During this video, I became more and more frustrated. I have briefly understood what white privilege was growing up, but I had never heard it in this detail before. I could not believe that this was how this came about. I was shocked to find out that it started only briefly slavery came about. I thought that once the African Americans came here to the…
In Angela Davis' "Masked Racism: Reflections of the Prison Industrial Complex", she focuses on the aspect of imprisonment in our society and how racism is involved in this light. "These problems often are veiled by being conveniently grouped together under the category 'crime' and by the automatic attribution of criminal behavior to people of color" (Davis). She also explains how prison labor is profitable for certain private companies. Davis continues how the government earns from prisons and how many more women are punished in prisons all our country. Davis shares the statistic, "More than 70 percent of the imprisoned population are people of color.…
The video was very insightful with information that pertained to race. Even though the title of the video included the word diversity I was not expecting it to be based solely on race. I did believe that the way they explained race is very important the conversation between the two women weren’t awkward when they spoke about race, which is known to be a delicate topic. I did like that both of the women…
Institutional racism has shaped inequality with the help of cultural factors. People have become colorblind because of the success of some African-Americans. Oprah is the richest African-American in America but she ranks at number 221 of Forbes 2014 400 richest Americans with three billion dollars. (Forbes, 2014, 1) We also have an African-American in the highest office in the world, The White House. For some reason this has led to the belief that African- Americans are no longer struggling. For some reason when one succeeds that means we all have but that is so far from the truth. As Michelle Alexander puts it, “The fact that some African Americans have experienced great success in recent years does not mean that something akin to a racial caste system no longer exists. No caste system in the United…
The speaker made me reflect on how the problem is not about if we have more or less racism, but whether or not we have racial order in America. Through my experiences I have seen many instances in movies, on t-shirts, or in the media that make racist acquisitions, but are not seen as racist because of how dramatically our culture has adjusted to this word “racism”. This lecture showed me that racism is institutional and people need to teach other generations that too. Educating others about the subject is the only way to stop it. I learned that racism control practices are not subtle, but rather invisible to most of the white population.…
The interview by Dr. Veronique Thompson really moved and touched me. She really hit home and it was very informative about the African American community. There are a lot of truth and reality that she spoke during the interview. For example, when she touched on the names that we were once given as a race: Negro, colored, Black and African American. However, my mother never allowed us to use the word nigga, she always told us that the word came from a white group stemming from prejudice. She also informed us that the word negro/nigga caused a lot of pain and hurt to our ancestors because many of our ancestors, were killed, beaten and lynched. In addition to that, I never heard my father say the word Negro/Nigga, the only word he uses is Black…
In summation to this reflection upon this movie/ documentary and article we should all as teachers try to strive to help our students look at each other equally and treat them with the same respect, and by providing this lesson of no discrimination to our students. This will hopefully inspire a future were anyone regardless of what their skin color or their ethnicity can feel powerful and just as important as the people that surround…
America, the land of opportunity, is it really the place you want to be? The United States has a history with discriminating against those who do not meet their definition of pure. There are still small pockets of prejudice set out in the United States. Class Divided is a documentary about a third grade teacher, Jane Elliott, who created psychological experiment to teach her students demoralizing experience of being discriminated against by their own classmates. Jane Elliott divided her class by eye colors, brown and blue eyes, giving priority to one group and making the other inferior. Once a nice group of kids were now outright monsters discriminating their own friends. In the next day, Jane Elliott switches the inferior group with those given priority. And the whole act of discrimination reversed, and those who were discriminating the day before were being discriminated against. This showed those in power will use it at their advantages against others with lesser privileges. Jane Elliott’s gave her class a test to the class and found those given priorities excelled. The data was then sent to Stanford University to be analyzed, however psychologists at Stanford were unable to…
Watching these events unfold visually compelled me in way I never quite had been before from an emotional standpoint- the social implications of these events are so much graver and severe than I had even thought previously. As the documentary noted in the third act, racism is so deeply rooted in American soil that one born here or moving here after the most blatant forms of racism have vanished (segregation) finds themselves unwittingly fitting into racialized society. Without viewing films like these and having the kinds of discussions we do in class about institutionalized racism, it is rather easy to accept it as normal having grown up from a place of privilege.…
Throughout this entire documentary each person expresses how they feel or their experience but some admit that cannot do that in public. I notice that even though we are in the 21st century people like to believe there is equality. But when asked to someone of color they openly comment there is not such thing. Ignorance is probably in those who say “There is no racism in the United States.” Shockingly, it obviously still exist but not many will admit to it. People are open to talk about race, however some tend to feel a little uncomfortable and refuse to go deeper into discussion for fear of saying the wrong thing. Someone in the documentary had stated “People will talk about race; but not racism.” Which is pretty much true. I feel as if someone were to bring up the topic 'race' it is easily discussed but then when asked about racism 'racism' that is when the room becomes quiet and feel as if they cannot really fully express their own opinion about racism for fear of being in a conflict of a sort. However those who participated in this discussion in the documentary they obviously did not hold back and fully explained what it is really like to be a person of color. The others who are 'white Americans' feel as if they cannot really see the racism or think the other participants who are from a different background are treated just as they are; normal Americans. However they fail to see the reality of it; one man stated “People want to hear what it's like to be black and male, and I tell them. Then they go 'Well, I was poor too. I got stopped by the Cops.' What purpose does it serve to bring that up? It makes me feel like I'm being told to just shut the fuck up and get on with your life. That's the way it feels." They like to think everybody experiences the…
In this paper, I will state my reaction on two videos, Eye of the Storm and A Class Divided. These videos are inspired from Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher, who tested a group of her students in teaching them about discrimination. I definitely agree with Elliott in her process of teaching people the importance of ethnicity and discrimination.…
In the book Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, Ellen is a lonely child. She is in a family where she is responsible for her mother’s health and receives little love from her parents. She has few outlets and is forced to suffer the many traumas of her life alone. She eventually gets away from her family only to find more unhappiness while continuing to observe the happiness of families surrounding her. And throughout the entire book she is yearning to belong and become loved. It took Ellen five moves and many hardships to find her true caregiver. But through her journey she forms a picture in her mind of what the perfect family should be like. Simultaneously she comes to understand herself better through her friendship with her black friend Starletta. Although Ellen finally realizes that she is wrong to feel superior to blacks throughout most of the book, Ellen’s racism keeps her from getting a family.…
Racism is a topic that has always been controversial for a countless number of years. It has been a serious topic since the beginning of America. Everyone has been a victim of racism at least one time in their life; no matter what race they may be. But what is racism? Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. People have been trying to find a “cure” to racism for a very long time. “What is the answer to racism?”…
I learned many new things from this video. I learned that many people died in the black’s non-violent revolution for freedom and rights. I also learned that most African Americans were paid an average of only about $700. African Americans were denied education at all white schools, and were only allowed a less than average education at black schools. Under the Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, a number of African American Honors students integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Every day they had to endure abuse from a huge angry mob that protested integration and wanted segregation. I feel that I would not have been able to put up with all that abuse. Those nine students that integrated Central High had great determination and never gave up hope. I also learned that it was a very long and hard struggle for all blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. The KKK terrorized blacks and killed them. Many African Americans were killed before they won the rights that they deserve. I was very proud of all the African Americans that participated in things like the Montgomery bus boycott because it showed that they weren’t afraid of standing up for themselves. I felt joyful that they always had the courage to stay non-violent, because if they turned to violence, the situation would not have turned out the same way. Now I will do anything that I can to eliminate discrimination of anyone because it is a very serious and destructive…
The effect that was made in the students facing these problems in their schools was very terrifying, some of them were in a point of being embarrassed of their heritage. They were embarrassed of being Mexican Americans, and this was something that had to be changed. The rise up of the Chicano students to demand their district officials for equal education rights in their school, was a movement that made the Chicano voice strong not only at East LA but all over the country. This is one point everyone should be able to understand, the video gives us the struggles Mexican Americans were facing at the time, and how they became together to overcome this issue is an example of unity something that we need to do now a days to become stronger and make our voices heard as a…