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People of Quality Respect Race Equality

Saheba Cuccia,
New Orleans, LA.
Aspen X

Adopted and raised in the South, I have seen and heard of the racial barriers that some people use to divide us. The color of your skin should not determine anything such as relationships, jobs, and social standing in society.

Refuse to follow the racial constructs.

Louisiana
Racquel Picou,
New Orleans, LA.
Aspen X
To me race is just a social and political construct that is very binding. A reason for humans to hate each other’s differences and to create these unwarranted and detestable battles for superiority. I’ve been forced before to just tick a single box in standardized test that says if you’re not the same you’re below. Or if its wrong to want to know and take part in another culture. I believe that race is a term that should never have been created.

Not all innocent. Not all guilty.

Caroline Kish,
Dunwoody, GA.

I will not deny that race continues to reek extreme havoc on modern day social order. I see it every day at my high school, in the news, and even on the billboards lining the highway. We can all say that we ‘don’t see color’, but in reality, there are not many truly color blind people in the world. Most of us can’t help resorting to stereotypes the instant we see someone who is not a member of our race.

But this does not mean that we are all racist. Today, many think in black and white and generally tend to emphasize the licentious tendencies of human character. But we are not inherently evil, and if we work together to break down the barriers between the peoples of the world that have stood for centuries, we can make peace with who we all are.

Afraid for my Native American children.

Jarret Cummings,
Rockville, MD

My wife and children are members of the Cherokee Nation, but we have the good fortune to live in an area where they are unlikely to face discrimination. I worry about what may happen if my children ultimately go someplace where racial discrimination is still prevalent and how I should prepare them for that possibility. As a white male raised in Texas, I’ve never before had to think about racial discrimination as a personal concern as opposed to a social and political problem. Now, the thought of my wife, son, or daughter possibly having an encounter with the police has a chilling dimension to it that’s hard to process.

#EDUCAUSE2018

“I’m not just “that white chick”

I have been dishonored and have had racism directed towards me recently in my life, and all because I am a young white female. I have gotten sour looks, disrespectful words, and mean gestures thrown my way because of this. Although I have not experienced a lot of this behavior, I still feel it is something nobody should go through. About a month ago, two friends and I were out walking, and we got ridiculed by a man, all because we were white. He said “Look there’s five dollars right here on the floor! Girls, look!” when we didn’t look, because we were smart and knew he was probably some drunk molester or something, he continued yelling and said “You don’t care, you know why? It’s because you’re white! You rich spoiled white girls! Don’t have a care in the world!” He kept yelling, but it was inaudible to me. That was the first time I have experienced racism firsthand, and have only seen events since. Like, being spit on by someone my age when I was camping with my friends, and being scowled at when I was in Mazatlan for having the only white family at a resort. This is why we need to teach the actual backing of race. This is why we need to educate.

Race: Biological or Social?

Race is not real. Forget what you know, and listen closely, because you have been taught fiction, not fact. This is fact, because race has no biological backing whatsoever. Instead, it is a manmade concept, that was created to segregate people from one another.

According to the American Anthropological Association, gene variation between ¨races¨ is almost nothing.¨Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic “racial” groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes.¨ This means that someone of Asian background and someone of Mexican background have more in common than two people of Asian background. They argue that ¨”race” as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: the English and other European settlers, the conquered Indian peoples, and those peoples of Africa brought in to provide slave labor.¨ This means that race was created, not by nature, but by people who thought they were better than others. In the end, race is not a biological concept, but a social one, but, even if race is not real, that does not mean that the consequences aren’t. So, in conclusion, we should try to find ways to stop race, before it stops us.

I don’t know if I understand

Zach Perrin,
Cincinnati, OH.

I don’t think I’m racist, in my day to day life I interact with black people a lot actually and have never once had a problem. I also know that we have systematic problems, stemming from slavery, Jim Crow, etc. that still need to be dealt with. But are these the qualifications for not being racist? Or is it deeper than that? Because I have some mildly racist parents, and knowing a bit about how kids pick up social, economic, and political beliefs from there parents, is it possibly that I’m racist without even knowing it? Because like I said I’d like to think I’m not racist but how can I tell ya’ know? That seems like something a black person would have to evaluate me on. But then is it ignorant to believe that only a black person can tell? I don’t know honestly race just brings up so many confusing questions it’s like a f’n minefield. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t know if racism is something that can be understood the same way by everybody or if you really have to have experienced it to know what it is. I like to think I know what racism is but that also just sounds pretentious coming from a middle class white kid.

Who Will “Us” Be? with Anand Giridharadas, Eric Liu, Michele Norris, Monica Lozano & Paul Taylor

REPOST: Streamed live on June 29, 2014

Who Will “Us” Be? w/ Anand Giridharadas, Eric Liu, Michele Norris, Monica Lozano & Paul Taylor

There have long been two notions of what it means to be American: one is civic and colorblind, found in our Constitution and creed; the other, quite simply, is about being white. For much of our history, whiteness and Americanness were treated as the same. But now they are becoming delinked: being white is no longer the default for being American. This has generated so much of the turbulence and angst of our current political culture. And this shift now puts everyone to the test: Will white Americans learn to let go of their implicit primacy, and will Americans of color learn to elevate the submerged American creed and embrace it? This is the challenge of our moment: to define “all-American” in terms that both embrace and transcend race. In 2024, what will it mean to be “an American?”

The Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation’s premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Learn more at:http://www.aspenideas.org/

 

“Not seeing” race is a privilege!

Amanda Feinman
Poughkeepsie, NY

Race is a social category, which is given meaning by institutional and cultural systems of advantage of disadvantage. Race is significant in light of these conferred and withheld advantages: it continues to dictate the distribution of resources; it impacts access to education, healthcare, employment, and other areas of the public sphere; and it affects internalized perceptions of ourselves and others. Racism is any action, project, or redistribution of resources that works to reproduce the dominant racial power structure. This occurs on the level of individual actors, groups, institutions, and societally.

Despite normative liberal notions that we are in an era of equal treatment – of “post-racism,” or “color-blindness” – race continues to hold societal weight. To act and think under any kind of “color-blind” framework is oppressive, because it erases the historical, social, and political importance of race as a constructed category. As a white person who was brought up in a “liberal” ideological environment, I was taught from a young age that race shouldn’t matter, and that in order to achieve fairness we should not consider it. Though this advice may be well-intentioned, it is dangerous. To operate under a framework that “doesn’t see” race at all – and, consequently, “doesn’t see” the systemic advantages conferred and denied on the basis of race – is an exercise of privilege.

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