White Talk Summary

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Recommended: Perception vs reality essay

Maddie Holmes
White Talk Review After reading Alice McIntyre’s White Talk, it is evident that white people as a whole tend to not associate with their own acts of racism. White talk is the idea that white people find ways to isolate themselves from discussing or internalizing with the racism around them. This idea serves as a shield for white people to hide behind so that they can ignore the ongoing racism they are actively participating in. The first story in the article is about a group of women discussing how they found their black customers to tip lower than their white customers. The women continually said they were not trying to be racist with what they are saying and these were only actual occurrences they had noticed. As we have …show more content…

Gerry was questioning whether having problems with race was only something that black people dealt with. After hearing Ellen, the girls both questioned whether it was really a matter of race or a matter of socioeconomic status. There are many signs of white talk in this situation. For example, Gerry believing that she has the power to speak about how her roommate feels about her race shows that Gerry is not educated on race. The roommate has her own identity and she does identify as being Chinese. Her race is not something that is going to go away and it will be something that can cause problems for her. For Gerry to believe that her roommate is never affected by race is showing how ignorant she is on the struggles of people of color. Through all of this Gerry is not noticing the white privilege that she possesses that her roommate does not. While Gerry’s roommate can portray that race is not an issue for her that does not by any means mean that it does not affect her. Many people of color do not feel that white people even listen when they try to stress the issues they are going through. For this reason, it would just be easier for Gerry’s roommate to just shrug off their questions about her race rather than getting in an entire discussion that her friends may not even comprehend. Furthermore, Gerry and her friends are taking their beliefs about …show more content…

I had never directly heard about the idea of white talk, but I am now aware of how relevant it is to our campus. Even after reading the discussion we had on blackboard last week, it made me believe that I was being more ignorant than I would like to admit. There have been times in my life where I would use a “needle in the haystack” example to justify why I did not believe racism was present. Now I see that this was me only looking at one part of the birdcage. I see now that it is important for me to not use my whiteness as a shield to the racism occurring on our campus. I am white and that does make it nearly impossible for me to understand what it is like to be a person of color, but it does not make it impossible for me to make sure I do not add to the racism. While I do not believe I am a blatant racist, my silence can be adding to the racism around me. From what I have learned in class and from this article, it is important that we look at the whole picture and try to see the implications that situation is having on all races. So often white people only focus on how they are impacted, when in reality they are protected by the bubble known as white privilege. White talk is not going to stop overnight, but I can put more attention to making sure I am not blindly participating in it

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