C.P. Ellis by Studs Terkel

Yes, Ellis shows that his story offers a credible way of removing prejudice. No, it's not workable on a large scale.

Ellis overcame his prejudice. He came to view minorities- blacks, Jews, Catholics- as human being. So of course it's credible. It worked, after all. He sat down and talked with black people. He came to understand that they had the same problems he did- the same worries. He realized they were all human.

If overcoming prejudice was that easy- just set some people up in a room and tell 'em to spill their problems to each other- we wouldn't have any prejudice at all. The problem is that many people aren't willing to sit down and talk; they don't want to realize they were wrong in being biased; they don't think they can be convinced, and some people are just so darn stubborn that you could make them talk person-to-person with as many different people as you wanted, and they'd still think they're right. People have a tendency to be that way. They also make excuses to protect their beliefs- warping their thinking- saying that "Oh, they're just acting human in order to get their way..." if not as directly diabolical as that.

I think it's amazing that Ellis was able to overcome his prejudices. It's not something many people can do. Often, prejudice is too deeply instilled for any amount of interaction to remove it. There's no easy way of getting rid of prejudice, though it's lucky that there are people like Ellis who can overcome it.

After all, how many people are willing to sit down, have a chat and think about the people they hate as people just like them? Not many. It's difficult to be convinced. It's difficult to want to be convinced.