So how do you write a paper about "whiteness" without writing a paper about racism, well as far as I'm concerned, you can't. Whiteness is all around us and yet no one sees it but the people who it affects the most. I bet you can't guess who those people would be. Whiteness to me is when a white person walks into a place at the same time as a person of color and they are treated totally different for absolutely no reason at all.
There are some many instances of "whiteness" where should I begin, well here goes nothing. I can't move into a certain kind of neighborhood and not get a few "who is he looks". I can't go into a restaurant and not have a waiter assume that because of my race I will not tip appropriately so my service is a little different. And one of my favorites, I'm the one that gets overlooked when I walk into a store even though my money is just as good as the next persons.
I know that there are different lessons to be learned in life but racism is just one lesson that I can't rap my mind around. I know that sometimes these things aren't even noticed to the people that are doing them,but it is happening non the less. I have had to learn how to cope and deal with "whiteness" whether I wanted to or not. It is a part of every day life for me and my family. As a young black male I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that my lessons are not nearly over and especially at this day and age.
Great blog! This is exactly what I was going for by asking the class to blog about this topic. Thanks for being willing to share your personal experiences with us.
ReplyDeleteGreat start with the blog assignment. Moving forward think about how you can bring in more visuals to enhance your points. Also make sure that you explicitly engage the blog prompt questions in your post as well.