I thought this book was quite interesting. The first part defines what racism is and how people use that term and the word prejudice interchangeably. The author talks about how those two words are not the same. Also, the author talks about how racism is learned and we are not born racist. I agree with that statement and I never realized how racist people around me were (including my parents and close friends). When I had a friend over who was not asian, my parents would ask why I am hanging out with her. Also, friends would ask why I was hanging out with people that were not Korean. It actually blew my mind how even in a melting pot like America, people are still ignorant.
The author talks about how the black kids didn’t all start out at the same table. In elementary school, you see all different races interacting with each other. I agree with this. In elementary school, I had many friends that were from all different racial backgrounds and we never noticed that we were different. However, in high school, I saw a table strictly with black students sitting together. I always wondered why this was so. Also, the security guards always seem to pick on those students and blame them for starting a fight or a ruckus.
The author also talks about how society has a certain perception on black people. Even though people are not directly being racist, through certain actions, they are indirectly being racist. For example, women hold their purses a little tighter, police officers harasses them, and people lock their doors when a black kid passes. Black students start to realize that they are being treated differently and most of the time, unfairly. It is shocking to still see black people being treated unfairly. I remember when me and my friends needed to take a cab, a cab passed by a black man who waved his hands first, and came to us instead. The cab ignored the black man even though he clearly hailed the cab first. The black man then came over and they got into a quarrel. It was shocking to see how black people were being treated even at this modern day. So the author’s depiction on how they are still being treated is very true.
Also, the author talks about how a black student is being treated unfairly by a teacher and she tells her white friend about it. However, the white friend just responds by saying that the teacher probably didn’t mean it. The white friend does not understand how it feels to be black because they are never inaccurately accused of anything or being mistreated for no reason. The author explains how only black people knows how a black person feels like and what they go through. So they end up sitting in the same cafeteria and hanging out with other blacks who understands.
I agree with what the author is saying. I feel like I would never know how a black friend feels like when they are being mistreated because of their skin color. Only someone who have experienced the same mistreatment because of their skin color would know how it really feels like.
Also, if a black student did very well in school, people would say, “Oh you are not really black”. And black students didn’t want to be separated from their black friends so they reject being in honors and tried to “play down their academic success”. However, a black student named Jon did not do anything that a “typical black person” would do (basketball, cross-country). He wanted to prove to his white peers that not all black people had to do those things.
While reading all this, certain questions came to mind:
Does having all these stereotypes and indirect racism encourage the black students to act in the way of how society already views them? For example, in my high school, a black student told me that security guards harasses him and accuses him for no reason. So the black student says that it doesn’t matter how he acts because they are going to treat him the same either way.
How did some stereotypes come about? Do you feel like there is some truth in stereotypes? Like how asians are good at math, blacks are good at sports, white people are intelligent? What are some ways that we can stop stereotypes? Do you think educating people on racism and stereotypes will stop it or do you think it would encourage it even more?