Paradox of White Fragility and Institutional Power

‘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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Shifting Mainstream Understanding of Individual Racism

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 many to immediately reach the …

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Times Change and So Does Racism

Racism has existed in the United States even before America was an independent nation. Over time much has changed about the United States but by the same token, so has racism. At first racism was openly expressed in the form of slavery, and later in the form of Jim Crow laws. Both of these forms of racism are considered to be old fashioned forms of racism. As time has gone by it has become more and more unacceptable to display …

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