I would agree that being white in America is a huge privilege, but whites refuse to acknowledge the darkness and injustice in Americas past, and they use stories like George Washington and the Cherry tree to give America a more noble appearance. By refusing to acknowledge the darkness in America's past, whites also deny that they are privileged because of their skin color. “Whites in order to maintain a sense of ourselves as good and decent people, living in a good and decent society, have been compelled to deny, deny, deny when it comes to racism” (64). I agree with Wise. Whites always seem to try to leave the racism in past, and they claim that it doesn’t exist during our time. I always hear other white students in my school use the n-word, of course they don’t mean it in a hurtful way and they try to use it in a way that identifies someone else as a close friend, but they don’t realize the racism and hate that exists within that word. Wise brings up a point saying that Americans refuse to acknowledge the slavery or Indian genocide that happened during the course of American history. White Americans try to glorify the actions of the people who instigated these horrible events “because no fabrication is too extreme in the service of patriotism and national self-love” (68). Wise continues to say “if you bring those kinds of things (slavery and genocide) up, you’ll be accused of hating America” (68). But when topics of racism and genocide are brought up it seems that white Americans ignore the past. “it is only when those who were the targets for slaughter and destruction in that past insist on having their voices heard that suddenly the past becomes conveniently irrelevant” (69). Whites seem to ignore, or deny the fact that they are very privileged, because of their skin color, by trying to manipulate history in order to give America a more noble and righteous appearance. Whites try to hide behind Americas seemingly righteous history, in order to ignore the fact that being white is a privileged and blacks and Indians faced violence and oppression for hundreds of years, and that racism still exists today.
My entire life I have lived in Deerfield, which is a predominately white community, so I haven't run into many situations where I have been able to compare my privileges to those of a black person. But this lack of exposure can be damaging to the youth of Deerfield, and society. Every day I hear other white kids in school use the n-word, which I think is just unacceptable, but I don't think that these other students realize, or perhaps even care about how hurtful the n-word is, and the pain, suffering, and hate that exists at the roots of the n-word. The white kids think its okay to use the n-word because it’s used throughout media. I mostly listen to rap, and nearly every black rapper on my iPod uses the n-word in their music, and I always hear the n-word being used by black comedians or actors in there comedy or television shows. Society has become desensitized to the n-word because we constantly hear it throughout our lives. Without a significant presence of black residents in Deerfield I feel that it is difficult for the white kids to come to the realization that the n-word is a very hateful word to use. "The Deerfield Bubble" has left many of us in a state of ignorant bliss where we rarely see racial dilemmas or confrontations because of the lack of integration in Deerfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment