Reading Reflection #1

"White families are simply 'families'"
Identities and Inequalities p. 16

The Wise article was an eye opening statement for me as to the socialize racism that is instilled in people. Reading about a woman who spent her life being a "good liberal" and yet as her mind deteriorated reversed to the phrases she had never uttered but none the less surrounded her throughout her life made me wonder, what about me? What would I say if my mind what no longer able to control what came out of my mouth? I tend to view myself as someone who is not inclined to use racist terms, but that doesn't mean I haven't heard them. Granted we have not grown up in a time where the 'n' word is as commonly used and accepted and our parents are most likely not members of the KKK but think about it, what do you think you would say?

The Identities and Inequalities reading was actually something I spent a good deal more time thinking about. Newman pointed out something I had never before noticed. When learning about family diversity you learn about Latino families, African American families, Asian families, but you do not learn about White families because they are regarded simply as "families". When I first read this it was like an 'aha' moment, causing me to recognize something I had never noticed before. Then I started to think about it more indepth. I moved to Hawaii after 8th grade and attended a high school where there were about 10 white students in my grade, the rest of the 250 being made up of a variety of asian and island students. I was the one who was looked at as the "minority", in my first class someone asked me if I was albino because I was so not tan from living in Vermont. Through this is obviously a specific case it was interesting to me because I have been in the position of being the study of diversity, however even though I had been there I still had not noticed what Newman pointed out about most texts on diversity.