Anomaly

As many students here at Juniata do, I am currently taking a Communications course. Our current project deals with learning and teaching to the class the topic of "paradigms and anomalies". In short, a paradigm is what makes us think a certain way or have a certain belief, based on what you know or experience. An anomaly, then, is the aspect that challenges or doesn't uphold that belief. As I worked on this project, I was thinking of different examples of this topic and the mid-1900's came to mind; more specifically the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It is often believed that all white people from this time period were racist, or supported segregation. This generalized thought is what makes a paradigm, based on the acts that were occurring during this time. However, during this boycott, there was an anomaly. During this span of the eleven month boycott, many white women were providing blacks transportation in their own vehicles, showing that this generalization isn't necessarily true. I find it very interesting that it is almost always assumed that every white person of this time period had the same mentality when dealing with this situation.