Race in America

I read the article “U.S. Whites Edging Toward Minority Status”. This article explained how by the middle of the century, whites will most likely be the minority in America. This is really interesting because whites in America, as both Hacker and Wise wrote, whites think that they are superior to other races and have an advantage in this country for being white. When whites are no longer the majority in America, it’s going to be interesting to see if the racism intertwined with our society will diminish or begin to. It will be hard for whites to have an advantage when suddenly they are the minority in public places and at schools like so many other races have had to deal with for a long time in this country. I also read the article “Commentary: Why Americans Can’t Get Over Race”. This article talks about many similar things to what Hacker and Wise wrote. The author described how difficult it is nowadays to talk about race in any context. In order to start dealing with the problem, we need to be able to talk about the problem both blacks and whites together. But, it is nearly impossible to do this because all discussions end up in arguments or indifference. “We are convinced that what is needed in America is a serious, open, civil dialogue on racial, ethnic and religious prejudice.” (Cohen) It’s interesting because this article talks about Obama and his role in America and the racial issues that remain in America today. I think that this helped to apply what I learned in the packet from Hacker and Wise to what is going on today. In the articles that I read, there seems to be a bias towards tolerance and reconciliation of blacks and whites. This is not a bad bias in my opinion, but it still seems to be there. This is good but it does not provide the opposite side of the argument; people who want things to remain the same or even grow more segregated than we already are.

Hidden Bias

The test that I took proved that I am slightly to moderately biased towards whites. This information makes it seem like it is not entirely a person’s choice whether or not to be racist or not. Stereotypes are learned at a really young age, so it is something that is subconscious and not necessarily what we think about every day. The decisions we make and the words that we choose to use I think are based on these stereotypes that we develop far before we even know what stereotypes are. Biases are also developed like this. I think they are determined by the society and surroundings a child is brought up in/ around. Almost everyone has a bias, it’s hard not to. These biases are not something though that I or probably most people think about on a daily basis. Instead, they are reflected in our choices and views about different people and ideas. I think that my hidden biases influence me in ways that I am not consciously aware of. They influence the way I talk and the way I automatically think about a person when I see them. They control how I feel about certain people and situations and how I handle them. I think that our hidden biases influence us far more than anybody realizes.