Publication date: 30 November 2016 Source: Author: Akram Sadat Hosseini, Esmaeil Zohdi Racism is a worldwide matter that is based on the physical characteristics of people's division into different categories on which some people become superior and some inferior. Racism and ethnicity are usually considered as the same concepts while in fact ethnicity is a sub-class of racism. In every nation, there are some ethnic groups with the same origin and similar customs that may or may not be judged equally (...) by the power-handler ethnic groups. An example of such country is Afghanistan which is severely an ethnic country. This study explores the social, cultural, and scientific investigations done on the people's races and ethnical characteristics by using Afghan types as examples. Racism is not the result of scientific observation, but it is due to the human differences that happened between 16th and 19th century when people began differentiating among themselves. This aspect of racism is well expressed by the American sociologist "Feagin". In his view, the natural superiority of some people over others is rejected. The novel The Kite Runner depicts the two major Afghan ethnical populations, Pashtun and Hazara, and their social, cultural, and religious conflicts. Accordingly, this article will try to examine the root of ethnic prejudices and oppression among the Afghan people in the novel and the reasons for their ethnic conducts are explained and analyzed based on the Feagin’s denial of human difference. Moreover, by providing some evidence it is proved that the biological difference is just some excuses for the powerful section to gain their egotistic goals. (shrink)

Source: Author: Mohammed Hussein Oroskhan, Esmaeil Zohdi From its beginning in the academic studies during the later nineteenth century, Romanticism has provoked ongoing debates over the nature of its definition. Nonetheless Morse Peckham has satisfactorily settled this matter by indicating that romanticism has dramatically altered the way of thinking therefore it should be distinctively met. For this purpose, he proposed that dealing with the concept of romanticism necessitate dividing it into two concepts of negative and positive romanticism in which a (...) transition is occurred from negative romanticism to positive romanticism however in some cases this transition may not become completed and is lead to the obscure origin of the sense of isolation among various romantic poets. To clearly illustrate Peckham's notion of negative romanticism, it is tried to explore Nima Yushij's Afsaneh who is known to be the most romantic poet of Persian literature. Based upon Peckham's notion of negative romanticism, Nima's sense of despair and isolation in Afsaneh is fully justified and it is highly suggested that Peckham's new perspective toward romanticism can eventually settle the conflicting views on the subject of Romanticism. ]]>. (shrink)

Publication date: 30 March 2017 Source: Author: Faeze Rezazade, Esmaeil Zohdi Racial prejudice, injustice, and discrimination against people of colored skin, especially African Americans, has become a global issue since the twenty century. Blacks are deprived of their rights regardless of their human natures and are disenfranchised from White’s societies due to their skin color which has put them as inferior and clownish creatures in White’s point of view. Although many anti-racist effort and speeches has done to solve racist issues (...) and eliminate racism and its circumstances, still racism is alive and Blacks are suffering from it. Although, many White individuals accept themselves as anti-racist characters that color of skin does not matter to them, they still show prejudice and discrimination towards Blacks and cannot consider them as equal as themselves. A reason to such Whites’ thought and behavior is that they have faced this issue since their childhood and therefore they cannot change it because this attitude is entangled with their personality and is deeply ingrained in them. Thus, a way to stop and eliminate discrimination, prejudice, and injustice is to train children, the next generation, as anti-racist and color-blind characters. In this regard, it has been tried to investigate the role of children training in the elimination of social and racial discrimination in Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, which is sequel novel to her masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird. Moreover, Jean Piaget’s theory of Children’s Cognitive Development has been used for a better understanding of this investigation. (shrink)

Source: Author: Faeze Rezazade, Esmaeil Zohdi Discrimination and racial injustice towards Blacks have existed among the groups of people since the very beginning of their gatherings as a communication and society. Throughout history, people of colored skin, especially Blacks, were not accepted in the Whites’ communities due to the Whites’ thought of supremacy over them. Regardless of their positive role and doing manual labor in keeping the wheels of the Whites’ industry turning, Blacks were always treated as nonhuman and “clownish” (...) creatures born to serve Whites. African Americans are the main groups of Blacks who suffer from discrimination and racial injustice because they are living among Whites, though segregated from the Whites’ society. However, there are many white individuals who do not consider the skin color and treat Blacks as human beings and only humanity and good nature of the people matters to them. Nelle Harper Lee in her masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960, introduces three children and Atticus, who is Scout and Jem’s father, as color-blind characters who fraternize with Blacks as humans without paying attention to their skin color. Therefore, using W. E. B. Du Bois’ thoughts- regarding prejudice, discrimination, and racial injustice- in this article it has been tried to investigate Atticus’ and three children’s color blindness in the case of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. ]]>. (shrink)