This week in the course, our topic for consideration was more personal, as it related to bias, prejudice, and oppression. The earliest real memory that I can recall of prejudice or oppression, was in Middle School. My sister, who was younger than me in Elementary School, had a friend who was white, and the girl's brother was a known racist. One day I remember walking across the lawn from the Middle School to the playground that was on the Elementary School grounds (as I did every day to wait for my mother to pick my sister and me up from school), and the girl's brother drove past on his way to pick up his sister from school. He yelled out the window and called me a "nigger", and I remember feeling slightly afraid because I didn't know what he would do next. It surprised me more, to find out that the person in the truck was the brother to my sister's best friend. I couldn't understand how her brother was such a racist, yet my sister and she were best friends.
In a non-fictional book sense, I used to read a lot of books and watch a lot of shows that were really informative and insightful when I was a young lady. I remember the first time ever watching a documentary about Emmett Till, and what actually happened to him as a young child. I could not, and still do not understand how a group of people could batter, and brutalize a mere child for a false accusation. The way that those grown white men dismembered his face, battered, bruised and threw him into the water, was an image that I never forgot to this day. The most disturbing part of the Emmett Till case that I read, and saw within that documentary, was the image of the Smiling white men and they're smiling wives, who came out of the courtroom after their case has been dismissed. It was as if they knew nothing would happen to them for committing such an atrocity, and they were sending a private message to other White Supremacists, that there were no repercussions for their actions. And that image haunts me to this day because the hunting and killing of Black men young and old-still go on in our current society.
In this particular case, I believe that there is not a person or group that could step into this situation and make it better or correct. Just as it was said in the media for this week by Dr. Benavides, when taking into consideration other groups, you have to also take in consideration yourself and your role within identity (Laureate Education, 2011). I say that to mean that group of people would also have to take a good look at themselves and ask themselves what they are really doing and why. If they continue as White Supremacists to feel empowered by making these decisions, then they may not change. But if they take a look inside and find out that they are doing the wrong thing--that is the point at which things will begin to make a change!
Resources:
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). In her own voice: Julie Benavides [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
I enjoyed reading your post. It is sad that on culture will feel that they are better than another culture or race. I experienced a similar situation when I was in middle school. A white boy called me a nigger. I reacted, which caused me to get suspended for 40 days. Yes, 40 days. I was so scared when they called my parents. My parents did not understand how it made me feel, which I felt devastated. I know my reaction was wrong but he should have received some type of consequence.
ReplyDeleteHello Iesha, Your post is sad, but true. Peopl can be related and look at race differently. I am glad Emmett Till's mother decided to let the world know what happened to her son. The sad part is, there are so many more stories of people being brutally murdered for being different. I pray one day America will be the and of the free and more accepting of differences. Thank you for sharing.
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