How I still associate blacks with certain bad things.
June 1, 2006
Albany's Race Problem: People like to blame guns, because it's easier then being realistic about race.
An Alternative Look at Slavery: Andrew says black slavery at the begining of our nation, isn't the great evil we sometimes portray it to be.
Analysis of the Southern Ideology on Slavery: A short paper discussing slavery and it's rationalization.
Another Essay on Tolerance: Exploring the meaning of true tolerance and what it means to accept deviance.
Average American: How stereotyping and prejudice hurts us all.
Blacks in Pickup Trucks: The trouble I have with seeing blacks driving trucks.
Civil Rights Act of 1965 Didn't End Hate.: Thoughs on Civil Rights Legislation, and the need for a steppast legistlation..
Considering the Silent Majority: A Label Playing Off Class Conflict for Political Gain: A short paper written for Introduction to Sociology on the silent majority, and use of this label for political gain.
Growth of White Power Music: Thoughts on growth of racist music, social alienation, and youth rebellion.
Is Feminism Dead?: The fate of feminism is tied to the Democratic Party.
Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King: Hillary’s remarks on President Johnson ring clear on this holiday.
Martin Luther King Day: Race as we remember MLK.
On Black Culture: And It's Advancement: A short essay recrying racism and our lack of solutions it.
Politizing Cultural Diversity: Andrew complains about the liberal-bias in the Cultural Diversity class he is taking.
Racism or Urbanism: Do we dislike blacks or just the culture they too often represent?
Trent Lott and the Black Lobby: Andrew disagree's with some black's lynching of Trent Lott...
When Fairness Becomes Racist.: Discussing the need to treat all the same.
I don't like black people. It's a terrible thing to be a racist, yet those are my feelings. I do not want to deny my racism but explore it and try to understand why I find being around African Americans to be so off-putting. I do know several African Americans and I call them my friends, but some how they are different from the blacks I meet in the rest of my life. Why do I have such feelings? I think it is because of my symbolic attachment of being black to being urban.
Here are how I stereotype black and white people:
Some of that prejudice simply comes from the images that are constantly reinforced by the media. Yet, there is another symbolic connection I am making. Blacks are largely urban while whites are largely suburban and rural. That is clearly an over-generalization but also speaks a lot of truth in how our world is today and how blacks as a people are marginalized to the ghettos of urban society.
We all know that there are white people that do really bad things. Certainly there are lots of white surbanites that are stupid and disconnected from reality, and more concerned with consumeristic goals then making real change happen. There are many black professionals out there, and many who are as passionate advocates for change as I am personally. Yet, somehow those people are different from those black people I have learned to hate.
I try to do my part to respect African Americans, and to change conditions that too many of them live in. I am involved in the NAACP at my college, and seek to discuss issues of race and confront my own stereotypes. Yet, it's going to require more then a personal change to confront racism, it's going to require change of the system. When we confront the race issue in our country and change conditions for the black man, we will be able to solve so many problems from our energy crisis to suburban sprawl. We must learn how to live together once again.
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Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
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