Race in America

America is a place where race is played up, above most other social or economic factors. For example, in Ghana, one of the biggest obstacles faced is that of religion. Dating or marriage between Muslims and Christians is perhaps the equivalent of interracial marriage in this country. There are hostilities and prejudices based on ethnic groups but in my experience, religion was played up to a much larger degree. In going to Ghana, I was struck by how hard it must be for someone to leave such a strong culture and living as part of the majority and join the racially charged society that is the United States. I find the race relations in America to be appalling and extremely disheartening. The past and present domination of minority groups by whites is inexcusable and steps must be made to rectify the situation. There is currently a place for Affirmative Action until the gap between the races can be lessened and people more readily view their neighbors as neighbors instead of seeing their color first. Race is only a social construction, with no biological basis, but it is still a very real phenomenon nonetheless. It is time to end the stereotypes and prejudices that it instills in this society, but how?

In an attempt to answer this question for myself, I decided to enroll in a course entitled "Race in America." I was hoping to be a part of a classroom of intellectual students that could share their own insights and experiences and listen to mine as well. Instead, this course has been one of the biggest disappointments of my college experience and I find myself leaving it enraged almost every day. Instead of trying to understand eachother and the history of race in the United States, students spend great amounts of time reiterating the past of white supremacy and domination of others. We do not look for solutions, only point fingers. There are no conservative or even moderate viewpoints represented in the class, partially for fear of being construed as a racist. In fact, even in considering the place of Affirmative Action policies in the U.S. without arguing strongly either way, I sparked a huge debate full of finger pointing and anger. One girl in class argued that every white person on campus has had an easier time getting to the same place at the University than she has, based solely on their skin color. While white people are not wrongfully profiled in the same way as other minorities, I believe that poverty and struggle come in all colors and that looking at the situation from this perspective will do little in the way of progess.

These radical critics of whiteness, in spewing hate towards white people in general are not working towards equality, but instead towards a more segmented and separate society. People in my class have no idea what it feels like to be part of the privileged white race, nor what it feels like to feel guilty every day not for my own sins but for those of my forefathers and for the color of my skin. They don't know what it is like to have to monitor every word that I say for fear of being misunderstood. At the same time, it is important for white people to understand that the issues of race and racism are not over and need to be addressed. I come to these classes trying to learn and understand and feel more and more hopeless at the end. It is important that we recognize the historical and current oppression of people of color by the white majority, but then move beyond that and take steps to change the status quo instead of teaching hate and not understanding eachother.

This focus on understanding has led me to travel to other regions of the world and try to understand other people and cultures. I think that only in reducing the differences between people through experience can we better integrate. This is why I was so hurt to find a blog by an African American friend and peer in Ghana that said that white people had come for the wrong reasons and did not get anything valuable from their experience there. It basically called the white students shallow and questioned our motives. I had no other motive than to understand and assist others.

In these experiences I am finding myself becoming more and more disillusioned about race relations in this country. I don't know if there is an answer really but all we can do is try and do what we believe is right.