Erin Goldberg, Post 14
I've been thinking about this since Alaysia gave her presentation on Tuesday and about how she went to a predominantly white school in a Suburban neighborhood, but her race was never an issue at school. I think this is the way it should be always, but I'm not so naive as to believe that this is always the case. I know that plenty of people have to deal with race on a daily basis. However, I'm curious as to whether there are universal situations where race is irrelevant? The only thing that came to mind for me was religious services. I know that, for example, African American Baptist churches are much different than Roman Catholic services, but the idea is typically supposed to be this: everyone is equal in the eyes of God. And regardless of race, people share the common bond of religion. Even Atheists do not discriminate in term of race. I realize that there are always exceptions to the rules (think Westboro Baptist Church), however to me it seems like religion can be considered to be the universal color blind test. But that's just my opinion. And if anyone else can think of other situations or institutions where race is irrelevant, please let me know.
How might some of the authors from White Privilege respond to the question that you are posing? One main idea that we have been getting at throughout the semester is that the problem of racism is not solely a problem of individuals attitudes and prejudices (i.e, if we educated people and opened their eyes we would end racism), but that racism is institutional--it is built into the way society works and functions. In other words, race is a major ordering principle of society. Therefore, in order to escape race would we need to place ourselves outside of society? Is this possible?
ReplyDeleteI used to dance, ballet mostly, for about 15 years. So I spent lots of time in many different areas, different instructions, different people in my classes. Not ever once did I think about color while I was dancing, there were plenty of classes that were made up of a mix of races. Maybe art in general ignores race?
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