Race in America

The issue of race is very prevalent in the United States.  Yet, as a nation, we manage to cover up all of the conflicts that result of the racial disparities. Instead of learning from one another, we judge and our “hidden biases” are ever more apparent. These biases exist because we do not educate people based off of race. One of the articles I read was “Trying not to raise racist kids.” I was immediately drawn to this article because of the title. I thought to myself, is there really a right way to try to raise kids who are accepting of all races? The process of teaching kids not to be racist must be difficult because everyone has their own opinions.  However, it is important to recognize that young adults develop perspectives based off experiences.  One of the ideas that I found to be similar to the articles from Andrew Hacker and Time Wise is that of ignoring the topic of race in general.  The article suggests the importance of being real and truthful with children. Instead of making ignorant comments, parents should not gloss over the racial disparities. Often parents talk in code about race instead of openly discussing race; as a result, these discussions are pointless. Furthermore, when parents do not acknowledge the differences of race, they are giving their children mixed messages. While some may argue that talking about race doesn’t come easily, as Wise and Hacker both mentioned, we do not take the time or effort to talk about race in an open environment.  Another article that I found to be striking was titled “Behind the Scenes: Black and shopping in America.” One black woman recalls herself and two of her friend’s power shopping in a store; they were all dressed professionally, but they ended up being detained for suspicious of shoplifting. Police found no stolen merchandise in the hands of any of the women. However, neither the manager of the store or police even bothered to apologize. This is extremely troubling to me because they did not do anything wrong, yet they were discriminated on the basis of race. This idea connected to one that Wise talked about- getting around the law. Wise was able to avoid many legal problems due to his race and he was actually doing things that were against the law. However, he recognized that if he were a black kid, he would have been in trouble. In this particular circumstance, Wise would argue that if he was in the store with friends, power shopping, he would have never been detained. And if in fact he was, the manager and police would be humiliated.  It is ridiculous to me that racial discrimination still exists to this extent. The solution? While there is no definite answer to solving racial discrimination, all of these articles propose the idea of talking about race openly. Black and white people must talk about the shared history and common bond that everyone shares.  It is time to have an open discussion about race, one that is truthful.  This goes back to the common idea that there are more similarities than differences. Yet, people in today’s society, seem to focus on the differences which results in more problems.