Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Lottery Mentality

White privilege is something that I, myself, do not really find necessary to talk about. But why is that? Is it because I do not want to think that I have an inherent right over others? Or maybe because I do not want to admit that other people have to overcome obstacles because of the color of their skin. Either way I do not really think about race as a major problem in our society. I think this is because of the whole effect of the lottery mentality; which is the mentality that people are progressing because you see certain individuals getting great opportunity and progress yet you fail to realize the other large group that is not getting those same opportunity and progress. 
Many whites do not think about the affects of skin color because it is something that does not handicap us. If anything we benefit from the natural color of our skin. Even the lightening of the skin in the African American community is seen as more beautiful. I have a friend that lives across the street and she went to go visit St. Thomas last summer and I remember her mentioning how she was hoping to not come back dark. First of all I never really put two and two together in the fact that African Americans can indeed tan but second of all she stressed how she liked to keep her skin tone as light as possible. But just the ideal in general that having light skin gives you more advantages in life than any thing else. 
At the same time whites try and camouflage this white privilege and make it seem invisible to others. I do believe that strides are being made to rid society of inequality among races, but we need to focus on the big picture. Not the few individuals that are making strides, but whether or not the African American community as a whole is making strides to become more equal to their white counterparts. 

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you! To many people look at race and try to become better then the other. Everyone is free in this country and I think its time we stop playing games. White people most of us don't look at race but I do feel that lower class African American and you could say this about white lower class want handout they think they deserve more because they are held to a different standard. It doesn't matter about color or race or religion. We all are equal its just a matter of how hard you work for something. Most of us work hard to earn a good living and have a good family. I look at the indian race or even the Japanese race and I see them working hard and earning a good living here in America. But why is it that so many African Americans are on welfare and or in prisons? I also saw on the news tonight some African American yelling at white people calling us all crackers and that he hate us. As a white thats hurtful but we never here the white man complain about that? And if a white man were to say something of that nature about a race he would be all over the news and somehow in trouble with the law? Are white people held to different stands then other races?

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