pcr 311 - National Open University of Nigeria

PCR 311 Philosophies and Great Personalities of Peace
psychological re-actions. Among such reactions may be self-hatred and a wide
range of pathological emotional responses. It could lead to strains due to
concealment of their inner feelings. It leads to self-limitation despite abundant
opportunities. However, the positive side of this policy is the belief in the
philosophy of a better morrow. It could even be in the form of a self-fulfilling
prophesy if one is convinced that at a certain period in life, things go one way
which could change for better thereafter. The perseverance of millions of
Africa’s captured as slaves, and drafted to the then New World, otherwise called
the Americas, led to the 13 th Amendment of the American constitution, known
as Proclamation of emancipation of slaves. By the same vein, the 14 th
amendment allowed the Blacks to vote in all elections in America while the 15 th
amendment gave the blacks, not only the right to vote but to be voted for. What
happened as a child’s play in the 1860’s with the Emancipation proclamation
has now led to the emergence of the very first Black President in American
history ever to occupy the white house in the 21 st century. Passive acceptance
is not without its reward.
3.2 Aggressive Response
There have been instances when dominance have been met with
aggressive responses. This could be in the form of physical violence. The
humanitarian tragedy between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda as well as that
of the Darfur crises in southern Sudan are vivid examples. From all
indications, the above examples are quite dangerous as they resolved nothing
but aggravated an already bad situation. They led to gnashing of teeth and
possible extermination of a minority group by the savagery majority group. In a
situation life this, many options are still open to the minority. First, it is
natural for you to know that in any community, there are both minority and
majority groups. The aggrieved minority must look for an effective but safer
method of expressing their grievances and commonest in that category are
verbal and philosophical expressions. They may shout threats at passers-by or
write them on pamphlets for distribution, or even, walls. Through that
methods, the minority group will be displaying the detestable acts of the
dominant group to the public in bad light, which could also invite sympathy
from the members of the dominant group. Charles S. Johnson, (1943:303), in
his book: Patterns of Negro segregation; New York; quoted Haerper a driver from
a minority group while responding to the misdeameanour of the dominant
group thus.
“I drive in a way that makes it look like I’ll run over
them if they walk in front of me when I have the right.
I act like I don’t see them. I have had some of them to
curse at me for this, but I just laugh at them and keep
on driving”.
Equally common as aggressive response are those involving reactions to
work attitude by the minority in the service of the majority. The minority could
deliberately create a costly accident that could ruin either crops, livestock or
even properties of the employer who is a member of the dominant group to
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