Racism In The Movie What Race You

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Blood, sweat, and tears “What race you?” You and i, as ignorant as this question may seem, have probably been asked that question more times than we can imagine. However it’s until recently that i’ve learned that is the wrong question to ask. According to John J. Macionis, race is “a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.” So one should ask, “what is your ethnicity?” since ethnicity refers to a shared cultural heritage (Macionis 340). It wasn’t until more than a century ago did scientists invent “race” to try to organize the world’s physical diversity into three racial types. Now the fact of the matter is that their are far more than just three “races” …show more content…

Firstly, “the most lethal and toxic form of racism in America is committed daily by white people who consider themselves to be decent, honest, loving, and caring folks.” This statement is true and false. It is false to say for just the white people to wake up from this blindness. It is all ethnicities (sure, mostly white people) that need to wake up and see that this country - this world - has a problem with always turning a blind eye to social injustice. Plurality can never be possible if this continues to happen. Secondly, “prejudice and discrimination between people of color is NOT the same - it is fundamentally different from - prejudice and discrimination between white people and people of color.” This idea - to say that being prejudice and discriminating between people of color and between white people and people of color - is the same. Being prejudice and acting on that thought by discriminating is the same whether you’re considered “white”, “black”, “brown”, “yellow”, or “green” just because two people of opposing skin colors discriminate between each other doesn’t mean it’s worse or better than two people of the same skin colors. They are both morally and socially unjust. Just because the opposing skin colors have a long and bloody history doesn’t make the people with the same skin color any different; they are both going through prejudice and discrimination. That’s like saying the bully is allowed to get punched by the bullied in the face because he was bullied. It’s not ok because if the bullied were to have punched the bully that “bullied” has not become the bully and the bully has become the “bullied” all because the bullied stooped to the bully 's level by punching him/her back. The same concept is applied to the third and final topic; “racism is essentially a white problem.” To say that racism is a white problem is technically being prejudice against the white people,

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