Racial Smog Analysis

Anthropology 101 Week 2 Discussion (Race and Identity) Instructor K. Burke

In my opinion “racial smog” is a term used to describe society’s prejudgment of an individual or group of people by how they look, without knowing or gaining actual facts of their character. For instance, any type of hate group would be surrounded in racial smog; meaning that they allow their beliefs and perspectives of hate to guide them in how they treat or believe another group of people should be treated. Racial categories affect everyone’s life whether we believe it does or not. I believe that racial categories are designed to set groups of people apart, but also cause everyone that falls into certain categories to be stereotyped. For instance, it may seem
I am black and I have natural hair. I wear my hair in twist a lot because it looks more professional and will keep my hair from frizzing all over my head. I recall the first time I wore my hair to work without twist. During the day, one my white male coworkers came up to me and asked me if my hair was real and if he could touch it. I was confused and asked him why he thought my hair was unreal and his response was that he had never seen a black woman with hair to the middle of her back and that black women wore weaves because they did not have hair. I just laughed really hard because I really wanted to punch him in his face. Then I proceeded to let him know that black women are not the only women who wear weaves and the ones that do probably wear them because in the military it is truly a convenience, especially if you have natural hair. There was even a time when a new guy in-processed through the company, he was white but his skin was dark enough that he could have passed for white. A few of the guys made a comment that everyone better go make sure their cars are locked up before something comes up missing. They thought it was hilarious until he walked up to them and told them that he was white and found it very offensive that they would say that about him because they thought he was black. It amazes me how we as a society judge people just by looking at their skin and not getting to know one another. I also believe that we are all guilty of it. Some of us may not do it intentionally, but I think everyone has had a moment where they prejudged someone based off their looks. It is something that society programs into us and even the things we are brought up to believe play a part. It as if our society can only progress with a particular racial