Acceptance

This class has pushed us all to delve deep into the issues of race and racism. After reading various writings by philosophers on the subject and then discussing it in class, I have come to realize a few things. First, while I knew going into the class that racism is still present in America today. I truly underestimated America’s racist society until this semester. Yes, we have much to be proud of in America from getting rid of slavery to electing our first black president in history. However, there is so much more to be done to eliminate racism. Even though we do not segregate and restrict races lawfully anymore, there is still much segregation in the world solely because of skin color and what that physical attribute means to people. While I would be more hesitant to agree with Fanon before taking this class, I tend to agree with him now in his theory that we are all racists. The term racist though is still very fluid in its meaning, but I can admit that I am guilty of thinking some racist thoughts. For example, turning to the Asian guy in my math class for help because he must be smart or assuming that the black guy on the track team is fast. While I catch myself after thinking these things because I know that my thinking is prejudice and irrational, I also know that I am not alone in having prejudice thoughts. Therefore, we NEED to change our fears and prejudices about race and accept each race for our differences.
Cat’s blog reference to Obama peeked my interest and inspired me to watch President Barack Obama’s Philadelphia Speech “A More Perfect Union.” In this speech by our first African American President, President Obama talks about our need for union during our current struggle with war, the economy, etc. He recognizes the fact that there is still a division between people and while he does not limit this divide to race, he does stress race as one of Americas major causes of division. In the speech, Obama emphasizes that it does not matter our skin color, our economic backgrounds, our political stance, where we grew up, etc. We are all Americans and all share similar issues that have no tie to race. This brought me back to the ideas of Montagu, who wanted to take the term “race” out of our vocabulary entirely. While it would be nice to have a world that judged people solely by their personalities and not by their skin color, it is an idea that realistically is impossible. People will always make distinctions by race whether appropriate or not. Now, what made me think of Montagu during the Obama speech was that Obama suggests that he knows that each American comes from a different background and different race. However, he believes that this should not deter us from accepting our similarities and in that acceptance, we should be able to get past our racial differences and unite together.
This speech made me think not only do we need to unite together over our similarities, but also accept eachother’s differences as well. Many believe that in order to rid ourselves of racism, we need to become a colorblind society. I say, this colorblind society should not and will not ever exist. To say that when you see someone you don’t see them as Black, Asian, White, etc. is just false. It is not shameful to see one’s color. It is part of one’s identity. However, we need to create a society that does not define people by their race. Instead we need to create a society that accepts people for their differences, one in which we can coexist, but also relate to eachother. I am not saying this will be an easy trek, it has yet to be, but unless society actually begins to accept people for who they are rather than what stereotypes their race plays out for them, there will not be any sort of progression towards the movement to end racism.