Essay On Radicalization In Unwind

The world mourned when the Twin Towers burned, when Brussels was bombed, and when ordinary people were slain at a concert in Paris. All of these atrocities happened because of radicalization, the taking an ordinary person and influencing their views to be more extreme politically or socially. Radicalization is a social issue that was presented in the novel, Unwind, by Neal Shusterman. One of the main characters, Lev, was radicalized by a terrorist group, known as the Clappers. Clappers lace their blood with explosives and then clap to blow themselves up, killing as many people as possible. By researching radicalization, my opinion that radicalization is wrong did not change, I learned why it happens, and was able to connect it to my life. Initially when I first started researching radicalization, I only thought that radicalization involved Islamic terrorists. Now after reading the news article, The Radicalization of White Americans, by German Lopez, I now understand radicalization applies to so much more. It applies to white supremacist groups and other groups that have outspoken

Now, racism is seen as a radical social view to most. My grandfather on my father’s side grew up around and after World War II, when racism was alive and well. He was racist throughout my father’s life, which rubbed off on my father. Racism is wrong and whenever my father is racist, I just nod along. I would like to believe that I am not racist, although I occasionally slip as many people do. However, I look at the bright side, my grandfather was extremely racist and in a few generations, my family is not nearly as racist. With any luck my children will grow up in a world without these radical ideas that people of different races should be treated differently because of the color of their skin. Hopefully, future generations will grow up in a world where radical ideas like this and other dangerous ideas are not