The race to understanding Race
With all of the events that have been taking place recently, I feel that there is a lot of pressure to "understand" racism and define it for ourselves and within our communities. Unfortunately nothing is so "black and white."
Taking the time to reflect upon my own racial ponderings, I find that I still struggle with the idea of "reverse racism" and that this perspective does in fact stem from my own privelage and direct experiences with being a minority in a so called "ethnic neighborhood." But does that simplfy the feelings that I have? Not at all. My intellectual and academic reasonings are only skin deep and it is still so hard to shake off resentments aimed at my own injustices faced as a kid. Chris made a good point about crumpling together racism, classism, and all the other isms, making it difficult to differentiate our feelings about individual strands. I think that metaphor made a lot of sense to me but it doesn't simplfy the feelings that make up complex emotional reactions. I do feel that my own emotional response is more knee-jerk than anything substansive and by being aware of this reflex, I can counter it with rationalization and by continuing to challenge the roots of my own intolerances and prejudices.
I attended the first portion of the lecture "Lies my Teacher Told Me," but felt that the introduction with the airplane magazine was a little skewed. First of all, he did not address how many models of color there actually are which would have a big impact on the results in any particular publication. Do people of color find it very difficult to enter the modeling field? If so, then wouldn't that be a root cause to focus on? If companies had more selection with diverse models I feel there would be a lot more pressure on them to include this in their publications. I think it is important to realize which publications are sorely lacking in diversity, especially as there are many publications that have excelled in this area. It's a complex issue for sure and I didn't feel the airplane magazine analysis did it much justice.
Taking the time to reflect upon my own racial ponderings, I find that I still struggle with the idea of "reverse racism" and that this perspective does in fact stem from my own privelage and direct experiences with being a minority in a so called "ethnic neighborhood." But does that simplfy the feelings that I have? Not at all. My intellectual and academic reasonings are only skin deep and it is still so hard to shake off resentments aimed at my own injustices faced as a kid. Chris made a good point about crumpling together racism, classism, and all the other isms, making it difficult to differentiate our feelings about individual strands. I think that metaphor made a lot of sense to me but it doesn't simplfy the feelings that make up complex emotional reactions. I do feel that my own emotional response is more knee-jerk than anything substansive and by being aware of this reflex, I can counter it with rationalization and by continuing to challenge the roots of my own intolerances and prejudices.
I attended the first portion of the lecture "Lies my Teacher Told Me," but felt that the introduction with the airplane magazine was a little skewed. First of all, he did not address how many models of color there actually are which would have a big impact on the results in any particular publication. Do people of color find it very difficult to enter the modeling field? If so, then wouldn't that be a root cause to focus on? If companies had more selection with diverse models I feel there would be a lot more pressure on them to include this in their publications. I think it is important to realize which publications are sorely lacking in diversity, especially as there are many publications that have excelled in this area. It's a complex issue for sure and I didn't feel the airplane magazine analysis did it much justice.