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Colorblind: Racial Ignorance in America
Though she knew she was breaking the law, Rosa Parks, a simple, elderly, hard working,
housemaid, one day decided she would not give up her seat on the bus for a white man. And with that small act of defiance, she became, unintentionally, a Civil Rights icon.
Parks never intended to be a popular and respected leader of this movement. She only wanted to be comfortable after a day of being on her feet. Parks was arrested, and with the media outrage that followed, America’s eyes began to open.
Sadly, that is a lie. America’s eyes have yet to open. They have steadfastly remained in darkness.
Being the youngest child of an interracial marriage, I am often asked if this relationship has affected me in any way. To be honest, I am rather offended by people who question me about this.
I am simply a teenage girl who chooses to ignore her parents' heritage, racial stigmatism, or any of the myopic, stereotypical prejudices one wishes to impose. That's their problem, not mine.
To be frank, you could not pay me enough to care what slave ship brought my fathers family from Ethiopia. Nor can I feel a pang of sorrow when relatives tell me of my ancestors' hardships when they immigrated to America. I know it sounds harsh. And yes, in a way, it bothers me. But, it is the truth.
I did realize that my father was the same color crayon in my crayon box, brown. But it hadn't occurred to me that he was African- American until the age of seven when a classmate asked, “Why doesn’t your daddy look like your mommy?” My initial reaction was to shake my head and argue that my father looked just like anyone else's father.
How could it could be possible that he was different. He coached my biddy ball team, sat through my two hour Christmas concerts, cooked when mom was away. At that age, some children have yet to learn the difference between doing and being.
That night, at dinner, I saw my parents differently. With my recent discovery, I slowly began to understand that I was biracial, and supposedly different, just like my dad.
As I grew older and went through Catholic school, teachers asked if I celebrated Kwanza. Some classmates called me cookie dough, and parents asked me about Black History Month.
No, I do not celebrate Kwanza, nor does my dad. In my opinion, Kwanza is a recently created black Christmas to build more of a barricade, to separate, not for reasons of heritage, or being different in a positive way.
I did, at one time, let people nickname me because of my skin color. My own mother even took the
liberty of calling me peanut butter. But now, since I have been questioning and thinking, being called peanut butter, Reese cup, and mocha bear, offends me. Or when people say that I am mixed, I feel like yelling. I am not a beverage, so how can I be mixed?
I believe Black History Month, along with other months dedicated to a specific group, should be prohibited. There is no need to focus on a particular group for an entire month. Instead, parents, teachers, and media should discuss historical interests throughout the year.
Historian, Carter G. Woodson’s original Black Awareness Week ,was intended to help others envision a better future through an identity of their past. But now, his vision has become a pop culture phenomenon, which corporate America has been quick to exploit. During the last Super Bowl, for example, several corporate commercials specifically mentioned Black History Month, and how much they honored it.
Another injustice of our nation is affirmative action. On September 24, 1965, the executive order number 11246 required federal contractors, “Take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin.” With affirmative action, employers are being asked to hire less qualified workers and in some instances for more money. Title II of the Act prohibited discrimination in privately owned businesses and facilities opened to the public. In Title VI of the Act, it prohibited discrimination in federally funded programs. Title VII prohibited discrimination by both private and public employers. During the Civil Rights Era, affirmative action was created to abolish racial imbalances in hiring policies. Affirmative action was later extended to include college admissions and governmental contracts.
Today, affirmative action is a controversial matter facing our equal rights status of individual rights. As I have just recently explained, the idea and hope that affirmative action implemented was that America would truly become equal. So far, this hope and dream of equality has lasted thirty years and has yet to resolve any of our current problems concerning equal rights-it has made things worse. This act was created with intention of using reverse discrimination to resolve discrimination. With this, minority groups are being chosen over qualifications of other workers.
Affirmative action is also influential in the educational system. In some college admissions, minority students who may have never been accepted into a decent college, are now getting accepted. With this, the American people believe that this will end all racism on school campuses, creating diversity among students. The United States constitution states that all Americans are created equal. Therefore, I believe if we are created equal, shouldn’t we all have the same opportunity as everyone else?
Finally, Black Entertainment Television, commonly known as BET, creates a stereotypical outlook on the African American culture. Founded by Robert L. Johnson in 1980, the network showed movies, television series, and music to target an African American audience. BET justifies racism by pressing personal and broad generalizations about African Americans, affecting how many young viewers see the African American culture. Many generalizations include being womanizers, promiscuous, nuisances to society, and opposing integration.
This network contributes to the stereotypical diet of African Americans: fried chicken, cherry Kool-Aid, and soul food. BET also neglects the fact that most African Americans do not find people of Caucasian heritage as the bad guys or the nerds. Also, BET would like to portray the ‘injustices’ of being an American citizen who happens to be of African descent. For example, if one were to create a new television franchise called White Entertainment Television, or more commonly known as WET, people would assume it would be promoting white supremacy. BET exploits and manipulates the depiction of an African American’s daily life, which is why the network should be renamed or taken out of your basic cable lineup.
Why do Americans feel that they have conquered racism and prejudice? Granted, from that spark that Rosa Parks lit, to the election of Barrack Obama, is one giant leap for mankind. However, we are not even in spitting distance of erasing racial bigotry.
I notice it among my peers when they say, “I would never date a black guy.” Or, “They only like your dad because he’s the only black man they know.” Even, “I’m going through a black guy phase. I have to date one.”
When people mention things like these, intuition tells me it starts in the home. Where else would one learn behavior and comments of that nature? Social prejudice is not innate. It has to be predisposed. If one truly wishes to stop the idea of seeing race, it must start within themselves.
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This article has 142 comments.
I myself do not have much, and I know people who are less fortunate, and yes, it is hard for people out there, I understand that. But, the people I know have had horrible childhoods, and brought themselves out of the situation on their own.
Thank you for your comment, it is much appreciated.
Young lady, continue with developing your writing by supporting your thesis with additional Concent Detail rather than commentary. Concentrate on researching your thesis topic to the fullest in the areas of cultural and social injustices, American History outside of your Unified School Districts book company of choice, and Civil Cases pro or con Affrimative Action so that your writings show substance to your opinion and/or stance.
Sidenote: research slave ships and citizens who were victimized in the kidnapping Africans from the Horn and where those ships docked "if" on the soil of United States (interesting little known historic fact but why it's important points to something you mentioned in your article) and how that interplays mentally into sterotypical views. Lastly, it is not a sterotype feed by BET when it comes to "red" kool-aid (it's red kool-aid----red) that's an inside joke of love amonst the African American community that should have been broken down to you by someone in your family as to its orgins and meaning. It is NOT the same as the "chicken and watermelon" sterotype which is not only offensive, but stupid at best. Race relations on a social level begins with education. Continue with yours and with your writing.
Hi,
I was very confused about the messages you put out in your piece. Some were black pride and some were very negative toward the black community. And to be honest boo, it hurts me so deep inside, when black people are not proud of their race.I'm reading the comments and I see you bringing up Polish people. Honey, native polish people look white. And let me put this in, being black isn't only about the color but the experience and the understanding of what it means to be black. Okay. And as much research as you might have have done to produce this piece, you haven't seemed to fully wrap around the idea of what it means to both be proud and black and know about it. Cause, let me tell you why black people should be gettin scholarships. Just like someone said, who you completely disagreed with, black people are at the bottom of the totem pole. When you turn on the news, who is getting all the negative media? Most of the time, a black person. Most often, a black male. How do you think they got into that situation? From being forced in the projects their whole life. This is what society has done. Black people have been given the cold shoulder. Have you read books on the subject? They go into detail and it's sad. It makes me so passionate about trying to help out the black community as much as I can. So, as I was saying, why is it that black people are always the victim in racial jokes? people try saying slick jokes at me all the time acting like it's all good. like, haha. and i would never dare say something racist to someone else. and you don't only have to identify as black. Cus let me tell you now, I'm black, white, and puertorriqueña. I represent being a latina too. And you need to look at the projects . Mostly black. The projects are like the sewer, nothing good. So put yourself in the little kids shoes who HAVE to live there. from a young age they are exposed to slang, guns, and gang banging, drugs, and weapons, living a thug life. And when someone doesn't want to become a product of their environment, people tear them down because of their living situations, how they talk, and how they dress. and most of the time, they're in that situation because their parents don't have a bunch of money. so if you don't have a lot of money and all of your homies are going to jail and scrappin' and sellin dope, gettin shot, then what would you do? you need a scholarship. So many young black guys too, have you heard of drivebys? Black on black crime? Meaningless violence. All from young black guys who get ahold of weapons and "are mad at the world cus they came from a broken home"(2pac). So also, when they see a young dude doing good, they get mad cus they "can't" have the life that person has. And bang! Another guy gets shot. Then, because the stereotypes are constantly getting pushed on them, they are constantly burdened by the actions of others. So they start to believe the stereotypes and take them in and make them part of who they are. They lose hope. H
I agree with almost every point you've made here, and I think you're right. It's not often I see an article so convincing about reverse discrimination, but even rarer do I see one that seems like it's got some good, solid facts behind it.
I think, however, that many of the discrimination problems in today's society come from the media and "Political Correctness", and I do think that there are some people out there who take advantage of that to be downright racist to whites. (Racisim is a two-way street, my friends).
I guess that my agreeing with you and being about as white as they come could get me into some big media scandal or whatnot, but I agree nonetheless. I mean, in my school we have many students come up from the Reservations in Arizona to study at our 'better schools', and so we normally celebrate Native American Week. It's normally great fun, but just last year a couple of the Navajo students complained that one of the days that week was going to be used to observe Veteran's Day, on the grounds that it was offensive to them because we were ignoring a day to remember the Native People and their troubles to pray for people who were mostly white (which is false). Rather than make a big stink about things, the school responded by simply not acknowledging Veteran's Day. (The result? The community made a big stink since most of the students in the school currently had close family stationed in the Middle East)
Ah, I guess much of that isn't pertainent exactly to your article, but it's nice to know I'm not the only person out there seeing discrimination from and towards just about everybody.