Post Racial America

As for post-racial America, it's a theoretical environment where the United States is indifferent to racial preference, discrimination and prejudice. Some Americans still believe that the election of Barack Obama as President is a form of wider acceptance of inter-racial relations as well as marriages. This signified that the nation has entered this state of tolerance and equality, but as we can see that's not entirely true. Even though were in the year 2012 discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping is still present. In the past couple months there were couple cases that illustrated race or inequality being present in the conflicts. The fact that Barack Obama became the first multiracial president is a huge step towards America becoming post-racial, but Americans still have a long way to go during that process. 


I think that Barack Obama becoming president was a huge step and that this event should be exemplified for others and future generations. This is a important step because it represents equality among Americans. Maybe future generations could envision America as a unified and coherent society where everyone would have equal rights and opportunities. Our generation could certainly contribute and set an example, but I really doubt that we could make such a sudden change within the next couple years. Especially with places like New York City, where a good handful of people seem so coincided. I'm not trying to generalize or make assumptions, it's just from my own experience and meeting variety of people. It's a hard task in my opinion because people often reflect on history and assumptions to make generalizations. I'd say it will be a time consuming process before America can be fully post-racial.

For my reading this week I've read "Boyhood sports and masculinity". The article raised many questions for me about what it takes to be a man. Whether we are women or men is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex of mix beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a man? Are you masculine or not? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Sex is determined by how we carry ourselves and how we adapt to the society, therefore gender is biological and sex is learned.

How did Jews become White Folks?

"How Did Jews Become White Folks" is an article that talks about how Jewish population got to be associated with white's and what were the reasons behind it. As Jews migrated to America they were mistreated to and unjustified to the level that blacks were treated by the dominant group. Jews made a common background with African-Americans due to the fact that they were being treated so badly. Then they've sent off their kids to colleges and started holding important positions in the society as they were moving away from the urban areas and into suburban neighborhoods. As this advanced more they started being referred to white folks because simply they adapted the dominant cultures values.

This article got me thinking about the whole being "Americanized" and "fitting in" concepts where someone becomes adapted to the dominant culture. I can certainly see this in my neighborhood because many people are newly immigrated to this country or the first generations experiencing the adjustments to the American ways of life. I'm not just talking about Polish, but many other European ethnicity's and also Latinos in that area. I know and seen some people I grew up with become "Americanized" while other refuse to abandon their heritage and even speak English language. This brings me back to the whole "fitting in" concept and that not everyone wants to be abandoning their heritage and become "Americanized", but the real question is. . . Is it really necessary to strip away your culture to become fully American?

Race Matters

The topic of race relations is always a heated subject in American discussions. Race affects every person in this nation and no one is a racist for being aware of the fact. Whether the intent is positive or negative the differences of races are always present. The article "Race Matters" by Cornel West talks about the social injustice that occurred back in Los Angles, 1992. This was followed by many outbursts of rage among citizens due to the court verdict of Rodney King case. The video that involved Rodney King in it, showed a perfect example of inequality and injustice among racial groups. 

Chapter 8 discusses the importance of race and how Americans perceive it. Race is something we can all relate to, due to the fact that America was build upon by foreigners and immigrants. It also talks about the inequality and imbalance between the various racial groups. It also breaks down the key differences and terminology for concepts such as "race" and "ethnicity" and "nationality".

I've seen race being a decisive  factor in inequality and injustice before. I was seventeen at the time and me and couple of my friends were drinking beers in the park after dark. There was a bunch of us (3 Whites), (2 Latinos) , (4 Blacks) and we were charged with underage drinking and had to pay summons in the court. Meanwhile we knew about a group of Caucasian girls that were also drinking beers not too far from where we were. We've seen there was another police car that approached these girls and after certain amount of time, we saw the girls leaving. So basically, the officers made us go to court because we were all of different race hanging out together? That was my conclusion since those girls only got a warning, where our group of guys each had to pay a $50 fine for this incident.