Sorting Race
What immediately caught my attention was the fact that until 1960, the census enumerators classified people into races by looking at them. I know plenty of people who look a certain race but are actually a combination or are a completely different one than what people predict. I only guessed 4 people right.. haha. It's crazy that the census didn't attempt to allow people to choose more than one race until the 2000's too. I guess it is good that we can use things like the census to determine things like which groups are being treated unequally and what groups show different health problems. I honestly cannot see our society without race.
The three facts that stood out to me were:
4. Race and freedom were born together.
- It is interesting that although the U.S. was founded upon freedom, but then turned around to enslave people in numerous ways mentally and physically.
5. Race justified social inequalities as natural.
- This one stood out to me because it is hard to believe the extent that race was used within laws.
10. Colorblindness will not end racism.
- I think this is especially true because people will always want some way to make the different from others, and race is an easy way to do it.
I think if more people knew more about our history of all races, there would be more equality. In my opinion, the majority of the people in our history that all Americans know for making major accomplishments are white, so that idea can develop in young peoples minds of minorities and keep them from becoming those successful people. If there was a more equal distribution of all careers and jobs by race, it would be more reflective of the diversity of our country.
The most interesting things I took from the articles were how even Europeans were considered "nonwhite" and assimilated in order to become "white", how white priveledge is defined as "historical systemic structural race-based superiority", and how in the knapsack article she said she never was asked to speak for all the people of her racial group.
My Privileges :
1. Masculinity/Heterosexism
2. Male
3. Class (Middle Class)
4. Education
5. Being American
6. Connections (To people who are of higher class)
7. Experiences/Exposure (Throughout life)
I agree with you that if we knew the history of all races then there would be more equality. In the video that we saw that discussed the importance of knowing Black history, most of those facts were new information for me. I feel like in school we have learned very little about Black history or any other history besides white,like Tim Wise said in his lecture. Perhaps if we knew more about other histories, then people wouldn't resort to stereotypes for these groups since they don't know real information about them. In "The Common Elements of Oppression" it talks about how many whites use one Black person to represent all Black people, so maybe if they knew more history then they would not view the Black community as one homogeneous unit.
ReplyDeleteYou make some very intresting points. I agree on the irony that race and freedome were born together. Its funny how America was founded on freedom but have slaves- I never thought about it that way. This makes feel that America is soo full of crap. I feel this is why African Americans have a love/hate relationship with this country. I also found intresting that Europeans were considered non-white. This makes me wonder where this whole racial issue came from.
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to say your blog is fancy #jealous. I definitely agree that that was definitely a shocker when I found that out about the census as well. It's like... How do you have the nerve? Knowing that there are beautiful people who have blended backgrounds. America is sooo stuck on LABELS, I agree with you when you said you can't see our society with out them, it's sad but true. We are in tooo deep, but I DO believe in CHANGE. I agree with what you said about the fact of Race and Freedom were born together and actually my response was similar to yours in my post. I really liked your privileges and I appreciate that you understand that even though you are a black man, being a masculine man is definitely a high privilege.
ReplyDelete-Keara :)