Eth/125 Final Project

The information I have gotten from the past nine weeks has helped me to understand better the way that I am perceived in the country today. I have always believed that we are all Americans and as Americans racial differences were simply a matter of experience with and understanding of one another, but through reading the texts and the conversations I have had in class I now see that this is not so. If the feelings expressed in the text and in our conversations are an accurate portrayal of the situation in general then instead of a mere differences to be overcome, the situation more resembles a battlefield that must be traversed.

To me the curriculum describes a world where I, a white male born in the U.S., was given everything and I in turn am responsible for all of the wows that have befallen everyone that did not have the life of privilege that was handed to me. Please excuse the overly dramatic statement but when I hear terms like “White Privilege” and I am a member of the “Dominant Group” who oppress and control the “Subordinate Groups”, these are gross generalizations that assume because I am white I did not have to face racism or oppression in my life, which is just not true for me and for many others. People of all races and ethnicities struggle in this country every day, and on a daily basis I see people of all different colors, abilities and backgrounds helping each other and building one another up. This is not because the government told them they had to or because one group owed it to another because of past inequities, it is because we are all neighbors, we are all Americans and we are all in it together. There will always be ignorant people who see everything outside of their own little bubble as inferior and want nothing more than to put it down but they are the minority. We will never be rid of them so the best remedy is to kill them with kindness and build our own world without them.

One of the interesting things that I took from this course...