as lack of love) for a personal own end is not only causing them harm and bad treatment, but also shows how ignorant this person is when treating them as a lesser person, proudly believing that he is superior.

The fact that some people treat others based on their external appearance and superficial details is more than enough to qualify them as ignorant. Racism, for instance, describes this perfectly. Merriam-Webster defines racism, another form of discrimination, as a belief that race is the primary factor of human traits and capacities and that racial difference produces an essential superiority of a particular race. A perfect fit for an example is the case of Firoozeh, the Iranian girl who moved to America with her family. The most challenging obstacle she had to overcome was about her unpronounceable name. After facing multiple awkward moments, she decided to add an American name “Julie” making it easier for her friends and classmates who could not call her by – or actually didn’t even want to learn how to pronounce – her real name. With this additional name, Firoozeh, who until that time could not find a job and get a single interview after she graduated with honors from UC- Berkley, started to get job offers “coincidently”. She felt that having an Iranian name made her inferior to the Americans who made fun her name, believing theirs gave them superiority (Dumas 376).

These forms of discrimination are sadly not only just tweets or posts that have been generalized. Ignorance can lead to prejudice, especially when backed by powerful people and institutions. The movie making industry took discrimination to a whole new level when they started explicitly displaying Arabs as the great enemy of the Western World to defeat. In this way, online users who did not previously see discriminations on social media are having these stereotypes served to them on a golden plate. Arabs are being vilified. Their reputation is being attacked with strong and abusive criticism. The film entitled "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People", inspired by the book of the film’s narrator Jack G. Shaheen, represents the most harsh issues with the human condition and the condition of the Western World to make generalizations and stereotypes. Part of what is so disgusting about the pessimistic stereotypes of Arabs, is the way that Hollywood movies have such a huge impact in Western culture and these specific assumptions of Arabs and Middle-Easterners became an aggressive image of a whole culture and an entire race. Hollywood movies tend to represent Arabs as villains, subhuman, and terrorists. The audience exposed to these kinds of movies will make unfair assumptions about an entire group believing blindly that what is mainly reported on the news and television is true without thorough research. Therefore, people make assumption because social media sites for news (Rosling). Howard Beale emphasizes that this ignorance reached is “because less than 3 percent of you people read books, because less than 15 percent of you read newspapers, because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube.” In fact, producers create their message based on what they think someone should see and believe, influencing and affecting him. They are marketing and promoting through people’s ignorance. All media images and messages are constructions and creations: they are not reflections of reality. Media messages have been carefully manufactured and slanted with intent or purpose to send a specific message. People only see what the producer want them to see, they will not know what parts are fictions and what parts are not (Postman, Powers 332). Howard Beale underlines this point in his speech, stating, “Television is not the truth. Television is a goddamn amusement park”; adding “you’re never gonna get any truth from us. We will tell you anything you wanna hear”.

All in all, ignorance is clearly the source of many world problems that a majority faces. Despite all these challenges, one can always find solutions for such ignorance. Only with education and the willingness to critically think can someone bring knowledge to the other and save him from the world of darkness, illusions, self-hatred, stereotypes and hate towards the other. Dove for example, proposed a solution for the problem of girls having problems with fitting in. Their campaign took action by featuring real women of different races, shapes and sizes as models, stating that their mission is to ensure that the next generation will grow up appreciating who they are, cherish a positive relationship with the way they look, helping girls to raise their self-confidence and realize their full potential. In addition, people should take action by getting informed, figuring out what is true and what is not by searching, exploring and analyzing, not by blindly believing everything they see on TVs and social networks. The challenge faced here is that this generation doesn’t voluntarily go and seek information. If they are not pushed and obliged to do it, few are the people that would, out of will, look up about the sanity of an information given. The only way