racial discourse – Contemporary Racism

Society Has Ignored Offensive Language and Slurs

Brandon Rosenblatt — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:09:04 +0000

Something that has left me frustrated lately is how society is still using the G-word, a slur that is racist toward Roma and Sinti people, both of whom are different ethnic groups within the larger Romani people who share similar roots. I learned in my genocide class at high school that this word was offensive and when people mention that Roma and Sinti people were victims of the Holocaust in addition to Jewish people and ...

The Truth Has Yet To Be Taught

Brandon Rosenblatt — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:40:33 +0000

Ever wonder about when you were taught about slavery in your history class in high school or middle school? Well, what if the curriculum was flawed? The answer is yes, that history about slavery is not being taught accurately in classes. When I was in elementary school and middle school, we discussed the founding fathers such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. We learned about how these men were inspirational and admirable leaders, ...

Sharing Your Political Opinion Online

Mari — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 20:44:50 +0000

In recent times, sharing an opinion online can feel a little scary. It’s not like having a casual chat with a friend, where words fade once the conversation ends. On the internet, what you post can stick around forever. There’s no real “rough draft” online once you hit publish, that draft becomes permanent. This has reshaped the way people express themselves. Many hold back, worried about being misunderstood or judged years down the line. Others ...

You People

Milanis Rivas — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 22:21:25 +0000

Ezra: What are you saying? Mo: Black people and white people will never be cool, period. Ezra: What the f* are you talking about? Mo: The truth dog. Ezra: You’re my best friend and business partner. Mo: Yea, that’s how powerful this sh*t is bro. It’s kind of like when you cheat on a woman right? When you cheat on a woman you try and move forward but you never can. Why? ‘cause she just ...

Bad Education

C6 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:37:47 +0000

What makes a class good? That thought crossed my head frequently this semester. And it often happened under recurring circumstances, as I would walk out of a class that was quite frustrating to get through. Fifteen minutes after this class ended, one of my most thought provoking and important classes began, Contemporary Racism. The dichotomy of these two classes really got me in a comparative headspace, also due to the fact that both classes attempted ...

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 ...

Driving through Albany and Troy, NY

Albert — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 15:02:14 +0000

“Is there a lot of crime in this area?” This was a question that my family member asked while we were driving in the car through Troy and Albany, New York. When we were driving through these cities, I noticed that the buildings seemed to be more run-down and that there was a lot of poverty in the area; a direct effect of redlining. When my relative asked this question, I instantly thought back to ...

Maybe Ignorance isn’t so Blissful

saltnpepper — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 16:16:10 +0000

A month ago, I would have been so utterly offended if someone tried to claim that I am racist, but now I read numerous articles each week explaining why every white person feeds the racism in our society and cannot help but agree. In no way am I proud to contribute to systematic injustices (especially those targeted at individuals due to their racial identity), yet I will humbly admit that my own ignorance encourages segregation ...

Hey Google, Why Are You Biased?

Comack — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 14:54:16 +0000

When using the search engine of Google as your primary method of acquiring informational resources, you would hope that the generated sources would hold an abundance of factual and unbiased information. Good arguments are founded on premises that are in fact true, and the logic that follows that groundwork must be valid and sensible. Think back to the basic spelling tests and mathematical problems taught by your elementary school teachers. Did you ever doubt that ...

How Do We Confront Cognitive Dissonance When Engaging in Racial Dialogues?

Albert — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:39:18 +0000

The first critical step that one must take in engaging in antiracist practices is beginning the conversation. If you have already been a part of a few conversations, congratulations! You have gotten over the hurdle of being so barred by fear by dipping your toes into the emotionally daunting topic of RACISM. But your work is only just beginning, as the journey of being a truly engaged person in antiracism work requires constant introspection, reading, ...

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 ...

Describe Who?

Natstermac — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:16:27 +0000

If someone were to describe you, what are the first things they would say? How would someone describe me: a white, blonde, young woman. See, that wasn’t too hard to describe myself with the acknowledgement of my race. Now if I can use race to describe myself, then why is it so hard to acknowledge another person’s race when describing them? I ask this question with the knowledge that for most of my life, race ...

Let’s talk about racism! Sure…But when?

Chau Dinh — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:55:12 +0000

My first American history lesson started with the Crash Course series on YouTube in the summer of 2017, about two months before I came to the States. My “teacher” was a white woman from Texas whose name I failed to remember, who seemed nice and honestly was the spitting image of white Americans in media products I had consumed. She taught me everything from “checks and balances,” “electoral college,” and the Constitution to using “bathroom” ...

Is the Internet Racist?

Piper Schwenk — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 18:55:05 +0000

When I first read this title I would think: “Yes! people on the internet are racist”. Or it may make you think “yes, I saw news articles that favor implicit racism or white supremacy.” With the access to the internet available for most people in Western society, it is almost obvious that part of the internet shares racist and white supremacist ideologies. But I am questioning if search engines themselves are racist. The algorithms of ...

Hold Your Applause

screen_name — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 15:20:47 +0000

White people don’t deserve to be congratulated for doing the bare minimum. When a white person aims to be anti-racist the first thing they do is expect those of minority groups to hold their hand while they mess up. They are not your parent, your therapist, or your teacher. The checking-in glance to people of color when you want to make sure you said the right thing, the anxiety of not being “politically correct” is ...

Stop pretending we’re all the same

Zach_S — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:30:25 +0000

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 ...

Why is it all black and white?

Danielle Kraes — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:23:46 +0000

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 ...

Race Talk: Why is it Lacking?

Marissa Steiner — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:15:13 +0000

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, ...

Language of Color

Morgana Wallace — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:03:42 +0000

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 ...

A Conversation With a Cop

Madeleine Kemo — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:01:48 +0000

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 ...

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 ...

“But that’s not racism!”

Zach_S — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 15:13:46 +0000

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 ...

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 ...

You Can’t Ignore Your Whiteness

NicoleM — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:19:47 +0000

We have to discuss white fragility. Psychologist Robin DiAngelo defines white fragility as: “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.” Whiteness is something that we continue to allow people and especially white people to avoid and it must ...

Do Racists Literally Just Have to Die Off?

Sydney Crispano — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 17:03:57 +0000

I find myself always being the one asking the loaded questions about racism. I always want answers to the big questions and it’s something that doesn’t really have a straightforward answer. For so long, before I decided to educate myself, the questions I would ask would be about how to end racism. Because there was no clear cut answer, I just figured there was no way to end racism because there were too many racists ...

Shifting Mainstream Understanding of Individual Racism

Ivie Mims — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:50:07 +0000

As the academic semester comes to an end, in my contemporary racism class we have been discussing and connecting various concepts to develop our understanding of the role of modern racism and its consequences to marginalized identity groups in the United States. We discussed how, under the influence of mainstream media, we tend to focus on individuals who exhibit old-fashioned, overt acts of racism and the obvious, direct consequences to people of color. This leads ...

Psychology is for one, but not for all

NicoleM — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:41:15 +0000

Dr. Jonathan Lassiter, a professor at Muhlenberg College, expresses in one of his works “Whiteness in the Psychological Imagination” how the psychological narratives of people of color is left out of most studies, but particularly in psychological research. He addresses how whiteness is so ingrained in society that even when one is asked to imagine a “person”, a white person is what first appears in their mind. He explains how white is synonymous for person ...

What White People Don’t Get

Isabel Kaufman — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:45:08 +0000

This week I listened to a Politically Re-Active podcast entitled: Shaun King on Controversy, Color, and Kaepernick. Shaun King is a civil rights activist who mainly uses social media to discuss race relations. During the podcast, the hosts of the podcasts ask King about whether he thinks there is hope for improvement regarding police brutality in America. King tells them he is hopeful, but unfortunately racism in America is getting worse. King states how during ...

Trump’s Racist Tweets

Devin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:39:13 +0000

Sadly, my main source of news these past few weeks has been Twitter. If you’ve played around with Twitter, you know that it is intended to grab audience attention with short statements and hashtags. After scrolling through my own feed, I’ve just begun to browse hashtags that are “trending”, meaning lots of people are using them in their own posts. Today, I was struck by one hashtag in specific- “PABPOTUS”. At first glance, I was ...

Diversity Conversation(s)

hopp — Mon, 13 May 2019 16:36:32 +0000

Race is not talked about at Muhlenberg. One of the programs at Muhlenberg, and honestly the only program, that is mandatory for students to increase awareness about diversity is the Sedehi Diversity Project (a documentary theater project created by students, culminating in a performance for incoming First Years at orientation). I applaud all those involved in the emotional and extremely valuable play that is intended to promote not only race talks, but conversation about all ...

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 ...

Thriving or Surviving: A Discussion on Black Student Success in PWIs

Shaynie Hayward — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:23:44 +0000

Black students in predominantly white institutions are, often, discussed in literature as objects of struggle amongst their white counterparts. Their experiences are reduced to micro-aggressions, theories of assimilation, and conflict avoidance, just to name a few. While all of these elements play a role in the minority experience within a PWI, they should not be the only lenses through which black students’ narratives are analyzed. Many black students within predominantly white institutions are excelling on ...

President William Compares Blacks and Jews (Oy Vey)

Amanda Josephs — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 20:20:52 +0000

In 2015, racist posts were made targeting black students on several campuses, including ours, on the anonymous app Yik-Yak. The Huffington Post wrote an article shortly after asking 3 Presidents of private liberal arts colleges to speak about what they’ve learned from recent student activism around race. President John Williams was one of those three Presidents. President Williams represents the Muhlenberg campus in everything he does, something that inherently comes with the title of “President.” ...

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 ...

“Micro”aggression, Larger Problem

caroline_whiting — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 20:52:56 +0000

Microaggressions are defined as seemingly harmless, everyday comments or actions that send degrading messages to certain individuals because of their race or their group they identify with. All White people are guilty of microaggressions, and most of the time we (White people) don’t even know that we said them or perpetuated them, because that hasn’t been our experience. Well, it is time to acknowledge our mistakes no matter how small or insignificant they seem to ...

Advice for a White Ally

Benjamin Starr — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 19:52:31 +0000

It starts with you. If you want to be an agent for positive change, your actions must be self-motivated. You have to start with yourself. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ve incorporated biases that frame your perception of people of color. It’s difficult to come to terms with this, because no one wants to think they hold prejudices. But we all do. And we often exercise these prejudices without knowing. We make fundamental ...

Two Sides to Every Story, I Wish I Knew Yours

Morgan Weiss — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 18:38:52 +0000

Everyday we are surrounded and presented with racial tensions, whether we notice them or not. Black oppression dates back to the 1800’s, yet it is still more prevalent in 2018 than ever before. After reading a portion of Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, I have become more familiar with how history intersects with our present day racial divisions. Evidently, the life experiences of blacks and whites are very different, as well as the ...

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, ...

Holding the Smog-Breathers Accountable

Amanda Fogelman — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:24:25 +0000

My mom was born in South Africa, and when I was in the fifth grade, everybody asked why I was not black. I remember thinking how ignorant these kids were, and wondering why they thought everybody born in Africa was automatically a person of color. There were times where I felt bullied, and I was uncertain about my identity. Here I was being told that I should be black, when the color of my skin ...

Doing Race

Amanda Fogelman — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:16:17 +0000

Were you aware that you “do race” each and every day? Four years ago, I would have maintained a colorblind stance. Quite frankly, up until a couple months ago, I was colorblind. I believed noticing race meant I was racist and because this is the ultimate fear of White Americans, I chose to remain silent, and, in a sense, ignorant. Today, I confidently admit I was very mistaken. Noticing race is imperative. Looking back, I ...

“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 ...

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 ...

Racist Comments in the Public Eye and How We Deal with Them

mtroyka — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 18:13:39 +0000

There are moments when a comedian goes from funny to offensive, or an ordinary college student goes from innocent and ordinary to an ignorant offender of a racist action. These are pivotal moments, because the way the world and those involved choose to respond can make all the difference of how the racial discourse continues on. Melissa Villaseñor was recently announced as the first Latina cast member of Saturday Night Live, and will start her ...

Know Your Facts

a_note — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 17:59:17 +0000

Over the weekend, our campus emails were blasted with a message from campus safety regarding a gun, which turned out to be a BB gun disguised as a real gun near campus. My friends and I obviously all saw the email and started to discuss the matter. I sat and listened to what they all had to say, and of course when any weapon is found it is quite frightening as this is supposed to be ...

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 ...

Listen to Tupac. Really listen to Tupac.

Haleigh Jacob — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 20:52:10 +0000

Tuesday, September 13, 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Tupac Shakur. Tupac was a prominent hip-hop artist in the early 1990s well known for his deep, progressive lyrics in popular songs such as “Changes” and “Keep Ya Head Up.” However, he was more than just a rapper – he was a poet, a philosopher, and an activist. From a young age, he expressed incredible insight on contentious topics such as education, poverty, ...

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 ...

What’s A Patriot, Anyway?

Cassandra Baker — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 19:46:21 +0000

Growing up in Massachusetts this word, “patriot,” was thrown in my face a lot. We even have a holiday day celebrating patriots, complete with parades, reenactments, and no work or school. It wasn’t until I came to college when I asked a friend whether we got off school for Patriot’s Day that I realized, from her very confused expression, that this day is not a national holiday and many people have never even heard of ...

Identity, Awareness, and Change

Hannah — Thu, 12 May 2016 13:16:09 +0000

Last semester, I took an introduction to anthropology course because I thought it would be interesting to learn about other cultures and societies. This class taught me many valuable concepts, but one word that stuck out to me was the word, positionality. Positionality refers to how anthropologists define their background and how their identities influence their research. I found this quite interesting, because it made me examine who I am and where I fit in ...

Racism Recorded

Brendan — Thu, 12 May 2016 13:06:44 +0000

I had very little concern about recording our podcast for the class. I didn’t foresee any problems talking with my classmates about race. I usually feel pretty comfortable in class, so I didn’t see why the podcast would be any different. Then, the day came for us to record. We sat down in the little room, put the microphone out, hit record, and everything changed. Suddenly, I became hyperaware of the fact that I was ...

Talking About Race

Jennieleeb649 — Sun, 08 May 2016 17:34:57 +0000

Talking about racism is not an easy task. It’s taxing, and draining, and it can feel like an uphill battle. Though, once you recognize the injustices in the world and you learn the ways the smog of racism has infected us all, it’s difficult not to feel a pull to try to help people right the wrongs in their thinking. It’s hard not to try to make people understand they’re thinking untrue, biased things of groups ...

Protesting #101

Steven Feldman — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 18:14:55 +0000

On April 13th, Muhlenberg College participated in a nationwide day of action against racism and student debt by participating in the #MillionStudentMarch. This movement is a united demand for education as a human right. The movement seeks to gain 1) tuition-free public college, 2) cancellation of all student debt, 3) a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers, and 4) divestment from private prisons by all colleges and universities. Our Contemporary Racism class thought that ...

An Outside Perspective on the Million Student March

Jennieleeb649 — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 20:14:37 +0000

On Friday, Muhlenberg participated in the Million Student March. The Million Student March is an event held at colleges to demand tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt, a $15/hour minimum wage for all campus workers, and divestment from private prisons. As a class, we were informed of the protest and its goals, and then headed over to take part, as a sort of exercise in allyship. There, the student organizing the protest gave ...

The Limitations of Language

Anna Robinson — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:33:24 +0000

In Eduardo Bonilla Silva’s book chapter “The Style of Color Blindness: How to Talk Nasty about Minorities Without Sounding Racist,” he makes a caveat that in his analysis he is not calling white individuals racist, but rather addressing the individual in a racialized power system. In the effort to explain academia’s understanding of racism to my friends who do not study these things, I always find myself in a dead end. My friends who are ...

Talking about race in a public setting?

Julisa Fabian — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:13:56 +0000

Talking about race in a public setting can end in many ways. If talking loudly someone else, who might not agree, could feel compelled to give their opinion. I personally don’t think that has to be a bad thing because both parties could walk away with something new learned. Or, it could end in angry people who don’t agree to act in a negative way to you and your friends and it could get dangerous ...

Talking about Trump

Anna Robinson — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:49:47 +0000

As I was scrolling through Facebook the other day I stumbled upon a shared link by a conservative Facebook friend entitled, “I’m a Republican, Not a Moron: Being Conservative in a World That’s Not.” Intrigued, I read through the article, the general gist of it being that everyone just needs to respect each other across party lines and that we have to learn that agreeing to disagree is okay. While I agree that respect and ...

The Significance of Social Cognition in Determining Racial Ideology

Anna Robinson — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:32:47 +0000

As I read the section entitled “The Birth and Death of Slavery” in Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, the key role social cognition played in creating racial ideologies became abundantly clear. As Alexander explains in her historical analysis of the creation of race in colonial America, a fledgling country had certain capitalist needs for an increase in land and an increase in labor; in order for these ...

Supremacy and Privilege: The Insidious Consequences of Language

Becky Goodman — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:06:15 +0000

The social constructs that define our reality seem so natural and organic it is as if they were created along with the four elements. But we know that things like race and gender were built by people in order to create a hierarchal society, so how do we begin to deconstruct the categories we both rely on and often cannot see? I suggest that the first step to deconstruction is changing how we describe our ...

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

Does Black History Matter

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:41:22 +0000

Originally posted February 24, 2014 While stumbling around the internet this week I came across two articles that made me stop and think, this can’t be real. http://jezebel.com/last-night-on-jeopardy-no-one-wanted-to-answer-qs-about-1525439303 The first one that I came across was about Jeopardy, which on the night of 02/17, had a category called “African-American History.” The panelist were all white college students and they avoided the topic to the best of their ability. Reading the comments under the article, ...

A Sobering Experience

AmandaRG — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 04:00:10 +0000

WARNING: extremely offensive, racist language is used while quoting someone else (as well as cursing) A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with a few friends and acquaintances – we were talking, laughing, and having a generally good time. We were sitting in a circle of various couches and chairs surrounding a coffee table. Then, someone at the party (let’s call this person J) got a text from another friend saying that a third ...

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, ...

A Confusing Conversation

Lauren B. — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 16:58:13 +0000

In class we talked about how White people often times do not mention if a person they are talking about is Black, or will whisper the word Black and show discomfort if referencing a Black person. Over the weekend I witnessed this happen. My friend from home came to visit school. She was talking to somebody who shared mutual friends with her, and I heard her say “do you know Aaron, he’s uh you know ...

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 ...

Listening with Intent

jena.verlin — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 14:46:12 +0000

I read a quote recently that stated, “most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to reply”. I think that this mindset and outlook on conversation is incredibly pertinent to any discussion about race, and quite frankly any discussion about any topic. My generation has grown up in a world where we get immediate gratification and responses from instantaneous media and technology, and the art of listening has ...

The contributions of the N-word to Modern Racism

cmr3991 — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 04:44:13 +0000

Some of you may have heard about, or even watched, the ESPN special on “The N-Word” that was shown on Outside the Lines. The hour long special invited influential African American athletes to discuss the word and its meaning, as well as younger student athletes. Bob Ley stated that the purpose of the special was to: “have an honest conversation about this word, which is on the third rail of American society.” He added: “We’re going ...

An Attack on Richard Sherman

AmandaRG — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 03:45:32 +0000

I enjoy watching football every once in a while, especially when my favorite team – the Giants – is not sucking. Even though they weren’t playing the Super Bowl this year, I watched a little bit of the game and saw when the Seahawks won. I missed the very short interview that Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman had with Erin Andrews (a Fox News sports reporter), though, which was also apparently very news-worthy. Although the clip ...

Low Prejudice/High Prejudice

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:16:50 +0000

Something about our last conversation in contemporary racism was bothering me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew it had something to do with how we had discussed the low prejudice versus high prejudice participants in Hodson, et al (2002). We discussed how “high prejudiced” participants from a sample of college students really represents the “low prejudiced” end of the general American population. We discussed that this is due to college students ...

Racism in aisle ’14

Chelsey — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 19:12:50 +0000

Since I have been in this class, it is amazing to me how many things I see on social media sites that relate to everything we are talking about in class. This week I was browsing my Facebook news feed and I saw two posts, one after another, that completely shocked me. A woman, that goes to Muhlenberg, had a post that explained a recent experience with racism. Her post stated: “So I went to ...

A Social Experiment on Crime and Color

jena.verlin — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 17:10:46 +0000

This week, I was browsing Buzzfeed instead of doing homework (as per usual), and I stumbled across an article/video about a “social experiment” done by two men: one black, one white. They parked their car on a public street and proceeded to fake break into the car and watch what happened. The white prankster tried for 30 minutes to break into the car, horn blaring, and nothing happened. A cop car even drove by and ...

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 ...

Is Prejudice Inevitable?

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 05:01:27 +0000

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 ...

Racism is the Norm, It is Everywhere

Chelsey — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 22:17:37 +0000

In an article by Adams et al, entitled “Beyond Prejudice: Toward a Sociocultural Psychology of Racism” Adams discusses many misconceptions people have about racism in today’s American society. One point made stated that racism is a product of abnormal personalities. Most people would swear up and down that they do not have a racist bone in their body, because being called racist is a fear of many. The term “abnormal” infers that racist is not ...

What Do You Stand For When You “Stand Your Ground”?

Annie — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 21:57:13 +0000

Many Americans have been following the Jacksonville, Florida case of Michael Dunn and Jordan Davis for the past few weeks. Dunn, a middle aged white man, fired ten shots into an SUV occupied with black teenage boys because of his frustration with their refusal to turn down the loud music they were playing. One of the boys, 17-year old Jordan Davis, was hit by three of those shots, and killed. Yes, you read that synopsis ...

Racism Takes Center Stage

rachelbrookland — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 17:59:43 +0000

Recently, I remembered a video I watched last semester in my Developmental: Inclusion/ Exclusion class. This video was from ABC’s What Would You Do; this video includes both a white and black actor who are stealing a bike from the park. Both boys have multiple different forms of equipment to remove the bike from the locked bike rack, both boys are wearing the same type of clothing. The only difference about these two teenage boys ...

What Would You Do?

AmandaRG — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 04:38:30 +0000

I recently watched a video from the What Would You Do? reality show about a black woman harassing a white woman because she is dating a black man. (You can watch the video here) The scenes were filmed in Denny Moe’s barber shop in Harlem. The black woman (Rachael the barber), white woman (Kristen the girlfriend), and black man (Gabriel the boyfriend) are all actors and the premise of the show is to see how ...

How Do You Use Social Science to Adapt to Racism?

Tatianap — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 06:08:48 +0000

Martin Luther King’s address at the APA’s Annual Convention in 1967 featured many points that he wanted to make about events from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War. His main goal, however, was to address this audience to let them know that the social sciences had a place in this fight too. By saying statements such as “Social scientists…are fortunate to be able to extirpate evil, not to invent it” he is suggesting ...

President Obama and the Promotion of the American Dream

Annie — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 00:47:11 +0000

After our class pulled apart a speech that Obama gave before he was elected president in 2008, I knew that I wanted to pay extra special attention to his first State of the Union speech of the new year. The former speech had been constructed around comments made by Reverend Wright, the former pastor for Obama and his family. Reverend Wright made comments about the state of the country in terms of race, and how ...

Life after class…

Liz — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:15:25 +0000

After completing this class a little over a year ago I wanted to share with fellow members of the class what has truly stuck with me. I visit this blog again today to stress the importance of continuing your journey in the awareness, knowledge, and understanding of contemporary racism. As many of you know it is not a quick fix and I have realized that becoming culturally competent will take years of work in understanding ...

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 ...

A Story of the Way Racism Manifests Itself Today

Tory — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:43:01 +0000

I recently spoke to my mom the other day and she told me a story about her best friend from high school that I thought was particularly interesting for purposes of our class. Her friend Carrie adopted three children from China since she was never able to have her own children. The middle child is currently a senior in high school and for the past few years has been struggling with a disorder known as ...

Hunger Games

Connie — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:20:09 +0000

Did shaming teenagers about racist Hunger Games tweets do any good? (Slate)

Taking The Next Step

Tory — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:59:55 +0000

Throughout the past few weeks I have noticed many people posting comments about Trayvon Martin on Facebook. Their comments range from different news articles, pictures of a boy holding skittles and their own personal opinions filled with anger at the injustice of the situation. Whereas I am glad to see that these individuals are clearly outraged by what happened, I also know that these postings are their only efforts to speak out against this problem. ...

Privilege Role Play

nashkrod — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:01:57 +0000

While browsing the internet I came across Jane Elliott’s Brown Eye-Blue Eye experiment. For those of you who are not aware of what it is, Jane Elliott separated people into two groups based on their eye color (brown eye or blue eye) and created an environment where one group (the blue eye group) was discriminated against. The brown eye group was seated in a room and Elliott instructed them on ways to treat the blue ...

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” ...

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 ...

“Why isn’t it racist?”

Michela — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:08:38 +0000

Over break I went to my roommate Alex’s house for the week. One night, Alex and I were watching TV and stumbled upon MTV’s show, The Real World Road Rules Challenge. About five minutes in, we witnessed two cast mates attempting to “poke fun” at their friends’ interracial relationship by using black face, which they did by covering their faces with nutella. While the two of us stared at each other in disbelief, her mom ...

False advertising?

AbbeyRab — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:20:58 +0000

While shopping this week, I happened to spot this little number at H&M. I immediately thought, “wow! How cool!!” Considering that H&M is a major corporation which caters to all men and women, I didn’t think that they would ever sell merchandise that could potentially be political or controversial, or at least about a topic that makes people uncomfortable. I imagined people wearing these shirts in public, spreading ideas of love and equality, and beauty ...

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 ...

College denies diversity?

AbbeyRab — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:39:18 +0000

In this blog post I want to bring up something that actually discovered earlier today. A friend of mine transferred from Muhlenberg to Smith College, an all girls college in Massachusetts a couple years ago. When speaking with her today, she told me about a Smith alum, Anne Spurzem, who posted a letter about how adding diversity to Smith College is virtually ruining it. Here are two links that discuss (and present) the letter to ...

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. ...

The Challenge of Educating

kw237335 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:11:07 +0000

In class last week we were challenged to try to explain to a typical white male that racism does still exist and that there are still inequalities between the races. Coming into this class, I had a bit of knowledge of the concepts we would be discussing in class. I also knew that one of our goals for the class would be to learn to educate others on racism and its current existence. The only ...

Judging a Book by its Cover

Alexis — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:51:22 +0000

Hogg (2006) states that “Social Identity theory is motivated by two processes, self enhancement and uncertainty reduction”, this has been mulling over and over in my mind all week. I am stuck on its contradiction; instead of being a freeing process that enhances and reduces uncertainty instead brings about and perpetuates all of the magnificent “isms”. We as human beings categorize everything and everyone without even thinking; especially ourselves, we cannot help it; it’s how ...

How can we fix it?

AbbeyRab — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:38:07 +0000

This week in class we discussed psychological reasonings behind prejudice and racism. Through a couple readings we discovered that humans categorize others through an implicit automatic mechanism. Without even realizing that we are doing so, we are judging a person within seconds of looking at them, placing them into pre-made categories that society helped us create throughout our lives. Stereotypes form these social categories, which then become further reinforced whenever we believe that we witness ...

Addressing an Individual of Another Race

Tory — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:53:26 +0000

This past weekend I went to see the movie Red Tails in theaters which is the story of the a group of African American fighter pilots during World War II. They are faced with a great deal of racism as they are viewed to be not as capable to fight against the Germans in comparison to the other White pilots. Towards the end of the movie the African American pilots start to conquer many missions ...

Sterotypes, Generalization, Prejudice and, at best, Bad Manners

Simone — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:12:29 +0000

Recently, I suffered a sprained shoulder and after a doctor’s visit, I was referred to physical therapy for help in rebuilding strength in my right shoulder. Let me say this right from the start, I am in no way, shape, or form a malingerer. So on my first visit, everything was about evaluating and trying to gather as much information about the injury determine the best treatment regimen for me. By the second visit, one ...

Moving Past Discomfort and On to Change

Tory — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:06:21 +0000

When talking about systemic racism, Connie addressed us as a class inquiring about who was a racist. Being asked such a weighted question has truly stuck with me and I have continued to re-address it since that class. I also have another class with the same teacher; while teaching a lesson she used me as an example and asked the same question (are you a racist) infront of the whole class. I was completely aware ...

But Cleopatra was Beautiful!

Alexis — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:56:49 +0000

I had a professor once who asked the class to close their eyes and envision the “perfect mate”. He then went around the room asking each student to describe their “dream” mate and marked it on the board. After every one was finished describing their vision he proceeded to explain to the class that every time he does this exercise, the “ideal” ends up being Caucasian, taller, blue eyes and light hair. While there were ...

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 ...

Seeing Race and Feeling Shame: The rest of the story

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:55:50 +0000

In their online publication, “Seeing Race and Seeming Racist? Whites Go out of Their Way to Avoid Talking About Race,” the American Psychological Association (I mysteriously could not find an exact author) posits that, in attempt to avoid drawing negative feelings toward themselves, white people often avoid talking about race, even when it is clearly relevant to the situation. In their attempts to be culturally sensitive, however, people who avoid talking about race are often, ...

How can we facilitate cultural exchange on campus?

ccaraway — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:26:13 +0000

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke This quote has resonated throughout groundbreaking historical events. The majority of German citizens did not hold Hitler’s beliefs of Jewish persecution, but very few did anything to stop it. Quite recently, a toddler in China was hit by a car in a market. 18 people walked past her but did nothing to help her. The extent of her ...

Breaking the Silence is Not Easy

AbbeyRab — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:53:49 +0000

This week’s reading, Breaking the Silence (Tatum, 2008), describes the reasoning behind the silence of discussing racism and other issues of discrimination. Whether it is a fear of being isolated from one’s friends and family, or a fear of sounding ignorant and unaware, fear is the root of those unsure, half-smiles when your boss says something racist and expects you to agree. Understandably, people don’t like to create an uncomfortable environment, worrying that they would ...

Becoming a Hero by Breaking the Silence

Alexis — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:55:23 +0000

There is a four letter word that is as distasteful as its other four letter counter parts and it distorts realities, paralyzes its victims and creates doubt; FEAR. Tatum, addresses the various degrees of fear in the article “Whiteness: the Power of Resistance” (2008) and I beleive the article hits the proverbial nail squarely on the head. Somehow in some way we were taught that different is “bad” and not “normal” and typically, we fear ...

Unable to Tune Out Racism

Keith — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:10:18 +0000

This Spring Break taught me, or perhaps a better way to say it is illustrated for me, that as challenging as this class is when we are participating in discussions, reading seemingly endless stacks of articles, and writing papers, the real challenge of this class transcends the classroom or any assignment we could ever be given. The real challenge is that no matter how hard you try you cannot forget, even for a little while, ...

King’s call to action

Jordan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:10:17 +0000

Martin Luther King’s 1967 address to the American Psychological Association called for action not only an academic level from the APA. He called for action. This stood out to me because we, of course, were discussing this speech in an academic setting: the classroom. King advises: “social science should be able to suggest mechanisms to create a wholesome black unity and a sense of peoplehood while the process of integration proceeds.” He calls on the ...

The “N” Word

Lexie — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:15:43 +0000

As we left class on Thursday, I decided to ask a question that I have wanted to ask for a while. At 4:15, as class was getting out, I said, “Connie, I have a complicated question that I want a quick answer to. My friends use the ‘n’ word, and I know it’s wrong, but I don’t know what to say to them to prove that it is inappropriate to use. How do I make ...

Eurocentric Racism in the Classroom

Keith — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:38:16 +0000

As they so often do, our discussion in class this week reminded me of one of the most influential teacher’s that I’ve had the privilege of learning from at Muhlenberg, Dr. Charles Anderson. Our discussion of how racism directly effects the testing ability of black youth made me feel as if I was right back in introduction to African American Studies and I had to re-visit one particular article that I felt was so relevant ...

Choosing to be Racist?

Tennille — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:29:24 +0000

This week, we were asked to complete two IAT’s. One that measured our level of association between Blacks and weapons and another the measured ones preference of Blacks versus Whites. I am not skeptical of the tests accuracy. I believe that it can truly measure ones implicit feelings; however, I do question whether these feelings can ever be truly implicit. I believe that the mind is a powerful thing, and that if an individual wants ...

Talking to Implicit Racists

Alex — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:59:38 +0000

I feel very strongly about the what I saw as Connie’s challenge to us in our last class period. The way that she presented a point of view, one which is so pervasive throughout society and is a significant factor as to why structural racism still exists, was very difficult to provide coherent arguments against. I found myself struggling to put together words in order to say exactly what I wanted to say. I thought ...

Modern Racism

KristinK — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:25:06 +0000

I found the chapter Old-Fashioned versus Modern Racism very interesting because I think that it portrays how racism is expressed most often today. I thought it was interesting that Modern racists consider racism to be open feelings of hatred of towards the minority group. I think that this is an idea that is held by quite a few people and they do not realize that there are many other forms of racism. The article also ...

Stereotypes as a Cognitive Tool

Jordan — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:52:09 +0000

I found the findings of the article “Stereotypes as Energy-Saving Devices: A Peek Inside the Cognitive Toolbox” by Macrae, et. al incredibly depressing. The researchers’ studies on both implicitly and explicitly presented stereotype cues revealed that stereotypes, like any kind of schema, save cognitive energy. Rather than analyzing the different traits of a new person, we subconsciously label them as part of a group. That way, we can instead use cognition to process what they ...

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 ...

Colorblind Ideology in Children

Lexie — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:55:43 +0000

On Thursday, we talked about the use of colorblind ideology in general, but what I found most interesting was the way in which it was taught to children. In the study by Apfelbaum et al. (2010), children were put into two conditions: one in which colorblind ideology was taught and one in which talking about racial differences was promoted, or the value-diversity condition. The thing that interested me the most was the way in which ...

Chris Rock Speaks about Progress and Racism in America

Alex — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:02:29 +0000

In this youtube clip, Chris Rock talks about progress and racism in America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_L7qoP17-w

How Much Do I Expect of You?

Lexie — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:32:52 +0000

In class on Tuesday, we talked about the consequences of stereotype threats on certain individuals. In our society, we have many stereotypes that we use every second to help us better understand our surroundings. We use these in every setting, including school. We believe that Asians are smart, men are better at math than Women, and Black students will fall behind. Are these true? Maybe in some cases. Definitely not in all cases. But just ...

Telling People I’m a Racist

KristinK — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:20:10 +0000

We are talking about racism in another class I am taking this semester as well as this one. The other day the professor asked us if anyone in the class considered themselves to be racist. I raised my hand because of the Tatum article we all read at the beginning of this class. As soon as I raised my hand I wished I hadn’t. No one else in the class had put their hands in ...

IAT

KristinK — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:25:12 +0000

I found the Implicit Associations Test to be extremely frustrating. It was aggravating knowing which letter I was supposed to press and actually getting my fingers to press the correct letter. I found myself yelling at the computer and at myself when I would press the wrong letter. I also had a hard time remembering what categories corresponded with “e” or “i” and there were times I didn’t mean to press a button but my ...

Modern Racism & “The Color of Fear”

Alexa — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:20:12 +0000

The Color of Fear video clip The link that I posted is from the documentary “The Color of Fear.” I remember watching this in Multicultural Psychology last year, and after we read and discussed the Nelson chapter (Old-Fashioned versus Modern Racism) this is one of the first things that came to mind. In class we discussed modern racism as the conflicting feeling of negative attitudes towards blacks and feeling that racism is wrong. Other components ...

Identifying with Race

Tennille — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:20:11 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about how silly the concept of being colorblind within society really is. I am currently enrolled in Multicultural psychology and we have been discussing racial identity models. Race is part of the individual’s identity and everyone understands and related to their race and ethnicity on different levels. Not only is racism structurally embedded within our society; it is also what defines the individual. The understanding one might have of ...

Children and Racism

Lexie — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:09:55 +0000

http://library.adoption.com/articles/young-children-and-racism.html After discussing the Devine (1989) article in class, we had a lot to discuss. Unfortunately, in such a short period of time that we have for class, we were unable to talk about all of the implications of this study. This study had three main findings: all individuals are aware of racist stereotypes; individuals, when primed, automatically act on these stereotypes and change their behavior or perception of an individual; and when in a ...

Speak Up!

Lexie — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:20:14 +0000

King, M.L. (1967). The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement. While reading the essay by Martin Luther King, Jr., a specific part truly stuck out to me. In regard to discussing racism he stated, “These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our ...

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 ...