Blog #5

From the novels read in this unit, Monster and Incognegro, which deal with cultural identity, race and white privilege, there are many connections seen. The most obvious one is the power of white privilege and how the blacks are seen as bad or criminals and that they are inferior to whites. Stereotypes are seen within both novels as well.  With Monster, Steve is automatically looked at as guilty of a crime because of his race. Before the jury can even learn about the facts of the crime, they jump to the conclusion that he must have had something to do with the crime because of his color. This issue is also seen in Incognegro. Zane Pinchback, also known as Incognegro, works as an undercover writer to get perspective into the whites. He is accepted by them because of his lighter skin color. In the book, his brother Carl is sent to jail for a crime that he did not commit and one of the biggest reasons for this is because of his dark skin color, even though the sheriff knew he was innocent. This shows that race plays a role in both books, especially within the judicial system. Another connection seen between both books was the fact that power was held in the hands of the white people. In both books, no blacks held any power nor were they given the chance to have any.

These books are able to create a “conversation” about the issues presented in this unit by discussing controversial areas. In Monster, it deals with a young 16 year old black child being put on trial for a murder that he supposedly did not commit. This creates conversation about this not only because of his race but also because of his young age. It really makes people talk about the judicial system. In Incognegro, Zane Pinchback pretends that he’s white which can be seen as creating a controversial conversation. Many wonder whether this is the right thing to do, pretending that you are another race, or if he really does want to be white and just pretends that he doesn’t like disguising himself.

Some similar themes seen in both books were racial stereotypes and white power.  Both books are told from a black’s perspective and in both, blacks are viewed as inferior to whites no matter what they do. The blacks are viewed as unwanted and criminals in both novels and in Incognegro it goes far enough that his race is even disguised. Also in both books, the whites hold the power and make the decisions for society. Black’s views were looked at as unimportant and as a waste of time.  The whites stick together to overpower every other race.

These texts relate to our discussion of power and privilege in many ways. In Monster, the power and the privilege of making decisions are in the hands of the whites because Steve’s attorney is white and so is the jury. They hold the power in making the important decision of Steve’s life. This shows white privilege because the power is based on white’s beliefs and views on the concept of race. In Incognegro, the power and privilege is also in the hands of the whites as well.  They used this power very strongly by holding lynching’s and KKK meetings. Nothing could be done to stop them because the white’s had the privilege of being their specific race so they were the overpowering force.

Blog #4

From reading all the different materials so far in this unit, the one thing that has really stood out to me was the role that upbringing plays regarding race. The video clips and questioning beliefs worksheet in class were really strong supports of this as well.  I really enjoyed the video clips because I believe that brought up a lot of issues and made me think about things that I just never really thought about such as “white privilege” and how while whites work hard and get ahead they assume that everyone can, when in reality it is much harder for a black person to get ahead even though they may work just as hard. This is due to the many problems with race in today’s society.  Also, from the questioning beliefs worksheet in class, the statement “Hatred is learned” really stood out to me as being true. You do not come into this world already knowing who to hate and who to love. That is something that is taught to you over time. Children look up to those who raise them as their role models and they want to be just like them.  They are obviously going to believe what is taught to them.

One question raised in the video was about if racism will ever be brought to an end. I thought that was an interesting question and it made me really think about the present issues.  I think that many people want to put an end to this, but it all depends on the attitudes of those raising each generation. If activities are done with young children, such as the activity in A Class Divided, to show the power of discrimination and how it is not a good thing to have then I believe it could be eventually talked about less and less. Also, the younger these activities are done the more positive of an outcome it will have because the older that people get in life, the more they form their own beliefs which are then harder to change. I think that was one reason that the activity was harder to do on adults because you are not going to change what they have been brought up thinking and based on experiences they have already gone through. I think race will always be an issue that is seen however because you can’t change everyone’s views in life

I think that your personal beliefs do play a role however in how you interpret the texts and information about race in general. Depending on what you were raised to believe, you might think that race isn’t a big issue today if you didn’t hear a lot about it growing up or vice versa. In my case, I wasn’t raised in a racist family and was brought up to believe that everyone is equal and that you shouldn’t judge any person just because of their physical characteristics. I think that this is one reason as to why I didn’t really think of Steve in Monster as coming in worse than anyone else because I never singled him out thinking “Oh he’s black”. I looked at it from an equal playing field.