Diggles, Kimberly. "Addressing Racial Awareness And Color-Blindness In Higher Education." New Directions For Teaching & Learning 2014.140 (2014): 31-44. Professional Development Collection. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
For my next journal entry, I decided to pose the question "What could the way we discuss race and our awareness of racial issues tell us about student activism and how it might affect student activist activities?" I know that there is an effect on the way we speak about race in social situations and the interactions we have on campus. But I want to understand how great the effect is and how the protests made a difference in the way we talk about race on campus.
The article starts out by stating "Institutions of higher education that pride themselves on training professionals prepared to work and successful in an increasingly diverse society should make a purposeful effort to teach students how to address issues related to race and racism." I think this is an important statement because I believe we come to college for more than education. We are supposed to be preparing to be some of the best world leaders, but can someone truly be a good leader if you can't deal with issues of race and racism? We come to college to get our degrees to better our chances at better careers, but what good is that degree if we don't know how to properly interact the with people around us in a diverse environment where "modern-day racial realities" can occur. The author speaks about the idea of color blindness. Color blindness is when people don't acknowledge that life is not always fair, right, or just and that society isn't meant to help advance people of all races. They "look past" the color of a person's skin and see them just as human. Even with good intention, this is problematic because people ignore white supremacy over minority races, white privilege, and the everyday racism we see in our society. White people sometimes "double talk" and speak cautiously so they don't come off as racist when speaking about issues of racism. I agree that some white people do this but also I have come across some that don't. I believe that it depends on the environment they are in, who they are surrounded by, but also in the way they were raised and taught to talk about race. Before moving on and reading about the negative effects of color blindness, I thought of the idea of how color blindness tries to eliminate and dismiss the issue of racism. If people don't "see the color of people's skin" then how can they be racist? How would a "colorblind" person react to the protest? Would they be active in trying to push their idea of colorblindness on people as a solution to the problem they are protesting? And how would protesters react to this idea? As I read on, the journal confirmed my idea when it talks about how colorblind people are less likely to take action against the modern-day systemic oppression of racial minorities because they don't acknowledge and they can't recognize that even if it exists. Therefore they are supporting the "status quo." It also supports racist ideologies by "denying the system of privilege and oppression that exists on the basis of race." This also goes in with racial awareness. White privilege is a huge topic when talking about racial awareness. When white people don't acknowledge white privilege being a problem, or to relate it back to Mizzou protest, complain about the things they are fighting for because "racism no longer exists." Some African Americans are also less racially aware. "When racial minorities are unaware of the racial realities around them, they risk violating implicit social codes regarding acceptable cross-race interactions, the results of which can potentially be severe." This made me think about moderate blackness and the idea of keeping good relations with the majority for the minorities benefit and chance of social advancement. How might this impact the relationship the minority has with their fellow race group? The author brought up an interesting point about how white parents discuss racial awareness with their children but is actually making them racially unaware. They tell their young children to not pay attention to the fact their peers are Black, Asian, orHispanicc because they should not "see color. The author also introduced me to a new term "vicarious racism: witnessing or hearing about another person's or group's experience with racial discrimination."
This article speaks to the other to I believe my 2nd article because it reiterates the Critical Race theory. They agree about the effects the critical race theory has on society.
For my final journal entry, I will look at how living in a postracial society can affect student activism.
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