A Powerful Conversation On Race In America Analysis

In the U.S. racism has been prevalent since its formation. All of the built history of segregation, slavery, white supremacy, etc, has built the foundations for the racism presented in today’s U.S. society. Maybe today we don’t have strict laws against other races, but we do have a racial bias that’s prevalent in the minds of Americans, and most of the time it may go unnoticed. In the Daily Show, Trevor Noah alludes to this fact but addressing the arrest and shooting of Terence Crutcher. The way the media talked about Terrance, the way the police even saw him as a threat suggests to the greater problem of racial bias (The Daily Show). Racism is learned. Despite our brains natural tendency to categorize things into heuristics, we can retrain ourselves to think differently. In the video, A Powerful Conversation on Race in America, a “white” gentlemen calls in and discusses the associated fears and …show more content…
I was raised by my Guyanese step dad and I’ve always viewed myself as part of his family even though I am “white”. My real father on the other hand, is prejudice towards people “like him”. I remember coming home one night from seeing my dad deeply upset. Once I could catch a breath from all the crying, I told my mom that dad told me mean things about “black people”. He told me people of “color" are typically dangerous, dumb, in gangs, and up to no good. I was afraid to come home to my Guyanese step-dad who my father painted as a bad man. I knew right away there was something wrong with his thinking. Even my little cousin on my step dad’s side confided in me that she wished to be “white”. She lives in a mostly white area, and most of her life growing up she felt as though she was beneath her friends, that no white boy would ever find her pretty. To this day her words make me cry. It just goes to show you how much our culture has influenced our perception of people’s