Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Whiteness?


href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLabuser%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml">Whiteness is a radical social idea. "White supremacy" today is an acute shadow of what was tragically a fairly popular feeling that dominated the western world. Movies like American History X and This is England depict angry young men that turn to Neo-Nazi groups because they give them a sense of community and belonging. Racism and the idea of the “other” give the characters a vent for their anger and something/someone to blame. These stories illustrate how racism is a learned behavior and how the environment we live in affects our actions and beliefs. I do not believe that race is important on a personal level, but I think it is important not to disregard race as a non issue. Many people will tell you that we’ve moved past racism and that it isn’t an issue anymore, I don’t think so. Whether we like it or not, our society was founded on racist ideals and many of those feelings still linger our society. To pretend these prejudices don’t exist is irresponsible and may very well lead to radical ideas of racial supremacy, amongst other things. In my opinion we need to recognize these ignored undercurrents and what is going on in order to understand it, so we can move past it.

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