Tim Wise

First of all let me say the film was not at all what I had expected it to be, it was so much more interesting and true in many of the ways. To hear it from a privileged white male, it seem to hit home even more, if I had heard it from someone else, it probably would not have hit home as much. What is sad, that it took someone on the outside looking in to open up the eyes of many who refused to recognize the seriousness of the problem in and around America. I am not surprised at all that it is almost as strong today, that people who are privileged are still turning the other cheek and refusing to step up and make a change starting with themselves. I also feel that we as a people of color have just as much change to begin, supporting our minority communities, uplifting each other and encouraging each other, we can not expect for others to do what we have not begun to do ourselves. When we see each other on a majority white privileged university campus, wave, smile and say hello to each other. What will bring us together no one can tear apart and come to realize that it may be this way for many more years but do not lose hope and continue to stand up for equal justice for all. I can not feel bitter anymore and or sad, I have to stand tall and stay strong and mentor those in our communities that they should try any open avenues for an higher education and to stand up for their rights when being discriminated against. The realization is that the privileged may not be willing to risk what they have, even though not earned but given to them, to stand against unfair practices against African Americans and we must keep it moving forward to see that everyone has an equal opportunity, just like the privileged do. When asked to think of privileges that I felt I held, I came up with two, being a woman and receiving a college education and I am still pondering about what other privileges do I have. If that film information had come from anyone else, such as a African American/ and or Latino, the first thing would have been said was aggressive, anger, bitterness and complainer and people would have ignored the entire lecture even some people of color, what they perceive of us, we sometimes perceive ourselves the same way.

Sorting People By Race

As I read the readings, watch the film and did the Sorting the Race activity, I am discovered that I was putting labels on people just as much as people were placing on me. I am not sure why but I just feel it is apart of a learned behavior. In the article How white People becam white, I was a little confused on how "just" white people became white, what I took from the article was that maybe how much money you made in the article it says "white men's wages". Something new that I learned was that during the great depression they considered greeks to have African American, Indian and white heritage, so it just goes along with what has been said in history that just some blood of African American in your body, you are considered to be "Black". In the The roots of racial classification" I have always pondered over the fact why are they so many poor people in one of the richest nations and that equality is in the consitution but not followed by our politicians, who claim to be for equal justice. There were two similiarities that slaves were most likely enslaved because the color of their skin and that is how they identified slave property, it is no different of what is happening today, for Newt to say that "Black communities on foodstamps" he just put all African Americans in one pot. I agree with the film when Dr. Ben Carson spoke of taking a childs hand and embracing him or her with the rich history of African Americans can change that childs future by acknowledging all the important inventions in our history was created by his ancestors.
"Is Race for Real?" was an interesting activity of course thats when I realize that I too, was putting people in an category of which I assumed they should be. The three facts that stood out to me were the socities part in divding people by their religion, class and even their language and putting you on a ladder of where they felt you should be. Another fact was that people were enslaved because of looking similiar to another person, like anything not white was considered inferior, heathens and even savages and that were doing African Americans a favor to christianize them and enslave them because they did not know any better, than to be led in chains by someone of "white" skin. The third fact I found interesting was the colorblindness will not end racism, I found some truth in that because we have to identify who is not being fairly treated and so if there was no mention of race we would not have the statistics to show inequality.

Bob Herbert-A New Civil Rights Movement

The article by Bob Herbert was interesting and true in many ways, there isn't accessible avenues to the communities with a large drop out rate. Until services provided in the wealthy districts are available to all districts this increased drop out rates among young African American youths will continue to increase. There is a need for more positive role models to step up to help out the youth and maybe a boost of encouragement about setting goals for their future.
The Newt-Ginrich video was not surprising to me, most conservative politicians do not know what goes on in disadvantaged communities and are ignorant to what needs to be done to increase positivity in those communities and for this politician to include all African Americans in one group shows the ignorance of many whom think the same as he does.