![SASC - Student Academic Success Center - UNE [logo]](https://files.uneportfolio.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/02/SASCLogoSquare_Smaller-3-e1644936452801.jpeg)
Ryan DeLuca
April 7th, 2019
ENG 123
Dr. Drown
Is there a solution to racism?
Race has been an issue all around the world and there seems to be no definitive way to stop it. I examined multiple sources to try and come to a conclusion if race is real and to see in what ways millennials and professional’s think about race. Now let’s talk about how millennials and professionals thought on race relate to reality and then think about what it would take to put a stop to racism.
After watching and listening to a documentary called the whiteness project I was shocked to hear this is how millennials think about race, a lot of the speakers acknowledged that there is a bias towards white people. One person from the Whiteness Project named Connor who is white pointed out that he would have been in prison if he wasn’t white he also thinks the reason he hasn’t gotten in big trouble is because he’s white, Connor says “I always kind of knew that if I got in trouble I could get a lawyer, suit up, show up and it would be a slap on the wrist.” Connor has been arrested multiple times for possession of drugs but has never gotten charged or put in jail. Another person from the whiteness project voiced his opinion on race his name is Wade, he says “The people that say the most awful things that I’ve ever heard in person are those people, are those white people that get drunk and sit at my bar and spout off nonsense and makes me really disappointed that I have to be lumped into the same category as them.” From Wades point of view, he is disappointed that he is categorized the same as white people because of the awful things that white people did in the past.
After the whiteness project was created it was talked about a lot on the T.V and some people in the black community thought it would be cool to do the same style documentary but getting the opinions from black people in the black community the documentary is called The Blackness Project. The Blackness project is made the same way the whiteness project was created minus the white people, it was created by interviewing black people and getting their opinions on what they think about race in American and what they think the issue is. In the Blackness project some shared their personal experiences of racial inequality, a woman named Verniece shares an issue she sees and experiences in the work force she says, “If you go into a bunch of folks, you’ll realize that we work just as hard if not harder, because often times my grandfather said you gotta be twice as good in order to get half the credit.” Verniece grew up in the racially divided America of the 60’s she experienced firsthand racial inequality especially in the work place, when she was growing up like Verniece stated blacks had to put in double the effort in order to get partial credit, we have come along way at combatting racial inequality in the work force, but we still have some ground to cover. The racial inequality among work places and other places has caused the black community to “Cover” their true identity and show a more stream lined, a more professional man or woman to make a statement.
Kenji Yoshino is the creator of the concept of covering, Yoshino says people use coving to protect them-selves and that’s exactly what a man named Ramon Ray has done. Ray is a business entrepreneur he dresses business casual because he wants to look professional but that didn’t stop people from profiling him as “The Help”, white people also profile black men as “Menacing” or violent so to combat this he started keeping his distance from white woman in order to make sure he isn’t disturbing the peace just by minding his own business, Ray had to change is behavior to keep away from white woman in certain areas even though he is probably a nice guy and would greet them nicely with a smile. Verniece adds to this by stating, “I always knew that we were black, and I had an obligation and a responsibility to conduct myself in a most skillful way and that is one thing that I am grateful for and being raised in a family that was conscious of not only our selves but the society in which we operated in.” In order to maximize the chances of success black families had to raise their children with high standards set to ensure their children have a chance to break past the racial barriers. If raising your kids to the highest standards doesn’t seem to be breaking down racial barriers, what will it take for racism to be done with?
One man seems to have the answer to racial division, his name is Steve Olson and he wrote an article about how mixed Hawaii is and if racial mixing would solve the problem of race he also talked about is race is genetic or if its mythological. In his article stated Hawaii’s high rate of intermarriage has painted the picture in our heads that in order for racial tensions to diminish everyone would need to be racially mixed. But Steve Olson proved this to be wrong Olson says, “Despite the high rate of intermarriage here, ethnic and racial tensions haven’t really disappeared.” Although Hawaii has the highest rate of intermarriage people still think that there racial mixing is better than someone else’s racial mixing someone may be mixed with people that have had power in the past or be related to royalty, some people think the more mixed you are the better you are even though they all may have started in the same spot and more than likely have similar racial mixing. This makes the argument that mixing everyone racially would solve the racism, it really wouldn’t, a new issue would arise yes, we would all look alike but some would be mixed more than others and they would use that to their advantage.
Alright so if mixing everyone won’t solve the race issue we have here on planet earth then what will solve this issue? I personally think racism will eventually make its way out, with all the history and with all the knowledge about racism it will be difficult to end racism tomorrow this is something that takes time. In order to ensure racism makes its way-out politicians need to stop using the word so liberally and calling every part of our economy racist in order to gain votes. Part of the reason it’s been sticking around is because politicians use it as ammo to help their political agenda which isn’t right. What I think would help with racism in America specifically is to have politicians stop using race as ammo to gain followers and power only to do nothing about the issue.
Literature Cited
Hauser, Christine. “How Professionals of Color Say They Counter Bias at Work.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/us/racial-bias-work.html.
Yoshino, Kenji. “The New Civil Rights.” The New Civil Rights, pp. 479–490.
This is the PDF so you can see all the MLA stuff
