Anna Crowley
Mr. Lowery -5
February 8, 2011

Racial Violence

Racial violence in Rwanda happened because of Genocide; the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, political or cultural group. The Hutu thought they were better than the Tutsi. The Tutsi were darker skin and had bigger noses. You could not tell the difference between them without looking at their identification card. They only judged them on one factor in there life. The Hutu had lighter skin and smaller noses. Hutus believed they were better than everyone else and thought that if someone was not like them they should be killed. It was a mass killing by the Hutus. The Hutus were about 90% of the population. During this time, the Tutsi were forced to hide in order to keep themselves alive or pay the Hutus. If you were a Hutu and helped out a Tutsi you were most likely to also be killed. They had reporters come out and film the violence happening but, yet people still did not help. “Yeah, and if no one intervenes, is it still a good thing to show?” one of the reporters said. People were not really worried about what was happening in Rwanda. The Hutu did not really think they were doing anything that bad. They just thought they were making a better place for everyone. The Hutu believed no one like the Tutsis. The Hutus wanted revenge on the Tutsi because they believed the Tutsi killed the Hutu President. The United Nations, tried to protect the Tutsi but, they could not shoot or anything without the Hutus shooting at them. There was not much they could do to help them out to much. “We're here as peace keepers, not peace makers” one of the United Nation soldiers said. Neither could do much and they knew that they were both in danger.

During the movie Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina (Hutu) was married to a Tutsi and his main goal was to protect her and their children. In the middle of all of the fighting, Rusesabagina was in charge of a hotel. He needed to care for the safety of the guests also. He tried to keep everything under control and safe for the guests. He told the Hutu army that everyone in his hotel was a Hutu so they would help them. The Hutus would kill the men and save some of the women to be sex slaves. If the women would refuse they would be killed by the militia groups. The Hutus would burn their houses after they would kill them. No one knew what was going to happen next, you could be perfectly fine one day and have your house searched by the militia. People were always on guard with each other but still seemed to be civil at the hotel. Everything does not always come easy and people do not always help when you are in pain. The Tutsi stuck it out and were able to go somewhere safe. They did not solve their problems in the end but some people were saved.

The movie Invictus was a lot different than Hotel Rwanda. Newly elected President Nelson Mandela decided to support his South Africa rugby team, thinking he could bring his country together by the universal language of sport. He recently made the commitment to help them out. He used to cheer for every other team, except for his own. Nelson Mandela just got out of jail after twenty six years as a political prisoner. His speech he gave after he had become President was to unite South Africa. The divide has mostly separated the Afrikaners (white South Africans that came from Europe during the 17th century) and the black natives. The Afrikaners believe it would be a bad thing and the country will be going down the drain. Nelson’s main goal is to have his country set aside their differences and become one and strong. There is only one black native on the rugby team and all the kids are rooting for him. Nelson sends the team to go out into the poorer areas of South Africa and teach rugby to the natives. At first, Chester the team's only black player is swarmed by all the kids but, soon the entire team is out