This was written for a class I took in 2013 at Marygrove College. In my last sentence I state "
I would like to think that as each generation passes on the one coming up behind it will have less prejudice and be more accepting of all people. " Well waiting for each generation to pass will not work. We must work together now to make life better for all.
I am learning more than I imagined I would in Foundations of Literacy for Liberation.
What really surprises me is how much my world is colored white. I always supported equal rights, highly respected Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, was delighted when Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court, had the greatest respect for Colin Powell and had no difficulty accepting President Obamas election to the nation’s highest office.
I believed that equal rights was making great strides with the advent of more African-American representation in government, legal systems, education, TV and entertainment to name a few areas.
However, that perception was colored white. I was shocked to discover that prejudice exists not only from whites but within the Afro-American community. Prejudice exists on guess what? Skin color! Yes, skin color. From days of enslavement until the present the lighter skin possessed by an Afro-American the more highly desired it makes the person. Dark skinned slaves worked in the fields and lighter skinned slaves in the house. Today lighter skinned people have the advantage over darker skinned people in getting and retaining good jobs. I hope I am accurately quoting Dr. Johnson “dark black women have difficulty finding husbands because black men prefer lighter skinned women.” If you pay attention to television ads almost always a woman of color has lighter skin.
I happened on a movie the other day, Exhale. It was a story of four Afro-American women and their love interests. One woman was divorced by her black husband; he left her for a white woman. Another man sought out one of the women and wanted to rekindle a relationship but was unwilling to leave his white wife.
As I observe other students in class I see what a vast difference exists between what we read, watch on TV and the music we listen to. Many of the works they refer to I have never heard of. I do have to say I enjoy listening to them talk and am willing to listen to Rap and Hip Hop because of these discussions. However my music of choice is Pop/Contemporary Christian and Classical. They talked about Atomic Dog. I had never heard of it.
Where have I been? I was aware of racial profiling and have no doubt it exists however I never thought it was pervasive. They discussed being followed in department stores. I can say this happened to me a couple of times, usually when I was poorly attired. So I thought maybe it is more than race. Is it? Or is that what I want to think as a white person.
Perhaps not all of my ignorance is due to color, but what I was exposed to as I grew up. I have also learned about schema, which is the store house of knowledge, or frame of reference a person brings to learning. Schema is impacted by sociological, psychological, and learning experiences.. So I guess since my schema includes my experiences as a white person, I might not want to be too hard on myself.
I shared some of these new insights with Dr. Brown and she came up with the term “glowing white girl.” I have no idea if she made that up or if that term really exists.
Dr. Johnson believes that these prejudices will go on forever. I would like to think that as each generation passes on the one coming up behind it will have less prejudice and be more accepting of all people.