Race

Race Matters talks about the social injustice that occurred back in Los Angeles, 1992. The Rodney King beating and the riots that followed.  Social Injustice seen first hand on video yet was justice really served? Can dignity be replaced? Can a man who was violated feel worthy or secure in his own skin? I’m not really sure. I think trauma will always take its toll and the human who was traumatized will soon be haunted.

The article talks about xenophobia, which is a fear of foreigners. What cracks me up in America is that we are all some sort of foreigner. Race is what? A color? Ethnicity? A Culture, an adoption of beliefs and rituals.

Race is an issue that we can all relate to. Chapter 8 tells us that “Race is also one the bases on which our society perceives, rewards, and punishes.” Once again society classifying human beings. Rewards? Punishments? What does that mean? Well, it means imbalance. Inequality. Chapter 8 also tells us “Race is a concept, not a scientific one”
The article Race Matters quotes W.E.B. Du Bois when he wrote:

“They approach me in a half-hesitant sort
of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then instead of saying directly,
How does it feel to be a problem? they
say, I know an excellent colored man in
my town.… Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I
smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may
require. To the real question, How does it
feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.”

A problem. What kind of problem? Was he a problem for being his natural self?

 I remember many years ago I was hired as a Nanny to a little Italian girl. Her parents were from Rome and wanted their daughter to be taken care of by an Italian. I worked for them for a while before the mother asked me if I spoke Italian. I didn’t, so I told her my father who was a first generation Sicilian to America, never taught me or my siblings the language. My mother was Neapolitan and didn’t speak the language either. The mother of the little girl had the nerve to tell me Sicilians were looked down upon in Italy, and soon after told me she didn’t need me to take care of her daughter anymore. The problem was I didn’t meet her Roman standards. I was classed within my own so called ethnic group. I was so insulted. Raised to be proud, I was looked down upon by someone who felt my class was too low for her higher and whiter class. Was I being punished for not meeting her standards? That was my first realization to what it means to be different. My dad was very upset by the treatment. I was told to be proud and move on. Of course I did, but it stayed that stayed with me for a long time. After reading Du Bois quote, I can see what he means.