Ander Toldo

English 11, period 1

Judgement Project

December 1, 2022

Title

“Judging someone does not define who they are; it defines who you are” (Dyer). Many

different authors and documentarians talk about judgment in their writing as does Nathaniel

Hawthorne in his story “Young Goodman Brown.” Nathaniel Hawthorne shows that everyone

can be judged in life. Hundreds of years ago and today people judge others because of their

beliefs, and another common way people judge others today is by their race.

In the story “Young Goodman Brown” the townspeople claim that devil-worshiping is

wrong and negatively judge people that worship the devil. The main character, Goodman Brown,

goes into the woods to meet the devil and worship him, but he is surprised to find a group of

devil worshipers already there. As he goes closer he finds all the townspeople are there,

including his wife. It is clear that the townspeople are worshiping the devil when he says to his

worshipers, “Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again,

my children, to the communion of your race!" (Hawthorne). Later in the story Hawthorne says,

“[W]hen the family knelt down at prayer, he scowled, and muttered to himself, and gazed sternly

at his wife, and turned away.” (Hawthorne). This shows that Goodman Brown became very

judgemental of his family. Because the society is so strongly judgmental against devil

worshiping, this experience ruins his life as he now judges everyone. Hawthorne wants to tell

people not to judge others.

Heaven.” Judgment is a main theme and is seen when Alexie goes to a 7-11 and is judged by the

clerk. “I gave him a half wave as I headed back to the freezer. He looked me over so he could

describe me to the police later” (Alexie). When Alexie gets pulled over by the police, he is

judged when the officer says, “You’re making people nervous. You don’t really fit the profile of

the neighborhood” (Alexie). Both the clerk and the officer judge him because of the way he

looks and his race. The effect judgment has on Alexie is being angry over how he is treated

because of his race. Alexie’s message is that people should not judge others because of their race.

In the story “Indian Education” the main character, Alexie, is a Native American boy

who has lived on a reservation all his life, and then he decides before his seventh grade year to

go to an all-white school. He is judged by both the people at school and the reservation. The

author shows this when a girl at the reservation says to Alexie, "Guilty," she said. "You always

look guilty." (Alexie) Discrimation is shown by a boy at school. “Stevie Flett called him out,

called him a squaw man, called him a pussy” (Alexie). These quotations show that the main

character gets judged at school by the white students and at the reservation by other Native

Americans for being different. Judgment affected Alexie negatively. Before leaving the

reservation school he was well-liked and fit in. Once he left the reservation school his friends felt

betrayed and treated him negatively. He was treated negatively at the all-white school because he

was a different race. Alexie’s message is it is wrong to discriminate against others because they

are different.

The documentary, Poverty in America, shows the effects of poverty on people. It deals

with judgment made by landlords and pedestrians towards homeless people because of the way

they look and things they have done in the past. These people were judged because they missed a
couple payments on their rent and are not given a second chance to rent somewhere else. They

are also judged because of their lack of money. The people who live on the streets are negatively

affected by this discrimination in not being able to have a second chance to rent a home and get

back on track. The filmmaker was trying to show that even though this group of homeless people

are poor, they are hard workers and shouldn’t be judged by the way they look and how they live.
 Zara Abrams stated in her article “The Mental Health Impact of Anti-Asian Racism,”

which was published in the American Psychological Association, “The COVID-19 pandemic

exacerbated xenophobia and bigotry towords Asian American and Pacific Islander communities”

(Abrams). The pandemic caused people to be afraid of people who looked Chinese, where

COVID started, and have unreasonable beliefs about Asians. Asian Americans have had to deal

with racism and discrimination which causes mental heath problems. Lily Bailey said in her

article that in 2020 the United States launched a site to help log racist attacks towards Asian

Americans. The website received 1135 nationwide reports of hate crimes and the use of hashtags

encouraging people to use violence against Chinese people within three months. There have also

been an increased number of attacks because of “President Donald Trump’s early repetition of

the phrase ‘the Chinese virus’ and Representative Paul Gosar’s [R, AZ] use of the term ‘The

Wuhan Virus,’'' (Bailey). Trump and Gosar put all of the blame on all of China and Chinese

people. Abrams reported, “In the incidents documented by Stop AAPI Hate, women were

targeted more than two thirds of the time, pointing to more complex gendered stereotypes that

also contribute to the current violence, … including the shooting deaths of six Asian American

women in Atlanta'' (Abrams). There has also been a connection between racism and mental

health problems. Lee and Howard found in their study Asian Americans during 2019-2020 were

affected by depression and anxiety disorders (Lee). Lily Bailey said, “[R]acism associated with

COVID-19 will likely have a significantly negative impact on the health and wellbeing of Asian

Americans” (Bailey). Furthermore, “[T]he discrimination and hate they fuel- cause physical and

psychological distress. In a spring 2020 survey of 410 Asian Americans, 29% of participants

reported an increase in discrimination. Those who faced discrimination were more likely to have

problems with anxiety, depression, and sleep” (Abrams).

health problems, new resources have been created to help all of these problems. This has led to

the creation of websites such as Stop AAPI Hate to log Asian American racism (Bailey). The NO

HATE Act was created to help law enforcement deal with hate crimes against Asians. It has also

created a national awareness day for anti-Asian hate (Abrams). Groups of people are trying to

teach people how to respond to Asian racism through education, calming down the aggression,

getting support, and making the problems known. Abrams reported bystanders are taught to

stand up for Asian Americans being attacked. People who stood up to their attacker felt “an

increased sense of empowerment, health, and well-being”. Experts said to stop using the phrase

“Chinese virus” and xenophobic phrases (Abrams).

I chose to report about this because I want people to know mental health problems have

increased against Asian Americans due to the xenophobia and discrimination that has come from

COVID. From this I have learned that mental health problems and violence have increased and

that there are many different options for help. I did not know about the amount of hate crimes

against Asians or the websites for reporting the crimes. I want people to learn that these mental

health problems really do affect Asian people, and people who are discriminated against can get
help. I want people to think about their thoughts and beliefs about Asian Americans. Did the

Asian race create COVID and kill millions? Should we judge people because of their race?

People should also think about the way they talk to and treat others. Like in the stories and

documentary I want people to stop treating others differently because of the way they look. If

you are Asian, you can stand up for yourself when you are judged. If you are a bystander, stick

up for others being attacked and educate the attacker.