Tuesday, November 5, 2013

America: Looking Through a COLORFUL Lens

Although it may seem like American society is progressing into a color-blind society. I would have to disagree as Bonilla-Silva mentions in his book Racism Without Racist we are far from being color-blind. When reading chapter six I could not bare and think about a statement Bonilla-Silva said, "And because whites believe discrimination is a thing of the past, minorities' protestations about being racially profiled, experiencing discrimination in the housing and labor markets, and being discriminated against in restaurants, stores, and other social settings are being interpreted as 'excuses.' I personally believe that there has been some movement towards a color-blind society but the recent racist acts committed towards minorities lately has me thinking that we are far from living in that kind of society.

 For example, I'm sure people have heard about the incident that happened with the Miss America winner. She winner was Indian-American, Nina Davuluri, after being crowed Miss America there was a hay-wire of racist comments and slurs in regards to her victory. Instead of Americans excepting  and embracing having a diverse Miss America pageant winner they resented her and reacted negatively  to it. People went on social media sites and tweeted: 
If you're #Miss America you should have to be American," 
another tweet said: 
"WHEN WILL A WHITE WOMAN WIN #MISSAMERICA? Ever??!!"

Fortunately, Nina held her head high and did not let those comments break her spirit. After all, what should have been a celebratory and momentous day for her. She spend her time defending her right to wear the crown she deserved. 

Unfortunately, this is not the only incident were people have been out right racist toward minority groups. Another example is an incident that happened at a Papa John's location, yes at a restaurant, there was a racial slur written on a customer's receipt. Earlier in 2012, Minhee Cho, received her receipt and on it she found a nice surprise, she noticed at the top for "name" instead of her name appearing it said, "lady chinky eyes".

If we are moving into a color blind society that no longer sees people by race or by skin color then why are people blatantly outright being discriminated against. Apparently people don't seem to care or have any kind of filter because they are comfortable with making these racist remarks towards minorities. I'd like to think we have move past the times were it is okay to make fun of people and discriminate against someone to their face. Clearly, some people have no respect for others. 

Instead of looking at people as human beings all we see are the color of their skin. As my favorite rapper  (Tupac Shakur) says in his song, Changes:

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...
let's erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.
'Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.

Honestly, i see no changes that have really occurred as much as we'd like to think that racism has ceased to exist. As Tupac mentions, we are all the same when you turn off the lights, in the dark you can't see color or race, it is non-existing in that setting. I ask you to really re-think that, are we really live in color-blind society? 

Sources: Follow Up Information

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