" No, holocaust jokes are not funny." I went to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC my senior year of high school. While I was there I had the unfortunate experience of being stuck behind a group of individuals who were either in 8th or 9th grade. The group was of various races and the entire time they were there they were making anti-semantic jokes and laughing at the chilling images. I found this incredibly disrespectful, not only because I am partially Jewish, but because I feel that it is wrong for them to laugh at something so awful, especially in a place that was built to honor survivors and remember those who were lost. Race is mostly a construct of culture and society rather than a biological mechanism. While individuals may have different skin pigmentation, their language, ideals, and values that are often connected to race are all products of the society they live in. The Race Card Project was created by Michele Norris in hopes of sparking individuals into engaging in a conversation about race, which the U.S. has a notorious reputation for avoiding; however, she found that rather than starting a conversation, her project simply continued a conversation that was already taking place and made it easier for the American people to honestly to share their opinions, hopes, and experiences concerning race. My reactions varied for different statements within the Race Card Project.
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There were some statements that I agreed with upon just reading them and without much thought, there were some that required more thought, others that I felt that I couldn 't agree with, and yet others that I honestly found offensive. However, while reading the various race cards I reminded myself that whether I agree with a statement or not each reflects another person 's ideas or interpretation of events. It would be ethnocentric for me to label an individual 's statement as wrong when I do not completely understand the reasons for their beliefs and I have not shared their experience. One trend that I noticed among the statements was a general consensus from the majority that racism is a problem. Another trend that I noticed is that prejudice extends beyond racial boundaries. Not everyone agrees on how race should be defined or what it actually means; nevertheless, all people seem to have some concept of race, but the majority feel as though race shouldn 't matter, and that how a person is treated should be based on their character rather than their racial and ethnic identity. I believe that the race cards reflect the personal views and opinions on race of the individuals who wrote statements on the website. While this is a sample of racial and ethnic identities within the United States, these individual opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of each particular race and ethnic identity in the United States. However, on the website there are many opinions from people of various different racial and ethnic backgrounds and many individuals of the same ethnic and racial background with differing and similar opinions. This leads me to conclude that the race cards do present a somewhat accurate, though vague, depiction of racial and ethnic identities in the United States. The only downside to this is there may possibly be opinions that may not be represented in the race cards. Two statements that I found that were a different perspectives or experiences than mine were ,"Antiracist is code word for Anti-white," and "My history is only slavery! Why!" An ethnocentric reaction to these statements might be anger or irritation. Seeing as these are both different perspectives different individuals would have different reactions to each, however, if an individual looked at these statements ethnocentrically either could produce anger. An individual might leave a scathing or even threatening comment. A person might call the individual who made the first statement a racist or a bigot. Another individual might cruelly tell the person who made the second statement that they should go back to their own country if they are so unhappy. By looking at these statements using cultural relativism as an evaluating tool one can recognize that these individuals different experiences have shaped their opinions on race. The individual who made the statement that being anti-racist was the equivalent of being anti-white may have
There were some statements that I agreed with upon just reading them and without much thought, there were some that required more thought, others that I felt that I couldn 't agree with, and yet others that I honestly found offensive. However, while reading the various race cards I reminded myself that whether I agree with a statement or not each reflects another person 's ideas or interpretation of events. It would be ethnocentric for me to label an individual 's statement as wrong when I do not completely understand the reasons for their beliefs and I have not shared their experience. One trend that I noticed among the statements was a general consensus from the majority that racism is a problem. Another trend that I noticed is that prejudice extends beyond racial boundaries. Not everyone agrees on how race should be defined or what it actually means; nevertheless, all people seem to have some concept of race, but the majority feel as though race shouldn 't matter, and that how a person is treated should be based on their character rather than their racial and ethnic identity. I believe that the race cards reflect the personal views and opinions on race of the individuals who wrote statements on the website. While this is a sample of racial and ethnic identities within the United States, these individual opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of each particular race and ethnic identity in the United States. However, on the website there are many opinions from people of various different racial and ethnic backgrounds and many individuals of the same ethnic and racial background with differing and similar opinions. This leads me to conclude that the race cards do present a somewhat accurate, though vague, depiction of racial and ethnic identities in the United States. The only downside to this is there may possibly be opinions that may not be represented in the race cards. Two statements that I found that were a different perspectives or experiences than mine were ,"Antiracist is code word for Anti-white," and "My history is only slavery! Why!" An ethnocentric reaction to these statements might be anger or irritation. Seeing as these are both different perspectives different individuals would have different reactions to each, however, if an individual looked at these statements ethnocentrically either could produce anger. An individual might leave a scathing or even threatening comment. A person might call the individual who made the first statement a racist or a bigot. Another individual might cruelly tell the person who made the second statement that they should go back to their own country if they are so unhappy. By looking at these statements using cultural relativism as an evaluating tool one can recognize that these individuals different experiences have shaped their opinions on race. The individual who made the statement that being anti-racist was the equivalent of being anti-white may have