Racial Identity Blog #5

Racial identity is a very important aspect of who you are and how you see yourself. I am very aware of my racial identity and I know who I am and how I compare to others. I always remember knowing my racial identity. However, I remember being in elementary school and taking my first standardized test. Before we began to take the test, we all had to fill in information about ourselves. Among the required information, your race was asked. There was a boy in the room who raised his hand and told the teacher that he did not know what race he was, as his parents had never talked about it with him. I remember being very surprised by that, I simply could not understand how this boy did not know anything about his race. After learning in class about racial identity, I was somewhat relieved to find that most people do know and can relay their racial identity to others. For example, according to Spring, pg. 111, "...more than 90% of  native-born African Americans and whites express a clear racial identity as black or white". This shows how many people are very aware of what their racial identity is. While there are many different races, it is very important for each person to know their racial identity. In order to obtain a great value and importance of your race, you must understand your personal background and become familiar with who you are. 

White Privilege

In class we have been learning about white privilege, which is the advantages that whites have over those of a different race. We have learned through required class readings of Spring and the McIntosh article what white privilege is and how it affects everyone in our society. White privilege is a problem, according to Spring chapter 2 "white, non-Hispanics with bachelor's degrees earned an esitmated 2.2 million during their work-life, while "blacks" and "Hispanics" with the same educational attainment earned $1.7 and $1.8 million respectively". This shows the huge difference that white privilege is making. It is wrong that this is still going on in todays world, and something needs to be done. In the McIntosh article, it is pointed out that white privilege is ignored and even taught by whites the same way that males ignore the advantage that they have over women. I believe that everyone is equal, and regardless of your race or gender, everyone should get what they deserve in terms of their education. If an african american woman completes the same education that a white woman does, they should equally earn the same salary. Before talking about this issue, I had no idea that things like this were going on. I knew there was still racisim, but I had no idea that it was still to this extent. I am suprised that as a country, this is still happening and i hope in the near future things get figured out and there is no longer the idea of white privliege because everything will be equal among Americans.