Public Bigotry

When I first came across the word "bigotry" in Freakonomics, I had never heard of it before and had to look it up. To be a bigot basically means that one is so infatuated with their own ideas and prejudices, no one else's is relevant. Usually this has to do with ethnic prejudices and racist opinions. In the book, Paula Deen's charge of public bigotry was used as an example.

I think public bigotry is very controversial in this part of the book because even though it is only one celebrity being caught and charged for it, there are plenty of people who have the same unjust beliefs. As much as people would like to deny it, racism is still a problem to this day. The only difference now is that it isn't politically correct to judge upon race so people try to hide it. People with such beliefs may hide it from everyone or just from those who they know will disagree. Just because racism isn't socially acceptable anymore, people still carry those feelings. Although most cases of public bigotry aren't as straight forward as Paula Deen's remark using the N word, people are still finding trends of racism. In chapter 6 when Levitt and Dubner examine how a name can effect a person's life or opportunity whether they are black or even if their name just sounds black. Having people with prejudice beliefs in charge of companies, businesses, government or basically anywhere is hindering social progress. Could the world be missing out on new inventions or ideas that come from black people just because one person goes out of their way to make sure they are never noticed? Obama becoming the first black president in 2008 was still a major revelation in our country and the fact that so many people were against the idea of having an African American lead our country proves that racism is still a major factor in people's everyday decisions.

There's no denying that the amount of racism in this country has decreased over the past decades but it still has not ceased completely. The hidden racist views are almost just as bad as if they were to be spoken because even though they know it's wrong, they still cannot let go of the hatred and judgement. Personally, I believe racism stems from ignorance and too much pride. Until people realize that and are willing to change, racism will surround our lives and public bigotry will become an even bigger problem as racism becomes less accepted.