Comparing Racism Essays

To compare how the two essays “Meaning of a Word” by Gloria Naylor and “White Guilt” by Shelby Steele, I will address what each essay says about stereotypes, anger and racism in three individual sections.

First, I will review the stereotypes. In the first Essay “Meaning of a Word,” stereotypes are not heavily addressed. But if I look deeper into the way the family members were talking about the guy who made a lot of money, this was as stereotype. It was the stereotype that a black person should be poor and not have made a lot of money. Although they themselves are black, they apply a negative stereotype against themselves; such as by believing they should all be poor because they are black.

In the second essay, “White Guilt,” stereotypes were more prevalent. The author’s friend in the restroom encounter stereotyped the white salesman as being well enough off to afford a tip 20 times more than an acceptable level of tipping. The same person stereotyped the bathroom attendant as being poor and downtrodden by white people. Neither of these were necessarily true, but that was assumed to be true simply because of their skin color and employment. The black movement itself stereotyped the entire white community as being oppressive, privileged and well off financially. During this time, the average black man was worse off economically than the average white man. But that doesn’t hold true in the case of every black, since some black people were prosperous. In addition, not all white people prospered by oppressing black people; although, racial exploitation was certainly prevalent throughout the entire country. Not all white people got ahead because of pushing down a black man. Not all black people were bad off either.

Second, I will a...

... middle of paper ...

...ng black.

In this essay, black people were not the only ones on the receiving end of racism. Racism was used by the author’s friend against the businessman in the restroom. The businessman happened to be white and to be in a position in which the author’s friend felt the need to make a point. Had the businessman been a non-white person, the author’s friend may not have confronted him at all about tipping the black bathroom attendant.

In conclusion, I found the way in which these two essays discussed stereotypes, anger and racism, were quit different from each other. Although from the same black culture, the authors deal with these social problems in nearly opposite ways. In the first essay the main focus is about a group that treated racism in a conciliatory manner, while the group in the second essay remained resentful of the racism they experienced.