Race By: Jeff Goodemote

Tim Wise critique's our America by saying that racism is very much apart of our society. An example of this is that people judge others by not only race, but by what their job status is and social status. This indicates that everyone is not equal. Tim wises example of this is saying that when you tell your kids you can be anything you want to be which is is not true because if you grow up in a poor community you wont have the same opportunities than someone who has alot of money and lives in a good community. He also mentions that another form of racism is occurring in the united states which is called institutional racism which you see on a daily basis in different forms in businesses especially for example whites and Mexicans and cheap labor. The white person would want a higher wage or would not do it at all. The Mexican would do the work for any wage because he would just want to earn some type of living. Also he would not care what the conditions are. The reason for this is inheritance of disadvantage, because alot of whites can find better jobs easier than alot of Mexicans just because of race.

In the pbs documentary they relate race with the real estate market. The example pbs gives is when the black or Hispanic live in a neighborhood. White people wanting to buy the homes, take one look at the neighborhood and don't buy a house just because the white buyers perceive the neighborhood to be trashy or of less value then say an all white suburb. According to the pbs documentary the whites makeup about eighty percent of the housing market. While the other twenty percent are Latino's or Blacks. That means that eighty percent of the housing market is absent. This is because those eighty percent white make up the suburb. Also according to the documentary that when property prices go down then taxes go up. So not only do your neighborhoods suffer but then so do services and businesses and then you eventually hit rock bottom. This is all because of race, which effects our economic system. So we essentially leave our economic system in the hands of race.

These two pieces relate to Robert Higgins reading because under the Accounting for Racial Environmental Inequities section of the article he goes on to say "Minority workers are disproportionately represented in industries with high levels of occupational health risks, and in the most hazardous jobs within those and other industries." (Higgins 253). This quote represents what wise says about racism and in this case it happens in the work place. This happens by giving minorities poor working conditions, which is completely immoral and cruel because they don't have much of a choice in the first place, because they have to provide for a family. Also its even harder for them because even when they do finally make enough they cant get out so its a form of slavery in a sense. How this relates to the pbs documentary is because just like white buyers not wanting to live in a Latino or black populated suburb the whites don't want to do hard labor and get paid low wages they want good paying corporate jobs. Then I raise the question what if Latinos or blacks and etc are not the minority anymore and then they don't want to the labor for us? Then do we not have anymore cheap labor and no one to produce in our shop?

Inheritance is if you are born a white male or female you are given more opportunity versus if you are born a minority then you are given usually less of an opportunity at success. Identity is how you are identified as a person, your beliefs your values or in physical skin color eye color, etc. Inequality is in short racism or treating someone as if they are below you in any way. These three characteristics relate to each other because when you inheriate an identity say Latino this that's when equality comes into play, because right from the start you are looked at as less and judged by your identity and then treated poorly, which is how inequality plays a part in our society.

Race, class and gender intersect in a myriad of ways the prime example is the white rich male.

In saying this the black rich male versus the white rich male society wouldn't think twice about how the white male became so successful, but the second they see a successful black they automatically think he must have been dealing drugs or the money is stolen. Never in a million years would they think I bet he worked hard for his money just like the average white male. Gender is the same way between a man and a women you typically see a male CEO rarely do you see a female CEO this is just in everyday business.

Race in my opinion is not erased from our national narrative and contemporary political discourse. This is because we simply make decesions and policies based upon gender and race all the time. Take gay marriage for example it still is not legalized just because of religious beliefs and not only that but moral beliefs as well which is part of someones identity. Society is still under the impression that love is only between a man and a women as well as sexual intercourse. Then i guess my question would be what is the true definition of moral?


Sexsim photo:spinsucks.com

Racism photo:studygroup-bd.org

Work condition Photo:thewe.cc