RACISM IN THE KITE RUNNER MOVIE

This assignment is written to fulfill the Middle test

In DDF/Metodologi Penelitian Class

Written by:

Lailatul Hasanah (201606007)

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS
UNIVERSITY OF ABDURACHMAN SALEH SITUBONDO
2019
 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

An expert of Physician and Surgeon Josiah Clark Nott once said on his book
“Types of Mankind”

“The horse, the ass, the zebra, and the quagga, are
distinct species and distinct types: and so with the Jew,
and the Teuton, the Sclavonian, the Mongol, the
Australian, the Coast Negro, the Hottenton, & c”. Josiah
Clark Nott-Types of Mankind.

This citation has stated that human is borned in a race, it can be called also
species. Human is divided into some convenient races, like Black, White, Asian,
American, Arabian, and so on. Furthermore, Biological difference also make
sense to differ people physical such as skin colour, height, eye tightness, weight
and others. Those differences literally can not be denied by the people themselves.
God has created human differently to complete each other and live peacefully in
the world. Therefore, every people has equal right to live, to have peaceful life, to
and to socialize one another. Unfortunately, some people unwilling to accept the
difference till inquality of right happened. One of the effect from right inequality
is the appearance of racism (Dalton, 2008:1).

There are many types of racism such Individual Racism, Interpersonal

Racism, Institutional Racism, Cultural Racism, Structural Racism (Deetta Jones,
http://www.deettajones.com/many-types-of-racism-5-terms-know/ July 18,2018).
Those have different qualification and charcteristics. Individual racism is also
called personal racism. This is the type of racism that most people think and
realize. Individual racism occurs when a person’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions
are based on biases, stereotypes, or prejudices against other races. Interpersonal
racism occurs between individuals. It is the holding of negative attitudes towards
a different race or culture. Institutional racism refers to institutional and cultural
practices that perpetuate racial inequality. The benefits are structured to advantage
powerful groups as the expense of others. Structural racism refers to the ways in
which the joint operation of institutions produce racialized outcomes, even in the
absence of racist intent. Indicators of structural racism include power inequalities,
unequal access to opportunities, and differing policy outcomes by race. The last
one is Cultural racism which describe and explain new racial ideologies and
practices that have emerged since World War II. It can be defined as societal
beliefs and customs that promote the assumption that the products of a given
culture, including the language and traditions of that culture are superior to those
of other cultures.

Racism is analytically distinct from racial discrimination and racial

inequality. Racial discrimination concerns the unequal treatment of races, while
racial inequality concerns unequal outcomes (Pager and Shepherd, 2008: 102).
Racism cannot be defined without first defining race. Among social scientists,
race is generally understood as a social construct. Furthermore, most of social
scientist said that race is distinct from ethnicity. A major distinction is the
assumption of a biological biases in the case of race. Races are distinguished by
perceived common physical characteristics, which are thought to be fixed,
whereas ethnicities are defined by perceived common ancestry, history, and
cultural practices, which are seen as more fluid and self-asserted rather than
assigned by others (Cornell and Hartmann, 2006: 65). One of country which has
conflict about racism is Afghanistan described by The Kite Runner Movie.

Based on Afghanistan Oslo Norway explains that since along ago,

Afghanistan is fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries,
Afghanistan made several tentative steps toward modernization in the mid-20th
century. In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the biggest strides were made toward a
more liberal and westernized lifestyle. Afghanistan is courted by Uni Soviet and
USA during the cold war. They compete to dominate and control Afghanistan.
Therefore, the situation in Afghanistan is being more messy. Afghanistan accepts
Soviet machinery and weapons, and U.S. financial aid. This time was a brief,
relatively peaceful era, when modern buildings were constructed in Kabul
alongside older traditional mud structures, when burqas became optional for a
time, and the country appeared to be on a path toward a more open, prosperous
society. Progress was halted in the 1970s, as a series of bloody coups, invasions,
and civil wars began, continuing to this day, reversing almost all of the steps
toward modernization taken in the 50s and 60s. The war still took place today;
violence, discrimination, and so on.

In the movie of Kite Runner, it exposes about two different ethnic in which
Pashtuns is the Majority and Hazaras is the minority. Besides, the term “majority”
refers to the extensive number of Pashtuns in Afghanistan; it also implies their
power, influence, and wealth in this society. In contrast, the term “minority”
reveals the low number of Hazaras, it also reveals lack of the economic, political,
and social power and influence faced by Hazaras. Pashtuns had many reasons for
their violent behavior, one of their justifications was that Afghanistan was ruled
by Pashtuns since the establishment of the Durrani Empire in 1747 (Barfield,
2004:263). In the past, Afghanistan was a region of the Persian Empire. When in
the 18th century the king of Persia announced that all people must convert to
Shism, Pashtuns who lived in the south of Afghanistan, opposed this edict and
eventually attacked Kabul and soon with the leading of Durrani they gained the
control of Afghanistan. Hazaras were a small group in the central territory of
Afghan state that were thought to be from the Mongolian race and looked a little
like Chinese people. The Hazaras arrived in Afghanistan in the 13th and 14th
century and when they rebelled against the oppression by Pashtuns in the 19th
century, they were repressed by the Pashtuns and excluded from many social
rights including the right for receiving education.
The researcher takes several researches to make comparison for her research
and to avoid plagiarism. The first research belongs to Fadlilah Satya Handayani, a
student of Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University Semarang. Her research
is entitled “Racial Discrimination towards the Hazaras as Reflected in Khaled
Hosseini’s The Kite Runner”. In her research, she focuses on Racial
Discrimination only; the cause, the example, and the impact of racial
discrimination. She uses Sociological approach, psychological approach, and
theories on racial discrimination in her study. The second research belongs to Nur
Syifa’ Fuadina, a student of School Of Teacher Training And Education,
Muhammadiyah university of Surakarta. Her research is entitled “Hazara’s
Discrimination Reflected in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner Novel (2003): A
Sociological Approach”. In her research, she uses a novel of The Kite Runner as
the Primary data source. The objectives of the study are to analyze the novel
based its structural elements and describe the novel based on the sociological
approach. Furthermore, the researcher uses qualitative method for analyze the
novel. The third research belongs to Akram Sadat Hosseini and Esmaeil Zohdi, a
Professor and Assistant Professor, Department of English Literature, Faculty of
Humanities, Vali-e-Asr University, Rafsanjan, Kerman, Iran. Their research is
entitled “The Kite Runner and the Problem of Racism and Ethnicity”. In their
research, the study explores the social, cultural, and scientific investigations done
on the people's races and ethnical characteristics by using Afghan types as
examples. The last research belongs to Matthew Clair (a professor of Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, USA) and Jeffrey S Denis (a professor of McMaster
University, Hamilton, ON, Canada). Their research is entitled “Sociology of
Racism”. In their research, they explain about the relationship between racism,
racial discrimination, and racial inequality.
Racism is big problem to all people. This problem come from colonial till
nowadays. Racism is not only problem of two conflict individuals or certain
groups. The doer racism can influence other else to do racist too. On the other
side, the life of the victims is changed step by step, exactly their psychology. The
closest people of the victims sometimes get the effect of the racism action too like
being exiled from the community. This fact should take seriuos respon from all
people to fix it together because there so many victims increace everyday. The
effects are also diverse like being mad, possesive, even doing suicide.
The present researcher excited to analyse racism in The Kite Runner
Movie. The dominant problem in the movie is about racism problems, also racism
is being serious issue to talk because it happens in real life till nowadays. The
study concerns on the types, the causes, and the solution of it. It collects from
books, journals, online medias as the resources to support her opinion.
 1.2 Research Problem
Based on the background of the study explained above, the writer is
interested in analyzing the problems, which are formulated as follows:
1. What are the kinds of racism depicted in The Kite Runner movie ?
2. What are the effct of racism in kite runner movie ?
1.3 The Objective of The Study
In accordance with the statement of the problem stated above, this
studyhas two objectives that can be stated as follows:
1. To know kinds of racism depicted in The Kite Runner movie.
2. To reveal the effect of racism occur in The Kite Runner movie.s
1.4 Scope of Study
The researcher would like to limit the study in racism types ad effect of it
found in The Kite Runner movie. The focus is to know the history of racism, the
types of racism, the effect, and the solution to heal the victims. Therefore, the
result of this analysis can be reference to detect racism victims.
1.5 Signifance of Study
The researcher hopes this study will help students of literary class and any
readers who are interested in literature to understand the racism which is
described based on The Kite Runner Movie view. It is also expected that all
reader will be able to catch the deep meaning and the morality from this movie.
Furthermore, the researcher hopes this study can be a helpful reference for other
researchers who are interested in conducting further research in analyzing a
literary work.
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