#TEACHER IN FREEDOM WRITERS SKIN#

I don’t even remember how the whole thing got started, but it’s obvious that if you’re from one family, you need to be loyal and try to get some payback.” Yet even though he cannot justify the gang’s divisions, he still abides by their logic: “ always tries to corner you into accepting that there’s another side, when there really isn’t. Gruwell questions a student about the rivalry between the Latino and Asian gangs, trying to make that student realize that this war is just as senseless as that of the Capulets and Montagues in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the student comes to realize that Ms. Most of them have been shot at, have directly witnessed gang-related violence, and have seen their friends die over the course of the years due to gang rivalry. This ethnic hatred and violence affects all students. The school quad is divided according to color and ethnicity, as people mostly make friends with members of their own identity group. At Wilson High School, these divisions are strikingly visible.

#TEACHER IN FREEDOM WRITERS SKIN#

To remain safe, people generally stayed loyal to their own group, as one could be shot at for the mere fact of having the wrong skin color-regardless of whether or not one actually belonged to a rival gang. Later events, such as California’s Proposition 187, meant to prohibit illegal immigrants from using various services in California (including health care and public education), only heightened the sense of discrimination and exclusion that many minority communities experienced at the time, in particular Asian and Latino immigrants.Įthnic and racial communities were also in direct rivalry with each other, as African-American, Asian, and Latino gangs engaged in a ruthless war for power and territory.

Gruwell notes that the tension could be felt in the school itself. This long stretch of rioting had a severe effect on increasing racial tensions in the area, and Ms. When the police officers were acquitted for this act, six days of violent rioting erupted in Los Angeles, protesting the long-standing discrimination and abuse that the African-American community has suffered from the police. Two years earlier, in 1992, officers in the Los Angeles Police Department were filmed brutally beating Rodney King, an unarmed black man, before arresting him. Erin Gruwell begins to teach in a historical context of racial tensions. As a result, one’s social identity and appearance determine one’s entire life, from one’s friend group to one’s chances of survival in the street. The students at Wilson High School are immersed in the urban world of Long Beach, where racial tensions and a vicious gang war divide the population along ethnic and racial lines. Ultimately, the Freedom Writers commit to focusing only on everyone’s inherent humanity, concluding that there is only one race that matters: the united human race. Gruwell’s students learn to see beyond the barriers of race and ethnicity, discovering that peace and tolerance are infinitely greater goals than remaining focused on people’s different identities. Inspired by Anne and Zlata’s experiences, Ms. Gruwell begins to teach her class about the historical consequences of ethnic violence around the world, focusing on the stories of Anne Frank in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and Zlata Filipović in contemporary war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina, her students are forced to confront the horrific consequences of ethnic hatred. As a consequence, at school and in their neighborhood, students learn to remain within the confines of their own identity group. The rivalry between black, Asian, and Latino gangs affect their everyday lives, constantly making them potential victims in a war where only external appearances and group loyalty matter. The students at Wilson High School are used to navigating racial and ethnic divisions.

Teacher in freedom writers