The topic
of race can be a sensitive issue. While many racial problems exist within our
society, it’s hard to know how to address these concerns. The article Rethinking Racism was eye opening and
helped me to gain new perspectives on “silent racism”. It was startling to
learn how silent racism is “the racist thoughts, images and assumptions in the minds
of white people, including those that by most accounts are ‘not racist’ ” and
accounts for the assumptions and perceptions of many individuals (Trepagnier,
1). It’s no surprise that images and messages we receive shape our
understanding of the world, but I had not thought of how these thoughts
influence our behavior towards race. Even more disturbing, was how many white
people do not deem themselves as racist or intentionally discriminate others,
yet they are responsible for “maganilization” of other races (Trepagnier, 3).
This is important because while many do not intentionally make hateful
assumptions or comments, the acceptance to ignore these biases in turn ignores
the issue of silent racism altogether. The unconscious racism that whites have
towards blacks often transfers into “institutional racism and resulting racial
inequality” that has negative implications towards the race (Trepagnier, 4).
I think
the hardest aspect of reading these articles was self analysis for personal
silent racism towards others. The readings present the idea of increasing
awareness of implicit bias and how we should not think of race in an
oppositional way, but rather on a “contiumn” that expresses racism in varying
degrees (Trepagnier, 5). By thinking this way, it incorporates the
unintentional everyday racism that would be often be placed in the “not racist”
oppositional category and would “eliminate the false notion” that whites
themselves are not racist at all (Trepagnier, 5). I really like this concept of
how to think, and it would benefit everyone if we all tried to look at racism
this way. More importantly, it would increase awareness of when one has
unconscious racism or bias towards a race and allow an individual to gain
further understanding to why that may be.
The
article also identified that how our definitions and perception of racism is
shaped by our culture and socio-economic structure within society. It made me
wonder how Minnesota, or even more general, the Midwest states perceives racism
and where we fall on the continumn. Equally as relevant, is the idea that the
issue of racism that was intertwined in legal segregation around 50 years ago.
Because of this, it is not too much of a surprise that people may still have
implicit bias towards blacks, especially in the elderly population. Overall, I
found it unfortunate but necessary to read how the white privilege is still
present in society and how silent racism continues to negatively affect the
black population.
--Gretchen
Hi Gretchen!
ReplyDeleteI think white privilege is such an important topic to address. Although we may not always realize it, it is definitely something that continues to be prevalent in today's society. I do agree that it is a sensitive issue. Tim Wise mentioned on Monday that many are afraid of talking about race for the fear of earning a racist connotation. However, many state that it is the fact that they don’t speak out on the issue that makes them seem most racist.
I also agree that the most difficult piece of the readings was reading on the silent racism piece. Often, I think we all have moments where we don’t realize we are making assumptions. I think if we begin to understand this concept, we will be one giant step closer to hopefully talking about the problem of racism. I also wonder where Minnesota falls. Wise also told a story of the “Minnesota Nice” concept in the 90s. He stated that he has encountered many Midwestern individuals who believe racism isn’t a problem in the Midwest because of this concept. Of course, this is quite the opposite. We attempt to ignore these biases through passive-aggressiveness, yet they still exist. Also because of this mentality we are unwilling to address the topic itself. As stated above, Wise believes this is an act that is harmful.
White privilege is an aspect of racism that I did not previously think about when addressing the problem of racism. In my opinion, address these beliefs of the “dominant group” is of the outmost importance, and can give further insight into how we can begin to solve the problem.
-Kelly Butorac