privilege – Contemporary Racism

The Eye Exam We Fail: Colorblindness

Sofia S — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:10:32 +0000

What is it about colorblindness that makes it feel so natural in our perception of others? I believe it is the normalization of online sources that shapes it to be the standard for how we view race to perpetuate colorblindness. In this way, choosing to be colorblind acts as an ‘eye prescription’; that frame of mind is normalized and idolized by society, which leads us to forget why race is important to discuss and recognize. ...

In the Face of Fear

Danielleh — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:18:23 +0000

Fear is an emotion that affects how we as humans shape our lives, influencing decisions, and interactions that we have. While it is a tricky emotion, it has the ultimate power of not only negatively affecting but can give someone the push that they need. That being said, I want to explore how fear relates to racism and how people have race talks. In Dr. Sue’s chapter, “The Characteristics and Dynamics of Race Talk,” there ...

Let’s Switch the Code

Maridie Niare — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:29:36 +0000

In a nation where the air we breathe is polluted with the ideologies of Whiteness, People of Color are faced with two options: choke on the smog or put on a mask. While it would be ideal for one not to choke on smog, there’s two reasons why a POC wouldn’t wear it. One would be that no matter how hard they try, they just cannot find a mask that’s capable of blocking out this ...

Cultural Appropriation: “It’s Just………”

Tajarie Wright — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:58:24 +0000

Culture is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the “customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” Culture does not belong to just one person, it belongs to a group of people. I guess because culture is shared there is some confusion as to who gets to do what. There is a very thin line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation which creates a lot of issues. I once ...

White Kids: Let’s be Antiracist

Maya Illovsky — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:23:06 +0000

White parents, you all really need to step up… If we want to better our society in opposition to issues of racial injustice and inequality, we must begin at a young age. As White parents, you must really talk to your children before these ingrained, societal beliefs corrupt their brains in believing they have privilege due to the color of their skin. White children need to speak out, become educated, and appreciative of other races, ...

Paradox of White Fragility and Institutional Power

Dani Barrett — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:22:43 +0000

‘Race talk,’ as Daryl Wing Sue describes it, by itself violates many of the standards and norms that society fights to uphold. Race talk invites emotions into the space and it invites topics deemed too impolite for small talk into a conversation. As a result, race talk is consistently pushed into designated spaces. Aside from society, a key influence on the success of race talk is the awareness of power and privilege that those in ...

Stop Normalizing Color-blind Ideologies

Brittany Hurlock — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 15:04:01 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about the ideas of prejudice and the denial of racism that were presented in the article ?Beyond Prejudice: Toward a Sociocultural Psychology of Racism and Oppression by Glenn Adams, Monica Biernat, Nyla R. Branscombe, and others?. W?ithin this article, they suggested models that account for the denial of racism, which they identified as being the “restriction of the range of phenomena to which the concepts of racism and oppression ...

So What About Your Babies: A Conversation About “Good Genes”

Silvia Mejia-Armilla — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 15:39:45 +0000

Starting with around the age of 10, I recall family members asking me what type of men I liked. Hispanic? White? Often these were the only two options presented to me, later followed by “you shouldn’t date black men, you have to better the race”. Thinking back on it now, my options were so limited so early on, it was engrained in me that marrying someone of a darker skin tone than my own would ...

Sisterhood’s Lasting Impacts

Emma Schwartz — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:02:37 +0000

One of the clearest impressions I have of Greek Life is the movie Sydney White, where every member of the sorority portrayed in the movie is thin, white, and blonde, except for Sydney White, who is, *gasp*, a brunette. And that impression has not been disproven. When I entered Greek Life at Muhlenberg, there were no black women who had joined or were already members in my chapter. There was one Latina woman, who graduated, ...

White “Suffering”

Isabel Kaufman — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 14:54:48 +0000

The Dangerous Belief that White People are Under Attack (2017), by Dr. Clara Wilkins, reminds me of a conversation that I had with my extended family a few years ago. My aunt, (and old, white, wealthy, surprisingly liberal woman) was talking about how her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania was using affirmative action when looking at applications. My aunt was expressing her frustration about how white students are now being “discriminated against” because students ...

The White Center

Alex Helpin — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 19:03:37 +0000

Nearly everything in the United States is centered around white people and being white. White people being at the center means that white norms are most commonly accepted while other norms such as African American norms are frowned upon. Everything is measured against whiteness because it is at the very center of racism and American society as a whole. White people have established that being white is good while being black is not, both consciously ...

Time’s Up White People

Amanda Josephs — Sun, 12 May 2019 18:24:38 +0000

For too long have white people ignored the discussion of race and actively avoided responsibility to end racism. No, not all white people, but the undeniable majority have clearly taken this path as it is 2019 and America’s culture is still overtly racist, and our systems remain institutionally racist. While I do believe we live in a morally unjust world, I personally think the majority of white people do not intend to be so hateful ...

Being a Black Academic in America

breebooth — Mon, 06 May 2019 15:48:42 +0000

What does it mean to be hypervisible and hyper-invisible at the same time? A recent article in The Chronicle Review details the lives and narratives of several black academics and scholars in America. The article and the outpouring of stories comes after a scandal was revealed involving rich white people bribing many people to get their children accepted into rich white institutions in the country. In an attempt to make space for the voices usually ...

Talking About Race: Performativity

Tovia Marinstein — Wed, 09 May 2018 12:55:05 +0000

Norms prove to be incredibly strong motivating factors in dictating social interaction. Following norms is like following the rules, they give people a feeling that they’re acting acceptably. This lends especially helpful when one finds themselves in an ambiguous situation where they’re unsure of how to act. In white American culture three ground rules provide guidelines for normative social behavior. These three ground rules are the politeness protocol, the academic protocol, and the colorblind protocol ...

Lens of Awareness: Racism Outside of the Classroom

Kyle Watkins — Tue, 01 May 2018 11:31:10 +0000

Something that comes with education, of any kind, is the tendency to find ways to apply it and allow it to inform the way we now view the world. These new understandings and connections are the drive that makes us eternal students. What is complex, especially in the vital and often difficult path of education that unpacks and explains the functions of racism and oppression in a White Supremacist system, is allowing this to begin ...

Race, Terror and Mass Shootings

Sarah Prince — Tue, 01 May 2018 11:24:47 +0000

White males do the majority of mass shootings, yet people tend to associate violence and crime with people of color and minority groups. When the Stoneman Douglass school shooting happened it was rare to see media outlets talk about the shooters history of violence against minorities and it took days to find out that the shooter was apart of a white supremacist group. If this were a person of color someone associated with the Muslim ...

Silence is a Luxury

Morgan Weiss — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:56:49 +0000

The idea of white privilege is a very controversial topic for many, primarily because many white individuals do not acknowledge their race and its meaning, are not aware of the advantages and benefits they receive because of their race, and do not see how their whiteness affects their perception of society. However, white privilege and society have a large intersection because, “when it comes to privilege, it doesn’t matter who we really are. What matters ...

“Ethnic” as “Other”

Julia Beatley — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:09:16 +0000

There’s always a hair section at the supermarket: a section for hair — regular hair, normal hair, perhaps you would call it white women’s hair — and then a section dubbed “ethnic” for the other hair; it’s for the misunderstood hair, the hair that the simple “hair” section cannot provide shelf space for. The “ethnic” section is for black women’s hair. It is separate due to its other-ship. “Hair” and “Ethnic Hair” have been segregated, ...

Getting Away With It

Sarah Prince — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:00:40 +0000

I have scrolled through my Facebook and found far too many videos’ that capture police brutality. There are very few times I have been able to go on my Facebook feed without coming across a video that captures racism in violent acts. After which I would leave and log off of my social media. Not only has there been an increase in media coverage of these events but there has been an increase in occurrence ...

The Blurred Line Between Old-Fashioned and Modern Racism

Jenna Lehmann — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:53:04 +0000

When we were first learning about the differences between old-fashioned, modern, and aversive racism, the definitions made sense to me. I saw that there were differences between the three, each different speeds at which we move down the moving sidewalk of privilege. But now I’m a little less certain about the differences between old-fashioned and modern racism. I agree that in practice they’re different, but I’m less sure that within the person harboring these prejudices, ...

They Say History Repeats Itself….

VictoriaJean — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:48:40 +0000

It seems hard not to write a blog post reflecting on the events of this week. Donald Trump is officially our president elect, and there’s so much that could be said about it that I don’t even know where to begin. On Tuesday night, I refused to watch the live coverage with my roommates because for some reason I just had a horrible gut feeling about the results. I went to bed early, scared of ...

Stark Realizations

Michael Silverstein — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:41:37 +0000

With the presidential election coming up on Tuesday, the next four years of policy are being decided. Looking back at the campaigns leading up to this point, the rhetoric surrounding race has been interesting. Much of the things said about race have been problematic, but prior to this semester I would not have understood why. This semester of classes, with contemporary racism and multicultural psychology has been very eye-opening for me. Coming from a predominately ...

Whiteness as Social Capital

Cassandra Baker — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:12:41 +0000

Recently I was listening to an episode of the podcast About Race, a podcast where 3 hosts discuss current race issues in an open way. One of the hosts mentioned that black assimilation to white culture as a solution to race disparity is problematic. They looked at a specific study that showed that black people who moved to white middle-class neighborhoods before they were twelve had a “compound interest of awesomeness” where they were more ...

Rich, Black Folk

Sofia Montgomery — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 15:37:30 +0000

340 acres of freshly cut grass. 10,000 square foot mansion. Prep schools and carpool. Luxury cars on every street. Are you thinking the people that live in this community are rich? Do you think they’re white? So do I. However, rich, black people do exist and are even are part of the 1%. But, it’s a very lonely few. In 2013, to be considered part of the 1%, it requires a household net worth of ...

“To Be White is to Be Racist”

mtroyka — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 14:30:31 +0000

The amount of white people who are too engulfed in their white privilege to see the prevalence of racism is frightening. Whether that racism is on a blatant, subtle, individualized or institutionalized level, it’s there, and people need to start realizing it so that we can work towards decreasing it. Just the other day I opened up Facebook to see that someone had posted a news article about a high school teacher in Norman, Oklahoma ...

Phenotypes & Stereotypes

Jenna Lehmann — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 20:38:19 +0000

I drive three hours almost every weekend to go home to my family, and lately I’ve been listening to podcasts to help pass the time, namely RadioLab. I came across an episode from season five simply titled “Race.” There are a lot of interesting stories featured under this topic, but one in particular has kept me thinking long after listening to it. There has been this trend circling around the internet where people reveal the ...

The First Encounter (of Many)

Sofia Montgomery — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 01:14:33 +0000

You never think it will happen to you, until it does. I am biracial. I was raised more so with my Greek heritage than anything else, but the pigment in my skin lets others know that I am different. I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, school, and most of my friends were white. There were micro-aggressions that I faced along the way (i.e., getting made fun of from elementary through high school for ...

The Whitesplaining Epidemic

taylor_helena — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 17:28:24 +0000

To all of the people who identify as women out there, have you ever had the experience where you are talking to a man and during the course of the conversation he feels the need to explain something to you, oftentimes in a patronizing or condescending way? This is called mansplaining and it is a phenomenon that women face even if they have extensive knowledge on the given topic. For issues of race, there is ...

The White Man as The ‘Boogie Man’

Jessica Sperber — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 20:34:16 +0000

In the classroom, when we talk about who benefits from systems of power & privilege, the answer is usually White, straight, cis males. As I continue to have conversations about race with my White friends (males especially), this response is usually one not received well. I’m often met with anger and frustration – an emotional response to what has been described to me as feeling ‘attacked.’ As one male friend put it, “blaming everything on ...

Placing Chris Rock in Conversation with Beverly Daniels Tatum

Ashley Kemper — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 20:38:28 +0000

It seems as though anytime there is a widely-publicized instance of police brutality in the United States, my Facebook timeline is flooded with the same grainy YouTube clip entitled “How to Not Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police.” In the faux public service announcement filmed in 1998, comedian Chris Rock provides black viewers with a comical step-by-step guide to follow in order to avoid getting into trouble with the law. The skit is ...

Can a White Person be a Good Ally?

jsykgrl — Thu, 12 May 2016 12:55:59 +0000

After stumbling upon Macklemore’s “White Privilege II,” I was excited to hear what he had to say. It felt like a direct application of the concepts that we had been learning in Contemporary Racism. The song directly references protest slogans from the Black Lives Matter Movement, police brutality, the double standard of hip-hop, and (of course) white privilege. He goes as far as to call himself out for the base of his fame from—and the ...

The Complications of Hard Work and Privilege

Jennieleeb649 — Thu, 12 May 2016 12:50:43 +0000

Something that has been on my mind recently is the idea of the myth of meritocracy. The myth of meritocracy is the popular American notion that if you work hard you will succeed. This myth, however, does not take into account the fact that it is easier for some people to succeed over others because of privileges they have in terms of their social identities. I struggled making sense of this concept at first for ...

Why Excluding Whites from Black Liberation Movements is Counterproductive

Jennie Colabatistto — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:09:04 +0000

Recently, I came across an article on Facebook posted by a fellow like-minded student, which surprised and intrigued me. The article was entitled “White People Have No Place in Black Liberation” and was from RaceBaitr.com, written by Kevin Rigby Jr. and Hari Ziyad. The basic premise of the article was that white people should not be allowed to participate in black liberation movements. Rigby and Ziyad argue that because whiteness is historically and contextually seen ...

Overcompensation Doesn’t Improve Relation(s)

lauerbach — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 01:47:20 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot lately in class about the tendency that white people have to overcompensate for the racist acts of other white people. For example, when a white person hears a story about another white person acting in a racist way or making a racist comment, they often react by making a dramatic claim in order to make it clear that in NO way do they associate with the racist belief system of another white person. In the ...

Ferguson…

Connie — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:58:59 +0000

See our Facebook page for many links to information and commentary. Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Contemporary-Racism/197505590293825 The links include this one: The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Thoughts on Color-Consciousness

Chris Chaky — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:42:26 +0000

Originally published March 17, 2014 The recent literature in social psychology and other disciplines is clear: colorblind racial ideology is a harmful way of viewing the world. By ignoring both the material disadvantages faced by people of color and the implicit racial biases that influence decision-making, subscribing to colorblind racial ideology leads people to ignore the realities of racism in modern America and thus oppose policies that would address racial inequalities. In a recent class, ...

Spending privilege

Corin — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 01:49:58 +0000

Recently I was on imgfav and saw a picture that was asking why doing something like calling a white person worthless is mean, but saying it to a black person is racism. I think people forget that racism is about power. It is about a majority oppressing a minority. It’s hard to remember sometimes because it’s easier to see oppression than privilege. This is why people who try to fight racism often end up in ...

I’m not racist but…

Corin — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:19:54 +0000

http://thoughtcatalog.com/anonymous/2014/01/im-not-racist-im-just-not-attracted-to-black-men/ This a link to an article written by a white gay man explaining why on his Grindr profile he has selected the options “white whites only”. In this article he uses a lot of color blind rhetoric. He talks about how he has black gay friends as proof that he isn’t racist. The article goes on to talk about how he hears his black and Latino friends talk about how the even in the gay ...

Thinking about my white privilege

brianna — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:35:42 +0000

This week’s class discussions were based mainly on the concept of white privilege. Although I understood the idea of white privilege before, the ways that we talked about it in class really opened my eyes to a lot of things I’ve never noticed. Every day, I benefit from white privilege in a number of ways. For example, I walk into each of my classes and am surrounded by people who not only look like me, ...

Annie is Black!

AmandaRG — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 20:27:44 +0000

I just heard that Annie is being remade and was very excited to watch the new trailer. Although I think Annie is not the best or most interesting musical, it has a happy ending and the songs are easy to sing along to. However, I was even more excited to see that Quvenzhané Wallis is playing the part of Annie! She is an extraordinarily talented actress, especially at such a young age. After a quick search ...

If we look for it.

Corin — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 02:00:29 +0000

Recently I came across a Humans of New York post about an elderly black man who talked about how far the issue of racism has come and how proud he is at the change. I tended to think that the older generation were the ones who still saw racism in places where the younger generation might look for another reason. Which has brought me back to the question which generation see racism most prominently? Is ...

Racism in the Opposition of Affordable Housing

brianna — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:06:39 +0000

This week, a friend approached me with a news article from her hometown that she knew I’d be interested in. Upon reading it, I found that the ties to our class material could not be ignored. Chappaqua, New York is a wealthy town in Westchester county. Its citizens include former president Bill Clinton, along with many others who have large yearly incomes. The town, however, like most of Westchester county, is predominantly white. The lack ...

Cultural Appropriation or Racism

Tatianap — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 18:31:24 +0000

While on another blog (tumblr.com) I read a post by blogger whitepeoplesaidwhat that really interested me. It reads as follows: “My culture brings all the Whites to the yard. And they’re like, “I’m taking what’s yours, Damn right, it’s mine and not yours! Want it back now? K fine but we’ll have to charge” There are many things I like about it. I like that it is blatantly saying that White people have knowingly taken ...

Jordan Davis and Michael Dunn

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 03:33:58 +0000

For our contemporary racism class, we read an essay by social psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt. The essay summarized her and her colleagues’ work on the cognitive associations we make about Black people and crime. For me, the findings were like a knife in the gut: we have unconscious prejudices that we often aren’t aware of, that can have dire consequences. In one study, participants were either unconsciously primed to think about crime or received no ...

Social Power and Stand Your Ground

brianna — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 18:08:52 +0000

After discussing the Trayvon Martin tragedy in class this week, I felt very emotional and downright angry at how the case developed and was handled. How is it possible that George Zimmerman was able to kill an unarmed teenager and walk away a free man? While I do feel that many factors led to a jury finding Zimmerman not guilty, one detail of the case has stood out to me – the Stand Your Ground ...

The Majority vs. Minority vs. Other Minority Race (pun intended)

AmandaRG — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 02:24:45 +0000

A friend shared another blog with me recently, called Black Girl Dangerous, that I believe has a lot of posts and discussions related to this class. One post (the link is at the bottom) called “Broke on Broke Crime: On Black and Brown Living and Unity,” written by Kitzia Esteva-Martinez, discusses her personal experience being mugged at gun-point by three young boys in her neighborhood. Kitzia identifies as Latina and identified the three boys as Black in ...

“History vs Reality”

brianna — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 19:58:53 +0000

This week, a friend showed me a video she thought I would be interested in. Last summer, she worked at a camp called Literacy Through the Arts in inner-city Cleveland. On the last day of camp, each camper recited a poem they had written throughout the course of the summer. One boy, sixteen year-old Romell, presented a piece of slam poetry that related many important messages about the history and modern reality of racism. Romell ...

Unfair Campaign

Connie — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:10:00 +0000

http://unfaircampaign.org/

Can we talk race and healthcare?

Simone — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:36:03 +0000

As we have discussed in other class sessions and reading, racism often occurs unintentionally potentiated by unconscious prejudice and stereotypes. To the extent that many people are unaware of their biases, there is little motivation for change. As a healthcare provider, I have worked in predominately white owned practices privately and publicly and have found that not only do minorities and others marginalized groups receive among other treatments, substandard medical and nursing care, but that ...

You’ll Grow Out of It

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:10:49 +0000

I was really going to try to make an effort not to write negatively (or “hate on” as this originally read) my parents for the rest of the semester. I have already hit my father pretty hard in my journal, and, honestly, my parents are getting me through one of the toughest transitions of my life. My parents are the best parents a person could ask for, so hope this does not come off as ...

The World as a Mob

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:02:18 +0000

So, as many of you may know, I am part of an all male music group here on campus. My involvement in this group has been a source of laughter, an immense amount of fun, and, of late, a really interesting focus group of people to think about from a social justice standpoint. The group, when it comes down to it, are really a social experiment in a pietri dish. This experiment is one that ...

Microaggressions and Being Assertive

kw237335 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:52:39 +0000

As I was reading the blog posts regarding microaggressions, my mind quickly jumped to my Interpersonal Communications class and the book that we just read on being assertive. When learning about assertiveness, we learned that it is important in being assertive to stand up for yourself and say something to someone when they give you a certain look, or a microaggression. The book on assertiveness says that if someone gives you a look that you ...

Trayvon Martin

Simone — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:15:34 +0000

Though overt racism is no longer condoned in American society, it has been demonstrated that implicit or unconscious racism is still at work today. Whether known to the individual or not, racist beliefs and attitudes could greatly affect one’s behavior toward a member of another race. The case of Trayvon Martin screams explicit racism with a capital “E” letting me know that explicit/overt racism is alive and well in American society. A young black man ...

Making Excuses

Alexis — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:00:37 +0000

In the film The Blind Side while the “white” women were eating “$18 salads” at a restaurant, Sandra Bullock’s character asks if any of the other ladies had ever been to the “other side” of town after some teasing remarks, the one woman stated; “I’m from there, but with a little hard work and now look at me”. For me this resonated with the frameworks we discussed in class on Wednesday and how if “they” ...

Stereotype Threat

kw237335 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:53:45 +0000

As I was reading the article by Kang and Banaji (2006) I began to really think about stereotype threat, stereotype lift and stereotype boost. I find it very interesting that many social categories perform according to the stereotype that has been placed upon them in many situations. If a woman takes a mathematics test in a group of people with men and women and she knows that her math intelligence is being tested, she will ...

If He Wasn’t Wearing a Hoodie…

Michela — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:40:53 +0000

In light of the delayed Trayvon Martin coverage this week, Fox News caster Geraldo Rivera excused the actions of Zimmerman because of the hoodie Martin was wearing. Not only was Rivera blaming the victim, but he used a cultural frame to dismiss this grave injustice. It wasn’t just Rivera that has expressed this sentiment; this week when I was expressing my frustration and anger about the case, a friend of mine said, “I understand that ...

The Dangers of Hairspray

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:57:11 +0000

So, as some of you may or may not know, I tend to dabble in the world of theatre here at Muhlenberg College. My dabbling in this world has led me to a lot of wonderful friends, valuable learning experiences, and, really, just a lot of great times. Of late, however, it has provided me with an interesting window into the world of contemporary racism. Let’s start with an honest fact: the world of theatre ...

The Privilege Wheel

ccaraway — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 03:02:13 +0000

For Wednesday’s class, we spent a good amount of time discussing the myth of the social identity, and the privilege wheel exercise raised some questions for me. For one, do certain aspects of one’s social identity have more power over the other? How much importance is placed on these aspects? I personally believe that social identities are situational. To say that social identities are situational, I mean to say that when we are met with ...

Resisting White Privilege

kw237335 — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 01:43:32 +0000

In class the other day, Connie asked us what we could do in order to resist the privilege that we are given simply because we are white. After she asked the question, I tried to really think about how any white person could resist their privilege. It’s a really hard question to answer because there really isn’t a way that as individuals we can completely give up the privilege that we have been given. The ...

What do whites do with their white privilege?

Michela — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:36:33 +0000

When Connie posed the question: What do you do with your white privilege? I thought about this question while reading Rothenberg’s White Privilege (2008); Rothenberg states the first steps after understanding how white privilege manifests is to “take the first steps to dismantle it on both a personal and institutional level.” While she emphasizes that all individuals experience white privilege differently by vocalizing these unique experiences with one another, we can gain a more comprehensive ...

Patrotism or Racism?

Alexis — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:18:45 +0000

If there was ever a time in which a headline encompassed the entire meaning of contemporary racism, this past weekend was it. In Texas, two teams played a basketball game; Alamo Heights and their rival, Edison High School. After Alamo won and was presented with a trophy some student spectators began to chant, “USA! USA! USA!”. Why you ask? Alamo Heights High School is predominantly white and Edison High School is predominantly Hispanic. I first ...

A Better Understanding

AbbeyRab — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:17:35 +0000

This week in class we were challenged with the task of educating a “typical white male” on how racism is still prevalent today. I was surprised by how difficult this task was, and especially surprised by how blank my mind was when trying to think of what to say. It started making me nervous about my role in society after this class, and how I’m supposed to spread my knowledge to others who embody the ...

Modern vs. Old Fashion Racism

Simone — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:26:18 +0000

Recently in class, we have been talking about racism and the fact that racism is now more subtle whereas in years gone by, racism was more overt. For 9 years now, I have tried earnestly to understand why, as an adult professional, I experienced so many adversities working with whites and other non-black professionals in the workplace. I have attended management classes, became very introspective to seek to understand myself and my management style etc. ...

“We Are Not to Blame” … Or Are We?

kw237335 — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:58:57 +0000

Lipsitz (2008) discusses the thoughts that a sixteen-year old high school student expressed to a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. She said, as I’m sure many other white men and women have, that she could did not believe that white people owe black people anything. She claims that because our ancestors were the ones that were responsible for slavery that we should not have to pay the price for what they did. As I ...

Social Consequences of Breaking the Silence

nashkrod — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:18:32 +0000

Tatum (2008) argues that there isn’t enough talk about racism in the United States. White people in the United States don’t have to talk about race, but for people of color it is sometimes impossible to escape the dialogues on race. When speaking about racism in the United States, I think it is important to remember to or for whom you are speaking. The to or for whom is often laced with racial undertones and ...

What’s wrong with this picture?

Alex — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:00:17 +0000

Can’t escape the discourse surrounding racism: Spring break at Mardi Gras

Alex — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:49:55 +0000

For spring break this year I ventured down to New Orleans to visit friends and partake in crazy Mardi Gras festivities. I had not known a lot about the traditions or the meaning of Mardi Gras and carnival time before I arrived, but from the moment my plane landed I started to learn a lot. After speaking to my friend throughout the week and experiencing many aspects of Mardi Gras, I can surely say that ...

The Daily Show’s Racism Satire Presents Racism Truth

Alex — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:44:48 +0000

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-24-2011/bird-like-me The link included in this post is an excerpt from The Daily Show. I don’t watch the show on a regular basis, but I find that I agree with a lot of the ideas and opinions that John Stewart and the other people involved in the show try to convey to their audiences. I stumbled upon this video, which is a satirical representation of an actual community in Mississippi called “Turkey Creek.” Turkey Creek ...

Reflection of Obama’s 03/18/2008 Speech

Tennille — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:52:38 +0000

In our last class, we went over a speech President Obama had made in 2008. One of the things he said really stuck out to me. “ For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding out particular grievances – for better health ...

Whites are Racist

KristinK — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:39:44 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about the Tatum article and how only white people can be racist. I had never previously thought about racism as being separate from prejudice, but separating the two has made me understand my own feelings on these issues better. I hate that there is racism in the world but defining it as only something whites can have towards another group actually made me feel better. With this definition (or ...

Crack Cocaine Sentencing

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:45:26 +0000

A group of students last year did their final project on the sentencing rules regarding crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Essentially the rule said that, to get the same prison terms, powder cocaine offenders (who are typically White and sometimes affluent) needed to have 100 times more cocaine in their possession than crack offenders (who are typically Black). Here is a news story from the L.A. Times about changes to that 100 to 1 rule. ...

The Importance of Talking About Racism

Alexa — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:41:13 +0000

After reading Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech and discussing it in class, there are two ideas presented in this speech that have been on my mind. First, Dr. King expressed that it is the social scientist’s responsibility to spread information to the misinformed whites of America. The second idea was a particular quote that Dr. King recited in his speech that really stood out to me. He quoted Victor Hugo saying, “If a soul is ...

What Just Happened?

Liz — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 12:55:09 +0000

We did this experiment in class last week where we split the class into two groups. Both groups were told to make a collage of positive images of Black men and women from magazine clippings we were given. The only difference was that one group was given exceptional tools (big scissors, tape, large paper, and magazine clippings from Essence ect.) and the other team was given poor tools (little scissors, little tape, small paper, and ...

Combining forces: Cognition and Social Construction

Alex — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:55:10 +0000

We have been addressing the many ways in which “racism is in the air,” as pointed out in one of our readings, “Beyond prejudice: Toward a Sociocultural Psychology and Oppression,” by Adams et al. I am interested in this conception of racism because it touches on a number of ways in which racism exists as a visible and invisible manifestation. Adams et al. discuss how racism is located “outside the architecture of the brain, in ...

Survival of the Fittest

Tennille — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:38:01 +0000

Acts of omission and collective ignorance creates the socio-cultural atmosphere in which racism thrives. In class, we discussed that “the system” is something that does not just happen out of nowhere. Reality isn’t just there; it is socially constructed. If the system is built, then in theory it should be able to be destroyed and rebuilt; however, I feel that the unity and cooperation amongst individuals that is required for such a transformation is nearly ...

Is Your Baby Racist? Newsweek Article

Liz — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:20:13 +0000

After reading Beverly Tatum’s Article, Defining Racism, I remembered a article posted in Newsweek that reminded me of what Tatum is trying to address. Tatum suggests a very bold statement, that every white person is a racist. At first when I heard this it was hard to swallow and think to myself, a white female, that I am in fact a racist. But after looking at Tatum’s definition I realized that indeed I am a ...