In the readings that we did for today, some of the events I knew about and others I did not. So I felt that, especially for the Reparations piece, that really gave a personal perspective for what it was like living under laws of segregation. It wasn’t just a bunch of dates with descriptions of events, it actually gave us a real idea of how those people were living at the time.
In the reading “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, I thought that the concept was interesting that the author chose to show how white privilege was apparent in her life. Some of the things she said I did not quite agree with, but thats because these are specific to her life and not to mine. Like her, I am also a white woman, and this piece made me reflect in my own way on how white privilege is present in my own life. One of the ways that the effects of white privilege comes up in her life, specifically, the one about turning on the television or opening a news paper and seeing people of her own race widely represented, bothered me.
Maybe her race is widely represented but does that mean that other people of color arent there or shes just doesnt see them. Personally if I turn on the tv i see people of all different races represented. But thats just me. It definitely depends on what your watching or what you are reading (newspaper or magazine).
I thought that the bird watching article was interesting because the act of bird watching so peaceful and simple, could get turned into something its not and this aggravated me. I remember on the news when they did a story on the African American man bird watching, who confronted a lady about her unleashed dog, ended up getting the cops called on him. What is interesting is I’ve seen this scenario or similar ones take place on tv shows. Seeing something on television makes it seem unreal or not likely to happen in real life and then when it does, it becomes a whole debate. The part when the women explained how racists individuals believe that this is their land and because they own it, and that someone of color does not belong there is definitely rooted in white privilege and colonialism.
Colonialism not talked about in this article but I think that there is a connection to it since this article reminded me of how native Americans were kicked off of their lands, not treated fairly in treaties or flat out ignored. The concept of reparations could also be linked to this as well since native Americans have been fighting to get their land back for years that was unfairly taken from them by whites.
These themes are also present in the article about the black runner who was unjustly killed by a father and son pair while on a run. I think that fear does play its part in racism as it is talked about in the article when the author says that Americans dont realize that its scary for those individuals that they are claiming to be violent criminals. White individuals are only thinking about their own fear and not the fear of the one that they are accusing.
I did not know that linguistic racism was a thing and that it existed but after reading that short piece on the matter it clearly is and is most definitely a problem in classrooms that needs to be addressed.
The reparations reading I thought brought together past present and future since it talked about the past and how it affected those people and then how those people rallied in order to make changes to help better their futures and the lives of their families. The black movement from the south to the north because they were looking for protection under the law, however, what they got was laws that wrote them out completely and separated them from the rest of society. The fact that African Americans could not get a mortgage even if they were free just does not make sense to me. In that freedom that they desired was a place to call home for their families and the Fair Housing Act was supposed to fix all that and get rid of redlining. Before that, there was t overcrowding in certain communities because African Americans only had very few options when it came to housing because of redlining and segregation, but even after the passing of the act, the damage was already done.
One reply on “Blog post for week of 11/16”
I also did not think much about linguistic racism or how it really affects people in society. From an American point of view, I did not know that this existed I have only really ever heard about this in countries like England where accents play a major role in society and how people are treated because of class levels. But I agree with you that it is a problem and needs to be addressed in classroom settings.