Sunday, December 8, 2013
Privileged Upbringing
This class has had an interesting effect on how I view the Whitworth population. The fact that almost every time we are asked about an experiencing some kind of discrimination, the story always starts out with "I have this black friend..." or "my hispanic friend told me..." Being caucasian and a part of the majority, we have never had to experience the truly negative side effects of stereotyping. Sure, we have the dumb blonde, or the stupid jock stereotypes but those are easy to overcome if you want to. We never have to deal with the stuff that truly hurts our society and the way we look at one another. We have all been through hard times and had poor experiences but the Whitworth, being a majority white university, has not had to face the true racial stereotyping problems that more diverse students have to go through in their lifetimes or even on a daily basis. We can talk all we want about how much we know about racial profiling and negative viewpoints towards minority races but those of us that are white will not understand what it is like to be thought of in such a light so we need to stop acting like we know what it is like and start fixing the problem itself.
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Brandon,
ReplyDeleteFrom a racial standpoint I would agree with you, especially in the world outside of Whitworth. However, from both a sexual and religious aspect, I would disagree. I think Whitworth has a lot of it's own problems that most universities have little to none of, even for white students. A lot of people I've met here feel as though they can't tell people they're a homosexual because they're afraid of the negative stereotypes, judgement, and not being accepted by many of the very religious students. Even though this example don't involve race, there are still large social problems that Caucasians (and other races too) face at Whitworth, that don't really reflect the majority of the world we live in. My personal experience is that I was raised to be colorblind and accepting of all. Regardless of the color of your skin, the problems you may have, your sexual orientation, or your socio-economic status, we all have souls, we all have hearts, and we all need understanding, patience, and love. So, even at Whitworth when people put their God first, they should remember this before judgement and condemnation of others. In closing, I think we face more issues than just racial profiling.