Saturday, February 12, 2011

How We Talk About Race

I think the way we talk about race can perpetuate racist ideals or ways of acting, even without individuals realizing it. The concept of race isn’t racist in itself, however it is the way we interpret race and appeal to it in our lives that creates racist tendencies. When we talk about how people react to things etc. we need to be careful what we present and postulate because it can be misinterpreted on both sides of the issue. I don’t see what necessarily wrong with describing someone as acting black or white, but problems can arise when we take these ideas more seriously. A lot of the texts we read are old and put forth ideas that are outdated and have since been disproved. I don’t think that we should necessarily stop reading these texts, however we have to be careful how seriously we talk about them and let them rest in our brain scheme.
I also think we are too quick to discredit the experience of the individual. We keep holding on to things that “most people do” etc. that, when we consider the individuals in the class are not what “most people do”. We are the upcoming generation; we were the children of the late 90’s and early 00’s now growing up. If we suggest that we aren’t more in tune or adjusted than the previous generation than we should just give up this whole race project now. With each generation, the problems related to race are going to fade, to a certain extent. When we keep playing with outdated ideas and buying into what old people think, then we will be no better than they are now. However, if we can talk about race in relation to our own experience then maybe we will overcome the obstacles our ancestors have put before us.

5 comments:

  1. I agree with you, but I think that there needs to be a discussion of both. We need to understand what "most people do" because it is evident that the people who are taking the class with us are not the majority and we all may have different views about race. I do believe that our generation has the power to change how race is seen in the future. But I do think that race will continue to be a problem, but it will become more and more invisible as opposed to the type of racism that our ancestors experienced.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kip, I agree that "the concept of race is not racist itself." However, we can not neglect the political underpinnings that motivated people to identify race-- to undermine those who are different in order to advance one's self standing. Therefore, it is difficult to discuss race without acknowledging racism. Because racism is so deeply imbedded in our history, I do believe the concept falls within the realm of implicit thinking. However, because our generation is more actively able and willing to negate racist ideology, hopefully our explicit views on race will become implicit in future generations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is standard practice in elementary schools nowadays to teach that everyone regardless of race and gender are created equal. This is good because children become tolerant of one another and are integrated at an early age (of course this is less the case in inner-city school districts and certain private schools). Yet even as we progress in integrating cultures and acknowledging other people's equality as people, the races remain finically unbalanced. Even if our personal interactions with peoples of different races is completely civil, this will not fix the material inequality forged from decades of exploitation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. well... I do not think this is a problem soley in the older generation but it is also a problem of our own because the older generations have planted that same seed in us even as children. Maybe they dont do this purposely but its all they know. The texts we read are not outdated in any shape or fashion in my opinion. We are still dealing with the same issues today and maybe thats because we have continually stretched out old ideas. whatever the reason is, the prolem still exists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would mostly agree with you but I also agree with Phylicia. We can't just go on and forget about the previous generations and their experiences (which I would qualify by saying are not now-a-days what "most people do") because the footprint of the past is still present today, implanted in the minds of younger generations. Also, by talking about both the individual experiences and general population experiences with respect to generations and think we can acknowledge and learn to move forward; though not without a lot of effort because unfortunately old habits die hard.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.