Discrimination

Forrest Gump describes a variety of situations involving discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and military status. Early on, Forrest claims not to be prejudiced against blacks. He finds that many are kinder than whites. He says nothing about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, probably because politics never interests him. This is demonstrated when he meets Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969; he seems unaware that he has been president for some six years and is again surprised years later that the kind Texan has been replaced by Richard Nixon. At any rate, Forrest claims to accept blacks on equal terms but talks about them by innocently parroting the loaded epithets that he hears others use. It becomes most pointed when he plays football for the University of Alabama. The team is obviously all-white and finds it intimidating to face Northern teams that are integrated. Standing 6'...