Brown vs. Board of Education
While listening to the videos of Tim Wise discussing his book, Between Barack and a Hard Place, I found myself agreeing with him more and more. It is disappointing to admit it, but racism is still very prominent in today's society. The "Separate Is Not Equal" website we explored explained a lot about Brown vs. Board of Education and how it supposedly "marked a turning point in the history of race" in the United States. Yes, this problem has come a long way and there have been many great improvements throughout the years on racism, but all of this hard work has yet to diminish all form of racism everywhere.
Wise admits that Obama's presidential election was a step forward in this long battle, but racism still has a long way to go before being completely resolved. People really need to change they way they view people of color (and people of different "styles") because I believe that an issue such as this will never be resolved unless every single person is on the same page. It's one thing to say that there is no racism and that everyone is equal, but it's another thing to actually put those words in action and prove it.
There are a couple of videos that I found that pertain to racism that is still seen today. They include some vulgar language, but they are amusing to watch, and they are completely true. I only posted two of them, but if you go on youtube, you'll see that these same characters have made many different videos pertaining racism in today's society.
And since I can't seem to be able to post them directly on my blog, here's video 1 and video 2 :)
After watching the Tim Wise videos, I'm actually really interested in reading his book. There is nothing I want to learn about more than modern day issues in our society that clearly need to be fixed.
In class, I want to brainstorm about some of the small steps we as individuals could do to make a small difference, as well as giant leaps that we as a whole could accomplish in order to really start changing people's perspectives on this issue.
I think Tim Wise is actually pointing out that although Obama is President, it doesn't mean that we have come a long way in terms of racial bias. He warns us not to think this way, that we need to be aware of the new form of racism which considers minority individuals such as Obama, who are well educated, well dressed, and articulate as exceptions to the norm. The norm, that is, the average, everyday individual is still perceived negatively and is still suffering under the tyranny of the culture of power.
ReplyDeleteLove the brainstorming idea! And those videos, very amusing lol
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say "racism is still very prominent in today's society." As sad as it is I believe it is true. People are given different chances depending on race, age, gender, and more.
ReplyDeleteFirst I just need to say how much I love those videos. Although they have a bit of humor they have an underlying message that is a problem in our society. Second I love what you said about proving racism instead of just saying it’s gone.
ReplyDeletelove the videos :)... I agree with the points you are making, racism is still a huge part of society today and I think Wise wants us to be aware that it's not always going to be staring us in the face but it's still there.
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