First Draft - Raised into Racism

Raised into Racism

              The world as we know it has an obsession toward looks. Humans seem to put more stock in their own and others appearances than intelligence or personality. We use appearance for our first and many times only impressions of others. If someone looks clean and well dressed we may think they are a respectable people with a good job that contributes to society. On the flip side if someone has a dirty face and dirty, wore out clothes some may assume they are lazy, poor, and hinder the economy. Though these are not fair assumption we make them every day. They get worse when we add characteristics like body type, weight, and race. It seems that race in particular has been a large topic in the media and even though legally we have race equality, it does not exist in reality. The question is why? Why do we make assumptions and judgments about one another based only on these physical characteristics? Are we just born this way or is it something that is taught? I cannot answer the first question about why or how this was started but, based off my personal experiences I can give you my opinion on the second question. I believe we are taught to judge others on the basis of appearance by are Families, societal stereotypes, and the media. After answering the second question I will discuss why and how I am beginning to break my judgmental habits and tendencies.  

      

              Growing up in a white, middle classed family has affected the way I think about people based only on how they look.  My parents are very conservative and have exposed these ideas to me since I was a child. The first incident I remember was when I was in the second grade. I had become friends with an African American girl in my class and I was talking about what we did at recess that day with my mom. I mentioned her name, which was obviously a “black” name and my mom said, “ why are you playing with her?” That was the moment I realized my mom was kind of a racist. I know She and my father grew up in a generation where this was normal and were raised by a generation that was even less accepting of other races. Now I’m not saying this is an excuse by any means, just that our families play a large role in the way we think of race.  Despite this at the age of eight I did not understand this, I kept thinking why does her skin color matter? To me people were just people and as long as they where nice to me then we could be friends. At this age race and appearance did mater to me. In a study determining how children (ages 6-10) develop awareness and belief of racial stereotypes “…McKown and Weinstein (2003) found that older children were more aware of race-based stereotypes about academic ability than younger participants.” (Copping, 971) So it is normal for younger children to not be very aware of racial stereotypes and at the age of eight I would be part of that younger group. This explains why I did not understand my mother’s bias against African Americans. I was still at an age that had yet to acknowledge our parents or societies stereotypes. As I aged and learned more about the world I began to understand why this mattered to my mom and society as a whole.

           I had a few friends in my neighborhood that I played with sometimes but I was not allowed to go to their house, they had to come to mine to play. I did not understand why at the time. Now I realize the neighborhood I lived in then was not a nice one anymore and most of the people living there were not the best influences. This doesn’t mean that they or their families where involved in any of the bad things going on in the hood and I know now this is racial profiling, but at the time I wanted to please my parents. They didn’t really like me being around them. Though they never actually told me this, it was they way they acted when one of my friends would come to the door or if I talked about them that lead me to this belief.  It was that annoyed eye-roll looks of disgust, plus the feeling of uneasiness and disappointment in the room that clued me into their feelings. Adults do not realize how good children are at sensing other people’s feelings or the mood in a room.  So I didn’t play with them any more. I think this was the start of me becoming judgmental of others. I wanted my parents approval and believed that they knew best. The uneasy and disgusted feeling my parents seemed to have for the girls began to rub off on me.  When they would come to the door to play I would lie and say I wasn’t allowed. I started to actually feel annoyed then they came over and began to think they were influences as my parents did. I had no reason to think this, but I did anyway. A social psychology study focusing on the age and race differences in racial stereotype awareness and endorsement conducted by Copping, Kurts-Costes, Rowley, and Wood discovered that  “children’s reports of their own race stereotypes were highly correlated with their perceptions of adults’ race stereotypes for both academics and sports. (978) This means that children develop their own race stereotypes based off their perception of influential adult’s (like parents) stereotypes. This could explain why I began to believe that my black friends from the neighborhood where annoying and bad influences as my parent did.

I want to clarify that my parents are not horrible people who treat African American people like they are less then human. They treat them as they would anyone else but cannot trust them and are uncomfortable around them. All we hear about are the ungrateful, lazy individuals that take advantage of welfare and the hard working citizens that pay for their food, clothes, and cell phones. This type of person has been linked to African Americans, which caused the stereotype that all black people are lazy. As Robert Entman explains, blacks are overrepresented in the media as being in poverty and with no other explanation for poverty we assume that it is about of laziness. These reinforced the stereotype that black people are lazy and deserve to be poor (102). We know this is isn’t true, but a small part of us still lets it affect our judgments of people. My parents have been affected by this small part, but it is a little bigger then mine because of the way they where raised. This lead to them raising me to believe the same thing, but through life experiences my unconscious part that believes the stereotype have diminished or suppressed by my conscious self.    

   

My parents are not the only reason for my judgmental attitude. The media like advertisements, TV news, and the Internet has played a big part in racism in our country. Ads enforce gender and race stereotypes with subliminal messaging using body position, facial expressions, eye contact and so on (Jhally). Most the toy commercials from when I was in grade school advertised toys for boy or girls. Guns and tucks where only for boys and baby dolls and Barbie’s where only for girls. They demonstrated this by showing only girls or boys playing with the appropriate toy. TV news is one of the worst at enforcing and creating racial stereotypes. They have enforced and maybe even created the idea that black men are dangerous or connected to violence in some way. “Media stereotypes consist of recurring messages that associate persons of color with traits, behaviors, and values generally considered undesirable, inferior, or dangerous.” This has been accomplished by focusing on acts of violence committed by black men and usually when the victim is white or a woman.  Also, when discussing these crimes they use language that makes the public believe the black suspect is guilty despite the fact they have not yet been to trial. The media has also enforced the stereotype that blacks are the majority of poverty; so being poor and lazy has become a characteristic of African Americans ( Entman, 97-102). Some children TV shows also enforced these stereotypes. One I remember as a child was Kenen and Kel on All That. They enforced a lot of black stereotypes, for instance in there “Good Burger” Skits they enforced the idea that black people are dumb. I know this is meant to be funny and it is but it is funny because of the stereotype that is referenced.

            Its not just white people who are judgmental toward black males, other African American people are too. There was a computerized experiment that I learned about in a cognitive psychology class that instructed participants to shoot an armed target but not shoot an unarmed target. The targets were either black or white and holding a gun or a cell phone. The results showed that people are more likely to shoot a black target armed or not then a white target. They did this same thing again but with black police officers and they too got the some result. We are all racist to some extent, even to our own race. I don’t understand the turn reverse racism; racism is racism no matter who is judging whom based on their skin color.

            We are racist because we are afraid of being different from our community so we stay with in that community or move to one like it so we fit in. I don’t know why but humans have always had a need to be with people who look like them.  We have an urge to fit in with those around us. “According to Tajfel’s (1970) social identity theory, people naturally display a positive bias for members of their own social groups. In-group bias is believed to occur because of self- enhancement—that is, positive views of one’s social group are a positive reflection on the self.” (Copping, 972) We want to be with are own social group because is makes us feel better about are selves. This may explain why as I entered middle school and high school I stopped playing with my African American friends and made friends that were in my ledge. I mean those that I had things in common with and had similar looks. As a shy awkward looking teenager I did not fix into the popular crowd and I was okay with that. After high school thing began to change.

          As I got older my judgmental thoughts increased and developed in to racism. I never thought I was racist toward others in an active way; it was just in my mind so it doesn’t do any harm. It wasn’t until my freshmen year of college that I started to realize that it was a kind of racism and it was harmful to others and myself. One specific moment was one of the first nights in the dorm and I was walking down the hall when two African American students turned the corner in my direction. I instantly tensed up and began to worry about who they where and what they where doing here. As the pasted by the smiled and I thought to myself, “ Stop being so racist! They are obviously students and probably basketball players with how tall they are.” I ended up talking to the same guys a few times later that year and realized they are the nicest people. If I hadn’t stopped myself from judging them I would not have come to this realization. My internal racism was harmful to those I judged because I was not giving them an opportunity to show me who they are. It was harmful to me because I am losing my chance to meet great people and maybe gain a friend.