Colorblindness: Prejudice And Racism In The United States

According to our textbook racism is the set of institutional, cultural, and interpersonal patterns and practices that create advantages for people legally defined and socially constructed as “white”, and the corollary disadvantages for people defined as belonging to racial groups that were not considered Whites by the dominant power structure in the United States.
The first big idea about racism that I thought was powerful was when the first European settlers came to what is now American and used race to dominate and enslave the Native Americans. As Carmelita (Rosie) Castaneda and Ximena Zuniga state in their writings on Racism on page 58 of our textbooks, “Like other constructed social identities addressed throughout this book, race emerged historically in the United States to justify the dominance of peoples defined as “white” and enslaved Africans and, later, Mexicans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, South Asians, and other marginalized racial groups”.
The second big idea about racism that I also thought was powerful was the importance of noticing color and not having “colorblindness”.
The article by Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs called Colorblindness: the New Racism discusses the reasons we need to stop overlooking racial and ethnic differences and start actively noticing one another by celebrating and learning about each person’s heritage including their past, present and if possible their projected future. Each and every person is so important. The bottom line is to learn to notice, observe, study, hold up as important, and esteem all people of every race and ethnicity. People are different and we should celebrate those differences not overlook them for fear of appearing prejudice. When we do not notice someone and their differences how do we truly accept and receive them whole-heartedly? This is my question to myself. This has been a real eye-opener for me since I was guilty of colorblindness but thankfully not
anymore!
The third big idea about racism that I thought was powerful was when I read the article entitled Symbolic Racism, History, and Reality; The Real Problem with Indian Mascots by Kimberly Roppolo. While bringing the much needed attention to the sufferings of the Native Americans she also pointed out how we have an Indian as a football Mascot. It never occurred to me how racist that is or how much the Native Americans had truly suffered due to colonization and white supremacy. It was both sickening and saddening reading of the pain and torture her people had gone through. I have a new consciousness and awareness of the great injustice suffered by the Native Americans.
The difference between individual and institutional racism; Individual racism is when an individual member of a race treats a person of a different race negatively. Institutional racism refers to dominant institutions (legal system, schools, housing, and corporations) whose policies intentionally discriminate by race or harm members of a certain race. Institutional discrimination also refers to policies of dominant institutions that are intended to be neutral but in effect hurt or differentiate between races. Many would say that voter ID laws are a form of institutionalized discrimination because some racial minorities don’t have or aren’t able to get state IDs.