Upon reading the first part of Tatum, we come across many interesting points. First off, there is a definition of racism that racism is also included in social as well as governmental areas. Being racist is not a hereditary thing, so we are not born with it. Racism is the direct result of the environment and people we grow up around. In this sense, it is instilled in us over a period of time and changes the way we perceive others. We should not judge others because of their skin color. Tatum goes on to state that the way we could overcome this is by implementing this idea at home, so that from the get go, awareness is raised. This will make things easier when the children ages into a more mature being, and the idea is implemented again.
Another really interesting point is that within racism, there is a tendency for person to be more targeted based on their shade of skin. Tatum pointed out that lighter skinned black people were less targeted for racism, than darker skinned black people. This is still going on today, and it makes you think how crazy the world is still. With all this being said, is there truly a way to end racism today? And if there is, how do we begin to come about it?
I agree with the points in this post. Racism does exist in social environments as well as governmental issues.Also racism or any type of prejudice views are not hereditary.However, if you say it is about the environment people grow up in, explain this to me.From personal experience, I lived in my neighborhood for over 20 years now.So I have a great understanding of the mind sets of individuals in my neighborhood.Most of the time generalizations are made of different groups of people.(i.e white cops, other black people, etc)However,I am a very open-minded person to different cultures and have friends from different ethnic groups.Might I mention having parents from the Caribbeans, sadly, they do have instilled perceptions of people.So I am not sure if the environment and people you grow up around keep individuals open-minded to a diverse circle.Learning is very important in the household but it depends on the household in a way, but it depends on the mind of the individual if they are willing to look beyond skin color.
As I mentioned in class a couple of weeks ago, the light skin vs. dark skin complex is ridiculous.However, we have to remember the media has a lot to do with this issue.(i.e Comedians, Music Videos etc).We often make random jokes on a daily basis about other races.However, what we need to know is that a joke has its truth.With that being said we are in a cycle of joke.If we often times mimic important issues, they will remain a least bit of concern.Its until we are faced with the issue of a racist moment is when we want to act on/ or talk about the wrongness of it.