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
Irene, I totally agree with the fact that it is hard to talk about racism because in the Adams chapters it says that everyone has some sort of racist thoughts even though they don't realize it. It's hard to be a mestiza, and I love that you added that quote because a lot of the times I feel like that; I feel like I am being pulled from two sides because my boyfriend has this culture he follows and my family has another, it's hard to have a conversation with both sometimes. I think the best thing to do is to be aware that we are a racist culture from the beginning because you see closely, Asian people hang with only Asians and Hispanics do the same and all the other races too,so lack of knowledge of the cultures is present thus arises the negative connotations and racist feelings ect.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! =]
I agree with the both of you. It's extremely difficult for me to speak on race, and even in the classes that have nothing to do with race, it always pops up. Sometimes I wish that it didn't have to be talked about because of the constant discomfort that it causes everyone. But I do feel as though people need to be discomforted in order to address some issues.
ReplyDeleteI love your description of race as being one of society's worst success. Sometimes it really boggles my mind how such a hostile mindset caught on so quickly or how so many people are so quick to embrace it. And you are right about the problem being too big for us alone. We cannot simply change society's rules or change the thoughts of people of all ages, genders, and colors ect. but I will definitely try to make them re-evaluate how they feel and what the believe.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
For me it's difficult to talk about race because i an afraid to hurt anyone's feelings. I think after class today I realized the necessity. People have a lot of feelings about racism that need to be discussed. This blogg thing is a start!!
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