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Joey Abely
Dr. Drown
ENG-123
29 April 2019
Racism Today; and How UNE can Help
In both cases regarding race each side seem to come an agreeance on the fact that they are not treated well. For an example on the Whiteness Project Alfredo a young white male who is registers culturally as hispanic says, “I identify as culturally Hispanic.. but what color am I? White, and I feel like I am treated that way sometimes…”. This is different in which Alfredo being white wants to be accepted as his culture, hispanic, but seems to be neglected that opportunity due to his skin color. This next example gets to me the most and I am sure it will get to you as well; in the Blackness Project a young African American female named Nacole was just about to have a baby and was talking to her boss about the newborn and family leave policy at the company, and he responded by saying, “Who keeps your job because you just had a baby? “Oh well why don’t you just leave him in the cage because that’s where he will be when he gets older”. With this response not only did it shock everybody in the workplace and everybody who soon learned about it but it shocks me and should shock you as well. It should not only shock you because of the rude remark made but because of the nature in the boss for saying that.
Actions like this make you wonder how and why and how any human with some sort of authority thinks like that. It should also make you scared for the fact that that statement said would be even a thought let alone said out loud to the individual in a professional setting. With that being said the Blackness project also talk about having to deal with this in everyday life. The deep story of people speaking in the Blackness Project film is about how these individuals deal with and continue to deal with racism in everyday life. These people being interviewed were extremely passionate about the message they were attempting to portray about racism in the world. The people in the film were trying to get the viewers to understand that their experiences with racism is harmful and completely and one hundred percent unnecessary.
In addition to these facts about racism and how it still affects our world today famous author Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a book called “Between the World and Me” which is rich with information regarding racism and how Coates learned to grow around it. On page 9 of the book Coates said, “All of this is common to black people. And all of this is old for black people. No one is held responsible”. In my opinion this is the most important quote of the book and the whole semester worth of writing. Coates being a critically acclaimed african american author just made the truest statement of a lifetime by saying that quote. When Coates says, “No one is held responsible” that should be the real eye opener for us. That clearly means that racism was not caused by anyone alive at this point meaning it dates back forever and at this point in the worlds time black people are used to it. After realizing that it makes me extremely upset due to the fact that in my opinion racism will never end. It has been going on since humans have started keeping records which can date back to the early Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs who also kept slaves.
With facts like these coming into play and realizing that the world is going to hit another economic struggle in the future can we really have confidence in society to end racism? A good start to an idea that could potentially be detrimental to the form of ending racism would be to get schools and universities on board with publicly helping about fixing racial issues. Whether or not the racial issues are being fixed at schools, events, or anywhere on campus it is important to know that these are the future parents of the new coming era and making them aware of and getting rid of racism in them could potentially create a racism free world for the new upcoming era.
Furthermore, I am an undergraduate student at the University of New England Biddeford Maine campus. I absolutely love it here, but if I could change one thing it would definitely be to increase the number of colored students at the school. Now that might not be a “social habit” but with the university being 88% white and 12% black (roughly), according to a student in my class, I feel as though it could be useful and beneficial to the university and the students who attend like myself if they tried to even the demography numbers. I currently play on the club hockey team and have an extremely strong tie with the captains and coaches of the team. Those are my strong ties on the team because multiple times during the season I was texted one hour before leaving for a big game if I could drop everything and come load my truck up to drive our bags to the game. Hypothetically speaking if I were to utilize those ties I would do so by seeing if we could convince or even recruit more colored people for our team. Currently speaking our team is composed of all white players, coaches, staff, and even the person who cleans the ice and rink is white. With that being said I can not remember a time where I have even seen a person of color in the rink let alone play against them; but during the season you will see the occasional colored fan or player for an opposing team. My plan would be to utilize my strong ties and get more colored people playing and watching our team. I would only promote social habits that are encouraging or nice nothing mean or upsetting.
An anti racist movement at the University of New England would change a very bad social habit. Making people aware of racism and all of its effects would change the social habit of people classifying other people based off of looks. An anti racist movement would mean much more to the population of the University than just holding signs and listening to speeches, it would mean that school was finally officially addressing some of the larger issues in our country. It would also show that the school is stepping up their support for these such movements.
In conclusion, by putting a simple plan into action and following through with the potential outcome the world could become a racism free planet in the upcoming centuries. It is small things like these that are brought to the attention of all the world to view that ends up becoming a big idea and this could be the next one.
