While sorting the race activity, I found myself categorization people based on characteristics that tend to be stereotypes. I though the activity would be fairly easy and was confident when I submitted my answers. I thought that I most likely got all but maybe one or two wrong. To my surprise I only got five correct and the ones I did get right were not the ones I thought were “obvious" but once i guessed. This exercise showed me that there is a difference in what the people consider themselves as and how the U.S. classified race. There were people who identified themselves as mixed but based on the stereotype characteristics they were labeled Asian.
Reviewing the facts under “Is Race Real”, I found all of the facts new and interesting. The three that stood out to me the most include; race is modern idea, skin color is only skin deep, and colorblindness will not end racism. Under race is a modern idea, it goes over the fact that ancient societies didn’t classify people under physical difference but based on religion, status and class. This was a surprise because watching Ethnic Notion; I assumed that stereotypes of African Americans were based mainly on their appearance. Under skin color is only skin deep it goes over how independently skin is from other physical appearances like hair for example. I just always though they kind of went hand in hand and lastly, I always thought if we as people were colorblind then most of society’s problems dealing with race would be solved so I was surprised to find the opposite true.
I personally believe that race would not be an issue if we could in fact be open and discuss it based on facts. The excerpt from The Common Elements of Oppression states how we need to teach in our schools about black history like we do ‘American History’ instead of delegating a month to it. Also, American History should include how whites became whites and not the watered down version we get in middle school.
Peggy lists what she considered her ‘White Privileges’ and while I thought about mine, it was hard to come up with seven but here are the ones that came to mind.
- Education
- Health
- Name
- Religion
- Family
- Female
- Heterosexual
Most of them seem self-explanatory but the one I wanted to explain would be my name. As a business student the first thing listed on my resume is my name. Employers try to find small things to distinguish from the hundreds of resumes they receive and students the meet, some positive and some negative, so having a somewhat unique name has been a privilege.
I agree with you about the points that you have made. I really thought that I could tell someones race by the way that they look. It is very interesting you consider being a female as being a privelage. I don't know why I didn't list that as one of my privelages. Now that I think about it, being a female could work for us or against us depending on what the situation is. I like the fact that you brought up a point about your name on your resume because many employers judge people by the name that is on their resume before they get to actually meet them. I like how you related your interest, privelages, and the sorting race activity together in your blog.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with you about the race activity! I was totally surprised at just how few I guessed correctly. Additionally, your statement about categorizing the people based on stereotyped characteristics is exactly what I did also. As with Jasmine, I like that you listed that being female is a privilege. I did not list that as one of mine, but believe that it truly can be. It is sometimes true that a certain aspect can be a privilege in one setting and work against us in another. You also make a good point as it pertains to the idea of teaching American history in the true fashion in which it occurred. How do we change this? As I ask myself this question, it seems like it should be an easy answer. Just tell it like it is...right?
ReplyDeleteI agree that if we were able to discuss race and educated Americans about race a lot of our problems. It's important for our country to become educated and even acknowledge the problems in our society. It's as if the majority of Americans are ignoring the fact that our country was formed on slavery, although our government has acknowledged this fact and resolved the major inequality issue, there are still many social inequalities being blatantly ignored today.
ReplyDeleteMuch like you the race activity was very surprising to me. I agree with you that we are really quick to judge people off of their appearance and categorize them into these groups of "people" or referring to e the group as "them" or the "others". It brought a particular attention to me because being biracial I often get asked "what's your ethnicity" and at times it can be so irritating because I feel like it should be obvious but I see now by my inability to correctly identify those individuals in that challenge that maybe i should appreciate the fact that people are actually taking the time to correctly identify me, as opposed to just placing me somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on how color is only skin deep. We as a society make everything based off of skin color instead getting to know that person personally. I also didn't know that skin has nothing to do with your hair or eye color. I thought people of a certian color all have the same characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI had problems with the sorting race activity too, I only got 4 right. It looked to me like most of them were mixed race. For the facts under “Is Race Real” the quote “colorblindness will not end racism” stood out to me too. Even as our country becomes more racist there will continue to be racism regardless. Also, I never thought of health or name to be privileges but they really are.
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