The Good Racist People Analysis

In the article “The Good, Racist People,” Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses an event which resulted in Forest Whitaker being accused of shoplifting. What could possibly be a reason to assume Whitaker, a famous actor, had committed shoplifting? From Coates’ point of view, many others want to believe that this encounter was a misunderstanding that had nothing to do with race. Whitaker was accused of shoplifting and then was frisked, based only on his appearance. Coates then goes on to claim that the owner’s apology argued that the incident was a “‘sincere mistake’ and how the worker was a ‘decent man’ who was ‘just doing his job’ ”. (par. 3) In this quote, we are seeing an excuse trying to justify this event, for which Coates wants to believe the apology.
To illustrate, he uses the history of New York and how it still “bear[s] the scars of redlining, blockbusting and urban renewal” (para 6). He points out past arrangements and how we have shaped the city in such a way that racism is embedded in society. Why do we still segregate by color and wealth in New York City? We have similar races and classes living in the same area because that is the only possible option they have. They are either poor or, due to their race, they have limited options available to them. Manhattan is a great example of the segregation we still have today, where the larger part of residents are white upper middle class citizens. Bronx and Queens have a larger population of low income of Hispanics and Blacks. We then associate that coming from these poor neighborhoods automatically makes residents poor as well. The amount of funding that goes into these neighborhoods is less compared to the neighborhoods of higher classes. What we create is a scene where normal occurrences are really the results of building for the middle class, essentially blinding us from seeing the injustice. How can we expect to stop racist acts if we, as a city, can’t even see the segregation of our neighborhoods? Racism can be connected to many different aspects, one being how we view ourselves and others based on classes, races and at other times on our
Tankwanchi talks about the Ebola incident to express the racist actions that were present through the course of actions the world took: “in early August 2014 the WHO Director-General declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). But, as Gostin (2014) rightly observed, ‘a major international response did not occur until two American aid workers and a Spanish priest became infected.’ By that time, nearly 1,000 patients had already died in West Africa.” (Para 4 Tankwanchi) This incident shows that society acted after the death of three rather than the death of hundreds. What value did those three lives hold that the nearly 1000 other lives didn’t? The cause of the neglect of the sub-Saharan Africa was that other countries ignored the problem. Rather than lending a helping hand, society only acted when it was affecting their own people. Another example of racism can be seen with societal views of the Syrian immigrants. Due to the bombing in Paris where members of ISIS killed civilians, our views of the Syrian immigrants have taken a change for the worse: from viewing Syrian immigrants, who are trying to find a new life, as innocent to changing our views in an extreme way as now seeing them as a threat to our society. We as America can be said that we presume that due to ISIS associating itself with Islam, Islam is associating with ISIS and also condones their actions; the actions of the few is now seen as the actions of the