Blog #9

Race:

Article assuming darker color was stealing while persons of lighter skin werent!

My whole life, alike everyone else, I thought that race was a biological trait until this unit. Sal taught us that race is just a social construction. Although there are some characteristics that are common among groups of people from a certain area, it is not race. Society groups people into "races" that are attached to a specific idea or thought. Prejudice is having a predetermined attitude about a group of people usually based on a stereotype.  Discrimination is an action or behavior that results in unequal treatment of individuals because of his or her perceived "race." This prejudice is very unfair to those who appear to be in a certain group when there aren't actually, and to those who are placed into the groups even if they have all of the traits that would put them in it. In class, we also learned specifically about implicit and explicit racism. Implicit means that’s its hidden in our unconsciousness, we don’t know that we are even thinking it. Contrastingly, explicit means directly and consciously believing that one's own "racial" group is superior to others. For example, Sal gave us the examples in class of the man trying to steal the bike on What Would You Do? When a Caucasian man was trying to steal the bike, people even tried to help him! However, when an African American man tried to, the phone calls to the police were immediate and people tried to stop the man. In this context, it is implicit racism, because in effort to act quickly and without thinking, they just assumed the black man was committing a crime and the white man wasn’t. Their subconscious just assumed. This is the issue with our society, we have created these unfair stereotypes that don’t and shouldn’t represent a group of people. It’s the same thing with these news articles. After the flood the reporter made it seems like the person of darker skin tone was stealing while the white people were just “finding” food. They were doing the same deed, but one was considered a criminal and the other was not. In my experience I have experienced major racism, especially in middle school. People would make fun of my smaller eyes; say that I have yellow skin, that they “love” my Asian hair, that I must be really smart. Some people assumed that my parents would have Korean or Asian accents. It was all really difficult to face and deal with, but it has taught me who are truly my friend and the people who are not. Race should never matter when it comes to friendship or relationships in general. Everyone should be treated equally and someone should never feel inferior to another person based upon his or her skin color.