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The Whiteness Project and the Blackness Project are both huge statement makers. Both projects portray a loud voice with very strong statements involving the racial tensions that run throughout the US today. Also, both projects give the people who participated a chance to share their personal experience with the problem of racism or to just speak about the topic of race. I feel like all these people on both sides had something to say about the topic at hand. Some things that the people in the whiteness project said were senseless and arrogant but some of the other people in the whiteness project said some things that really made me realize that there are good people who don’t use the color of their skin as a perk. On the other hand, the blackness project displays the same boundaries where people talk about their experiences and things of that such. The blackness project felt deeper obviously because, number one I can relate to their problems, but they also have firsthand experience with the problems that come with racial tensions and racism.
The issue involving “race” is a figure in everyone’s lives, white or black but it may just figure and effect our lives in different ways. For example, Connor from the whiteness project states, “There have been plenty of times where I had consciously taken advantage of the fact that I am white and umm you know I always kind of knew that if I got in trouble I could just get a lawyer, suit up, show up and it’ll just be a slap on the wrist” for example “I’ve been arrested at least 20 times and the only thing that I have on my record is public intoxication”. This very well describes the way “race” effected/effects Connors life. Another example on how “race” effects a white person’s life, “When I got my job for example, I walked in there, and I just looked like a clean cut white person, and they hired me pretty much because of that reason, it’s just the small things that no one really notices, but life’s a little bit easier being white.”- Nicholas. In this quote Nicholas clearly states that it is just much more easier being white. These are all not things that are monumental in these people’s lives, they won’t have to hide their true self and put on a false persona to get a job. They don’t have to cover their identity when walking in a store, so they don’t get accused of stealing.
“Race”, just reading, hearing, or seeing the word gives me so many flashbacks or being profiled, diminished or abused verbally. Even when it is told as a joke it still makes me feel bad. This statement can be related to the fact that I feel as police or the people who are supposed to be protecting us are either killing us or taking their time saving us because of this idea of race. In the blackness project a man who was interviewed says, “We all a army you know and out here instead of the police doing out here what they doing we suppose to be policing our own communities. When you seeing something out here some type of injustice don’t be a punk man intervein say something that’s your right to say something you know what I mean.” This is a pure example of how black people have become accustomed to trying their best to save themselves and set rules for themselves. There is one more example that explains how just the color of our skin has labeled us as the enemy over the years. Jamie shares her experience, “Every time I come in contact with police it’s always a problem of course, I’m black you white you part of the law I’m a black man out here you think I’m selling drugs, well actually I’m on my way to work.”
If you want my honest opinion, I feel that there would never be an end to racism, I feel like if there was an end. The forever lasting scar would be prone to reopen any time of the day. The only way I feel as if there would be close to an end of racism is raising the next generation of children to no see people as the color of their skin but the color of their blood. Because in that sense we are all the same and equal. But, the downfall to attempting that is, the racists people would not be for raising their children to become not racist, I am a firm believer in you are not born a racist you are taught to be a racist.
