Fitting in. At some point in our lives, we have all tried fitting in. Perhaps even now we try to fit in. Or maybe we say "screw it" and assume a pseudo-indivudality that is not necessarily the overwhelming norm so we feel like we're outside of ideology, that we don't need to fit in.
Racism is very much the simple notion of not fitting in. Whites and Blacks have had their differences all through time which has been dealt with in minor ways such as rude comments and major ways such as slavery, persecution, and murder. Most often, Blacks are on the lesser half of this scale and are submitted to much hardship because their skin does not fit the appropriate color palette that America's founders and ancestors deemed worthy of being equal to them.
This not about hating on Whites. That's not what Cornel West is doing in his piece. He's say, much more eloquently than I, that racism is a profound issue to this day in America while it should have been dealt with far in the past. Dealt with not in the way of purging our society of those who are not of a certain skin color but dealt with in the sense that we need integration in order to survive.
"One essential step is some form of large-scale public intervention to ensure access to basic social goods--housing, food, health care, education, child care, and jobs. We must invigorate the common good with a mixture of government, business, and labor that does not follow any existing blueprint." (West 630)
West believes that we must do away with all other notions of racism in our minds in order to change the way our society is. We need to understand that Blacks and colored people are an asset and an integral part of the world we live in. None of us are different; we are all the same.
West says: "There is no escape from our interracial interdependence, yet enforced racial hierarchy dooms us as a nation to collective paranoia and hysteria--the unmaking of any democratic order." If we realize that we are one and ideology is the only reason keeping us all apart because we've been taught by millennia of history that skin color is a separation of class and status and riddled with stereotype, we will continue to crush the democracy we are so proud of.
We must use our intelligence and independence as Americans to learn integration rather than tolerance and to understand that if we wish to succeed as a people in the future, we must make the incredibly massive move to influence and change ideology for the better.
Racism is very much the simple notion of not fitting in. Whites and Blacks have had their differences all through time which has been dealt with in minor ways such as rude comments and major ways such as slavery, persecution, and murder. Most often, Blacks are on the lesser half of this scale and are submitted to much hardship because their skin does not fit the appropriate color palette that America's founders and ancestors deemed worthy of being equal to them.
This not about hating on Whites. That's not what Cornel West is doing in his piece. He's say, much more eloquently than I, that racism is a profound issue to this day in America while it should have been dealt with far in the past. Dealt with not in the way of purging our society of those who are not of a certain skin color but dealt with in the sense that we need integration in order to survive."One essential step is some form of large-scale public intervention to ensure access to basic social goods--housing, food, health care, education, child care, and jobs. We must invigorate the common good with a mixture of government, business, and labor that does not follow any existing blueprint." (West 630)
West believes that we must do away with all other notions of racism in our minds in order to change the way our society is. We need to understand that Blacks and colored people are an asset and an integral part of the world we live in. None of us are different; we are all the same.
We must use our intelligence and independence as Americans to learn integration rather than tolerance and to understand that if we wish to succeed as a people in the future, we must make the incredibly massive move to influence and change ideology for the better.
After class on Wednesday, I went back through and read some of the blogposts to see other interpretations of West's piece on racism and the idea of "othering." I really enjoyed your post because I felt like it was a great mix of quotes taken directly from the text as well as your own words and thoughts on the issue of racism. I like your theme of history throughout the post and how West states that it's an issue that should have been taken care of a long time ago; history shouldn't keep repeating itself. This idea of looking at racism historically connected me back again to what I have learned in my CMC elective, State of Black America. The kind of questions like where did this all begin? What is the real root of the issue of people being uncomfortable around people who aren't necessarily like them or look like them? What helped me better understand West's piece was defining traditional racism and modern racism and comparing the two. Let’s face it, in today’s society racism is still very much alive—not so much Traditional Racism, but this phenomenon known to us as Modern Racism. It’s the elephant in the room, the topic no one wants to address, but it’s everywhere.
ReplyDeleteModern racism is a form of prejudice against African Americans that developed in the United States post civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is characterized by ideologies that racism is not a continuing problem, that African Americans should put forth their own efforts to overcome their situation and the hardships they face in society without special privileges or assistance, and that African Americans are too demanding and have gotten much more than they deserve. At the roots of modern racism are basic beliefs that people of color violate traditional, cherished, U.S. values. Modern racism is among the most widespread forms of verbally expressive, negative racial attitudes in the United States today. It is thought to have replaced, to a substantial degree, older and more overt forms of prejudice, characterized by beliefs that Blacks are a biologically inferior race and that institutionalized segregation and formal discrimination against Blacks are appropriate social policies. The civil rights movement made these old-fashioned beliefs largely socially unacceptable. As such, while old-fashioned, traditional racism still exists in the United States, it has been replaced by modern racist beliefs for the most part.Racism is all around us—it’s not just a thing of the past, it’s a thing of the present and will be a thing of the future. Traditional racism might not be as evident as it used to be but it has evolved in to a new form of racism—modern racism. “This new form of prejudice, if not rooted out or stopped in its proverbial tracks, will remain the silent toxin in maintenance of racial and ethnic inequality during the twenty-first century” (Forman & Lewis). Until we pay much closer attention to the manifestation of modern racism as an important and destructive force, we will continue to live in a world of inequality and prejudice.