After reading the Devine article I became increasingly curious with the idea of how inevitable prejudice and racial stereotyping really is in today’s society. In Devine’s article she states “Inhibiting stereotype-congruent or prejudice-like responses and intentionally replacing them with nonprejudiced responses can be likened to be the breaking of a bad habit” (Devine, P.G. 1989). There are many people who are under the notion that we live in post racial society; but as we have talked about in class there are still cases like those of Travon Martin and Jordan Davis that show us that racial issues and prejudice are still very much alive.
In looking for article further regarding the topic I came across an interesting blog posted called “21 things you can’t do while black” It is a list of cases from the last five years that show the things black people can not do without other people thinking they are up to no good. Such simple things as waiting for a school bus standing on a sidewalk or paying money for an item and leaving the store with it. Or even showing up at our own job, can be a reason to be arrested or killed if you are black. Cases like this leave me frustrated when people say things such as “well we have a black president”, yes but he’s the right type of black and even then some states threatened to secede from the union once he was elected. Or they state “well I don’t see color”, everyone sees color, color is the reason black people can’t inspect their own properties
For me this article was more than enough to know that the “bad habit” america has of ostracizing minorities will not be kicked anytime soon. Still it leaves me wondering, what is it about the black persona that is so threatening to others, enough for them to kill and detain, taking away their human rights.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/02/21-things-you-cant-do-while-black