Racism in Having Our Say

Although the text, Women: Images and Realities a Multicultural Anthology, has done a wonderful job of showcasing the diversity of women’s experiences, I find Beverly Daniel Tatum’s work “Defining Racism: “Can We Talk?”” to be the most striking. In the essay, Tatum describes how she (and many other feminists) define racism and who can and cannot be racist. Tatum argues that there are important distinctions between prejudice and racism, wherein racism is defined as a ‘system of advantage based on race” or more precisely “prejudice plus power” (388). Through multiple examples Tatum illustrates that if one accepts and uses her definition of racism then only White people (the group of people who ‘dominate’ society) are racist because “people of

Racism is a socially constructed concept used by multiple groups of people and creates a hierarchy of sorts based purely on the color of a person’s skin or their cultural origins. It has been an idea that has existed since the beginnings of civilization. A more modern iteration of this concept was made prominent in the 16th century as European settlers began to explore different areas of the world, specifically areas in or around Africa. But slavery can be seen back in the 1500s all the way to 1880 and was most likely a leading example of what helped define racism up to the 20th century. In Ali Rattansi’s book, “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” , the author connects how slavery and race are closely tied together. European explorers would ignore the cultures the invaded in order to see these people as nothing more than native groups that were meant to be seen in a subservient role. Slavery would continue to grow across the Atlantic and seen as an institution that created large amounts of wealth for those who could reap the benefits from it. As long as money was being made, slavery persisted and was justified. Race and racism was conceived the way it was because the slave owning system was controlled by European colonizers.

While coming up with a topic for this paper, one of my questions dealt with war and cultural groups. I will be the first to admit, Racism was the last thing on my mind. The original question being, “How does war affect a Social Culture and how does it stand today?” When I started thinking about Cultures that had been so deeply affected by war, one of the first that came to mind were the Japanese in World War II. Then I recalled what one person had told me of their younger days at college, when they were attending school. Their name will remain anonymous; I do not want to make the victim’s name public as it has a very personal nature.

The sisters grew up on a slave-holding plantation in South Carolina where they were exposed not only to the cruelty and injustices of slavery, but also to the limitations imposed on women. Their father was a judge and his many sons were afforded an education while the daughters were expected to wed and live a life of polite social engagement. Finding this way of life intolerable, the sisters independently moved to Philadelphia where they joined the like-minded Quakers, a group that did not support slavery.

In the story, Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Anne known as Essie Mae found out the meaning of racism at a young age and also see or heard what whites do to black people if they did not like what they was doing. She did not know that whites and blacks had their own place to sit and eat or why whites went to one school and blacks went to another. She just assumes that whites went to the school that was close to their neighborhood, but Essie Mae experience her first meaning of segregation when she met two white children she often play with at the movies. Since she figure they was friends she thought she could sit with them at the movies but her mother was very furious with that when she seen Essie Mae, her sister, and brother getting ready to enter the white side of the movie theater. Her mother pulled them out the door and told them they was not allowed to sit with the white children let alone be seen with them. “Now all of sudden they were white, and their whiteness made them better” (pg202) made Essie Mae confused and she wanted to know what made them so better, what was their secret.When the whites start coming back over Essie Mae examine them by comparing what they had to what her sister and brother had trying to see what made them so different, but all she seen was color. This really open her eyes to racism and later lead some change in her life.

In these times it was hard for African American women to stand up to their abusive husbands. Getting a divorce was not a very common thing to do. Most women endured the pain and troubles of

Both of the women in these stories had to overcome prejudice to get where they wanted to be in their career. Marie faced prejudice because of her race and where she came from, but did not let that stop her from getting where she wanted to be. When she was in school she would get teased because of her Osage heritage and her name. Rosa also suffered from prejudice because she was a girl and did not get to go to school for art. Instead she got taught at home by her dad who was also an artist and taught her how to draw although she was not able to go to school.

Mama says Cassie does not understand “the way of things” because Cassie hasn’t experienced racism first hand. The evidence that support my claims are on page 93. “What can I do for you, Miz Emmaline?” The woman handed him a list twice as long as T.J.’s and the storekeeper, without an apology to us, proceeded to fill it. “What’s he doing?” I objected. “Hush, Cassie,” said Stacey, looking very embarrassed and uncomfortable.” This piece of evidence from the book supports my claim that Cassie hasn’t experienced racism first hand because Cassie asks what Mr. Barnett is doing when he fills the white woman Miz Emmaline’s order before finishing their order first. This shows that Cassie does not know what racism really feels like in public. Back then

Assume that Maggie’s race is the opposite of each girl because they would not kick her if she was the same race as themselves. Roberta confesses to kicking Maggie, "'...and you kicked her. We both did. You kicked a black lady who couldn't even scream" (Morrison 80). Twyla only says that Maggie was not black and says nothing about kicking Maggie.

For years, African Americans had experienced harsh ridicule amongst their peers. Not only in the work place, but in school and commonplaces. Thankfully, multiple changes have occurred to help better the lives of African Americans in society. Unfortunately, when changes occur they tend to have positive and negative consequences; as you can see in the film, “Having Our Say”, most of the changes tend to be positive when you reflect them on United States today, although, there are still a few negative changes as well. The film portrays the current and past lives of Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” and Sarah Louise “Sadie” Delany, what they have been through in order to live an extensively eventful life to the ages of 104 and 109. Their father, Henry Delany,

Even though her mother was a light skin black woman, she did not want to live her life as a lie, by living as a white woman. Her mother embraced her blackness, which forced her to find work as a maid; her employers did not treat her with the same dignity as a white woman would receive. After seeing what her mother went through for accepting her blackness and living her life as a black woman, she knew that was not the life she wanted to live.

When white Americans choose to self-educate about systemic racism they can become allies in the fight to dismantle racist structures in our society. “Structural racism is the silent opportunity killer. It is the blind interaction between institutions, policies, and practices that inevitably perpetuates barriers to opportunities and racial disparities.” (Grantmakers 2009). This includes discrimination affecting credit, schooling, justice, residential location, etc. It can be eradicated in the next century, but not without white people acknowledging that it is a real issue that cost lives. It is not the duty of the oppressed to make a liberty sales pitch to their oppressors. However, it is the responsibility of those benefiting

Way before my time there has been many organizations that stepped forwarded to help in the fight of racism and equality. I could sit here and give you a list that could possibly go for miles, but in today’s history, there are only a few that stood out. Back in the early 60s, Mississippi was one of the most known locations, that dealt with racism at a low cost. Individuals took matter into their own hands and decided to fight against the system and fight for what they thought was right. Although these organizations had different purposes, they stood together, because they all had the same belief, but the real question is who was more beneficial?

Today I read “South Africa Starts 2016 with Racism Outcry” by Erin-Conway Smith. This article was published on January 7th, 2016 in USA Today. So to start off, when filling out my Images of Africa worksheet I did not know that racism occurred in Africa. In all honesty before even entering IAH205 I had no prior knowledge of Africa. I did not know how big it was, how many different cultures and people there were or how they had social problems just like we do in the United States. In the article, Smith talks about a woman who recently sent out a tweet that stated that “black people are monkeys” and that they “make a mess on public beaches” Now since I had never known that racism was an issue in Africa, I was completely caught off guard that

As the bird is entrapped, his wings “clipped”, and his feet “tied” by racism, he attempts to express himself by singing, the only form of freedom left in a society filled with racism.As the bird is entrapped, his wings “clipped”, and his feet “tied” by racism, he attempts to express himself by singing, the only form of freedom left in a society filled with racism.As the bird is entrapped, his wings “clipped”, and his feet “tied” by racism, he attempts to express himself by singing, the only form of freedom left in a society filled with racism.As the bird is entrapped, his wings “clipped”, and his feet “tied” by racism, he attempts to express himself by singing, the only form of freedom left in a society filled with racism.As the bird is entrapped,