racial discourse

observations or questions on how/why to talk about race and racism with others

Stop pretending we’re all the same

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Watching a roleplay with my classmates, I couldn’t help but notice my peers’ difficulty in describing the interaction occurring on screen. The roleplay was a business scene, wherein an employee and HR representative were discussing the employee’s career advancement opportunities. We were given a very brief introduction to the scenario, and nobody seemed sure what was happening in the beginning, so when we were asked for analysis of the interaction students struggled to identify who was saying what, in part …

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Why is it all black and white?

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Have you ever heard the sayings “black as night”, “pitch black”, “black out”, “black magic”, etc..? What do these all have in common? At first glance you can see that they all have the word black in them. However, if you look at the phrase as a whole, it is clear the word Black is used to depict darkness, whether that be literally or figuratively. Dark is the opposite of light, usually representing good. Let that sink in for a …

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Race Talk: Why is it Lacking?

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Our education system and schooling curriculum lacks transparent information regarding the country’s racial history and lacks the general knowledge of how to have race talk. Some teachers, who should be educating and pushing the barrier, still frequently ignore race talk or are visibly uncomfortable when racism is discussed. These classroom dynamics are crucial, and teachers and educators set the tone. Teachers need to be able to preach inclusivity, create a positive and productive classroom dynamic, and have or create a …

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Language of Color

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After centuries of racial pejoratives and terms focusing on the absence of whiteness, the commonly standard term describe those whose ethnicities can be described as something other than white is “person(s) of color.” This is leaps and bounds better than more archaic terms which were used, with “colored” being similar linguistically but becoming pejorative socially and “negro” being a word borrowed from a language other than English, thereby further emphasizing the “otherness” of people of color. It is indisputable that …

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A Conversation With a Cop

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I recently met a police officer two years older than me. I started talking to him and having friendly conversation before learning that he was a cop. Naturally, upon finding out about his career, I asked him his thoughts on the current Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality. His response was “Yea, it’s a shame that it was a few bad cops. I work with hispanic people and stuff. I’m definitely not racist.” This is where we can look …

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Paradox of White Fragility and Institutional Power

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‘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 the space holds…specifically I would …

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“But that’s not racism!”

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The word “racism” evokes strong emotions in people, and for many, it’s just about the worst thing one can be called. As language evolves and words take on new meaning, the gravity of the word “racism” hinders people’s willingness to accept new meanings and uses for the word. The term “systemic racism” faces this problem, as there are those who, before understanding its meaning, assume that it is an indictment of the United States and believe that it implies an …

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