"I have an uplifting view of the world. Racism has become unacceptable in our society. We have outlawed discrimination and more and more people are transcending race. In fact, race has no biological reality.”
I used to speak using this language. I know plenty of people who still describe their approach to race this way. Admittedly, this sounds like the right and healthy approach to most white people and some people of color! The trouble is what many of these statements ignore and deny. The trouble is what is left unexplored and unsaid. The reality is this: There is a deep dis-ease regarding race residing within much of the white community. We are uncomfortable, but we don’t know what to do about it!
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Dear Shelly,
ReplyDeleteHello, there, Shelly! You hit the nail on the head when you said that the trouble is what is left unexplored and unsaid. I have had that feeling, sense, and opinion for a long time now. I am a nontraditional student here in Iowa City, Iowa where I live at The University Of Iowa. I am taking this Fall Semester off, but I will go back in January. I am undergraduate majoring in Women's Studies, and getting my certificate in Sexuality Studies. I had gone to college when I was younger in the early 1980s, but I had dropped out of college back the,and didn't go back to college, until this time at The University Of Iowa, when I hit my 40s. I have done a lot of reading and other research on my own regarding all of the "isms", and how pervasive sexism, classism, heterosexism, homophobia, and racism, and in fact all of the isms are. I have so enjoyed my learning in my Women's Studies Major, and with my aiming for my Sexuality Studies certificate, because these areas of study show me how all of the isms are interlocking and affect one another. I am a feminist, and I personally feel that all of the isms, like sexism, classism, heterosexism, homophobia, and racism are all very bad and all very pervasive, and I aim to not make necessarily racism somehow any worse than sexism for example,but I try to see how all of these isms are just plain bad and wrong, and how they are all interconnected. You have helped in my process so much in thinking on the interrelatedness of all of these horrible isms. God Bless You Always, Shelly!
Sincerely always,
Sherry Gordon