Mind boggled by racism...

This whole time I figured I had a good grip of what racism was actually all about. I actually went home a couple of weeks ago and a friend saw me reading our Adams' text and saw "racism" in there and asked me, "Well what is race? This always gets me confused when they ask in applications and what not." I sat there and pondered for a few minutes and I finally answered with i don't even remember what; because as of now I'm pretty sure what ever I told him does not even come close to being "right".

Reading over the Critical Race Theory, the Zinn book and our our Text (which I may add, I absolutely love some of the last essays) has me a bit confused and not to mention the articles as well. My mind can't seem to make up it's mind and my heart continues to be angry. As Gwen has mentioned in class before, this topic not one she likes to address and finds it hard for her and I think we can all agree that it's not a very easy topic for any of us to talk about.

Racism; a social construction at its finest dated ever since our land was discovered and only getting fed more and more by society. One can maybe even call it, societies worst success. And unfortunately, as much as we would like to change this as social workers it is way to powerful for us. This doesn't mean we will ever stop attempting. We've seen it through history which Zinn has allowed us to relive as well as our quick glimpse into the Fatal Flood in class and with the article; we've seen it in society which our text gives us a couple personal anecdotes about and lets not forget we've witnessed or experienced it ourselves.

Still confused over this matter I hope to slowly but surely gain more understanding of it and be able to answer the question that was posed to me weeks back with greater quality and less ignorance. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved some of the small essays written in the text so I leave you with a quote that hit close to home;

"Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war."
-Gloria Anzaldua

-I leave you with your thoughts...

Their History

As we get "assigned" the readings for the Zinn book, I think I can speak for the class when I say that, I am completely shocked. Well for the most part. I say for the most part because some of this had been covered through some of my history courses taken in the past. But nevertheless Zinn expresses history through a whole different perspective.

As I read Zinn and as we discuss in class about taking on perspectives and knowing about who is telling us our history I can't help about a recent event that impacted me personally and others in the community.

A couple months ago, those in charge of what the public education's text books presented were stuck in a dilemma. They had chosen to expel some significant components from the history textbooks that teachers would HAVE to use and districts HAVE to make MANDATORY. Significant figures like Cesar Chavez and Malcolm X would be taken out of the text and in response out of the curriculum. These significant figures are as important for a minority student to learn as any other student. Why take away from the U.S. history? Should this be considered lying? Is this a social problem?

"Is this a social problem?" the question asked by our guest speaker this past week and a very important question in a broad variety of issues. What we consider social injustice is in the eye of the beholder, and in my eyes the above topic is definitely a social problem.

Zinn in many ways has made me not only a more intense critical thinker but also a more open minded being.



-I leave you with your thoughts...