While scrolling through facebook today, I saw three news articles pertaining to the same topic. Racism. While this is still a problem in the US today, I don't think people can continue hiding behind it the way they do.
Fox13 posted this article: http://fox13now.com/2014/09/14/django-unchained-actress-claims-she-was-cuffed-for-showing-public-affection/, claiming that the woman had been detained due to her race.
In this case, racial profiling probably was a high factor. But lately, I have seen more and more people claiming that they were singled out, or mistreated, because of their race. It reminds me of a comment that Andrew made in class a few weeks back, saying that because of our history, it's okay to call white's white trash but the second someone says "yellow jap" they're in trouble. We are overcompensating for our mistake in the mistreat of the other races, but that doesn't excuse their behavior now. The second they pull the "race card" they're untouchable.
We were actually talking about this issue in AP Language today. There seems to be some overcompensation (I guess you could call it that) for racism today. If you treat someone differently because of their race, then that is racism. I think now we have become paranoid about the issue, and nobody wants to be the "racist" one. I think that not only does it have to do with history, but with majority vs. minority. Let's be honest, the majority of the elite in this country are white, and a large majority of the population as well. It looks bad if the majority discriminates against the minority, but no one really seems to notice when you reverse the situation. Either way, racism is still racism even if it is socially acceptable or not, and even if you don't get into legal trouble about it.
ReplyDeleteI just want to clarify a very good point that Emma made. We are so ridiculously concerned about avoiding racism that we start to be racist in the opposite direction. Jacob Finnell and I have, sort of jokingly, started the "Caucasians in Action Club," because, frankly, it just isn't fair to let some people into colleges more easily than other people simply on account of their skin color. What many people don't seem to understand is that preferential treatment can also be racism; not all racism needs to be strictly negative. The dictionary definition of racism is "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement." We need to do away with the "race card" and treat everyone as EQUAL!
ReplyDelete-Liam Brookhart
Liam, I understand your point, however, if we DON'T give them those types of "preferential treatment", could they not just go at us for again being racist? In Utah, a fair amount of us are white. Therefore, more whites are going to get into instate colleges and universities, than any other race. If they were judged the same as us, would that not seem racist to them because they kept being beaten out by the "white man"? We have dug ourselves into a very very deep hole here, and I'm not really sure we can find a perfect solution to it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that today we see so many people using the"racial card." They use it to there advantage and it is getting out of hand.
ReplyDelete