Personal Essay on Racism

        I found this weeks’ topics somewhat confusing, and I am still trying to understand fully. While reading one of the slides I found a sentence that really stuck with me; “For some people, there is conflict between what they do feel and what they should feel.” This sentence was referring to racism, but I feel like it could refer to many types of prejudice. This is going in somewhat opposite direction of the teaching this week, but I feel like sometimes I over think how I should feel or say something because the world today is trying so hard to be politically correct.

        I don’t feel that I am racist in anyway, but when referring to a person of color I find myself hesitating on how to refer to them. Do I refer to them as a colored person, a black person, and African American? I don’t want to offend anyone by saying the wrong thing. I feel that the fact that I have to think about how to refer to them could also be considered racist. I feel that the world today has many stereo types that they are trying to get rid of by being politically correct. I feel that stereotypes are there for a reason and aren’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as what you are saying isn’t offensive to anyone, and is factual.

        To continue to figure out my thoughts on racism, and determine if I could be racist or not. I did the IAT Test on race. I found that I have a strong automatic preference to European Americans over African Americans. I did like that the test, first asked what you thought your opinion was. Then it had you take a test with images and words to find your sub conscience thoughts. I feel that they test was not completely accurate. I think that some of my prejudice towards African Americans may be that I am unfamiliar with them. I have grown up with mostly white people my whole life, and have been sheltered from other ethnicities. There is a study that was done at the University of Oxford that found that even highly prejudice people became less prejudice just by living in an area that was more ethnically diverse (Griffiths, 2014.)

Work Cited

Griffiths, S. (2014, March 03). Has your town made you RACIST? Living in 'ethnically diverse' areas makes people more tolerant without knowing it. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2572281/Living-ethnically-diverse-areas-makes-people-tolerant.html

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