Yesterday and today we talked about how racism in Native Son was very apparent and discussed if we thought that the book still had the relevance it did in 1940 when it first came out. many people brought up many good points, and it came to the general consensus that racism is still a problem today.
After we talked about this I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was talking about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Usually he will show clips of Fox News, and other news shows that disagree with his point of view. He'll crack lots of jokes about how ridiculous they are. While he did crack jokes and show Fox News clips, he had a powerful message that left me thinking. He ended with "and that s*** happens. All the time. Racism is there, and if you're tired of hearing about it, imagine how f***ing exhausting it is living it."
As soon as the commercials started, I didn't care about the car commercial. Jon Stewart usually doesn't get this deep. He brings up many important topics, has some good opinions, jokes around, and is overall a very lighthearted show. When Jon gets fired up about something it is very apparent that it is a subject that he really has a problem with. While the commercials were rolling I sat there and my mind kept skipping from my own personal experiences of racism, to the discussion we had in class, to seeing it in social media. As Jon says "racism is there." Although things have gotten better since this book it published, things still could be changed.
While I haven't been called anything as offensive as the n-word, I have been called things like "stereotypical white girl," and "skinny ass white b****." I know that these things aren't nearly to the degree that other races go through, but it just shows that people discriminate based on race, if only in a joking manner.
Today Mr. Mitchell asked the class "How many people know a racist?" At first, I had to think, and then I remembered one of my friends in middle school told me that her grandmother wouldn't allow her to date someone, because they were black.
Another idea that was brought up was the idea that although racism exists, we are noticing the presence of it more, and it is becoming taboo to be racist. Within 24 hours I saw three articles about racism on my newsfeed. All three were about a white person putting down a black person. Although there were instances of other races being insulted, it seems that most of these racist instances that are in the media are black and white interacions. This can be traced back to the history of our country, which is where the n-word got its meaning, and why it is still so offensive to so many people.
So, although there is progress being made, there are still everyday instances of racism. We are making progress, and there seems to be pressure to be open minded.
