What is racism and how has it effected generations of people?

The first thing that i would like to discuss is how people in are communities either act with Active, Passive, or Anti-Racism. Active racism is when someone who racially profiles people based on there skin color. This is becoming less prevalent in society i believe because we have been educating are youth what is right or wrong, in schools and coming from parents who are multicultural competent. As we saw in the experiment in that downtown New York store that some people believe that people of color use what is called "using the black card." when being hassled by white people. Which I'm not saying that doesn't happen every now and then but in this case the African American lady in the store did nothing wrong. An example of this is in the film Set It Off when Frankie gets fired from her job because she knew someone who was involved in robbing the bank that she worked at, even tho she wasn't involved in any way. This is active racism that they would find any excuse to get ride of a African American person. White people shouldn't defend people who are being racist because then that is only going to empower them and make them believe that what they are doing is right, when it is clearly not right because we are all made up of the same materials and the color of a person doesn't make up who we are, who we are is how we carry are self and personality's.

During this experiment alot of people were showing alot of Passive racism which is when someone unconsciously doesn't do anything or chooses to let it go on. Most people in experience did nothing, they looked and saw what was going on, and even didn't really shop because they were so distracted but still they chose to let this human being be wrongfully discriminated because of who she was and where she was shopping at. I think that this is usually the path people tend to take because they believe that it is not there place to say anything.

As you saw in the video if someone does say something then it clears the path for other people to say something as well. The lady who did say something and showed her Anti-racism someone who actively tries to change the system. Showed that all it takes is one person to stand up for what is wrong then it creates a dame effect where everyone follows. This is interesting to me and i feel this is how we have made so much progress throughout the years, if we just chip away at are social wrongs then people will start to listen and follow in are footsteps and eventually they will be eliminated all together.

A major on going problem throughout are generations is the idea of internalized oppression in are society. This has been a problem since slavery all the way up till now with are enlarging ghettos. This has been in large part due to the media and messages that has been absorbed by are youth through all forms of it. Like in the film Boyz N The Hood when Furious discuses how the government wants there race to kill each other off, that's why they have liquor stores and gun shops on every corner in the lower class communities. Which i don't know if this is really a government conspiracy thing but i do find it interesting because in the upper to middle class community that i grew up in this wasn't at all the case i barley saw a liquor store let alone a gun shop. So i do believe that there is something beyond are understanding going on but with the information i have i can neither rule it out or confirm that this is the case. After studying some film you cans see that there are messages that depict certain races to be less human then whites. For example when Birth of a Nation came out and they show African Americans eating chicken, drinking alchole, and putting there bare feet on tables; this is using the media to make this certain race seem animalistic. With these images out there it has a big impact on how people think of African Americans and young African Americans who see something like that start to believe that this is how they should be. The character Jackie in the film Set It Off is a good example of this because she was a hard working African American with a good job, and after she got fired she felt like she had to rob banks in order to make a living. By doing this she is giving in to the notions of what her boss thought she was in the first place, and i feel like this is a bad message to send to kids who grew up watching this movie because it is pretty much saying that you should give in to the stereotypes that has been placed on you because that is the only option you have. Creating a self hate mentality that this is what people already think of me so what is the point in trying to by something that people already think that your not.

Another part of internalized oppression is the idea of assimilation, trying to fit in with the dominant culture. In are society we have created a standard that if you aren't a certain race, class or you don't act a certain way that you aren't good. But i feel this is wrong to say because there are many different types of people who are on all different spots of the spectrum that are happy and content with the life they live but still people feel the need to try and live up to the standards when realistically alot of people will never even reach this platform because it is impossible for some people just because how they were born and what they were born into. An example of assimilation from one of the films that we briefly viewed was The Birth of a Race when a African American man was pretending to be a white man in order to live a better life. He proble felt like in order to live up to the standards he had to be someone that he was not. I know that this film was made in a whole different era, but I'm sure even in today's world some minorities if possible would pretend to be someone who there not in order to get better opportunities and to fit in with the standards of society. This is a sad concept that someone would feel so down about there culture and race that they would give that all up to be someone who there not. In the movies we see the hero as usually a white male and the villain is usually someone foreign or someone of a different minority then white, as you see in most westerns and super hero film. So seeing all this i believe that internalized oppression does exist and does effect the people who it is directed towards even today. In order for us to change these messages we have to start diversifying the roles in media so it is equal for all races because the color of your skin or where you are from shouldn't determine if a person is bad or good it should depend on who the person is inside.

With all this information about racism and how it implemented in are society. We can come to the conclusion that without change these problems are going to continue throughout are generations like it has for past generations. With Anti-racism being so rare in are society. With most people just ignoring it, we have carried on are past mistakes by are founding fathers. By doing this and not trying to create change we have prolonged are deeply embedded problems that exist. With are media still racially divided young people are still getting the messages that any other color besides white are inferior, and until we change this mind set these problems are still going to exist and haunt are minority population with ideas that they are going to be nothing in this world because they aren't white. I believe if media changes then it will give us all an opportunity to change with it, and eventually to a world with no discrimination based on race and rather have a world that discriminates based on character.