Introduction
There is a feeling of helplessness or insecurity that can arise in all humans regarding racial issues. This helplessness manifests itself in a variety of ways and dictates one’s actions. These actions can be strong and helpful while other actions are either harmful or can be perceived as insensitive. Throughout the class we read a variety of books in which I believed each touched on or had many moments where the characters had many manifestations of these feelings and consequently actions to deal with them. Our class interpreted these actions in different ways, showcasing the variety of ways in which people perceive situations. I would like to point out some of these moments and speak on my personal perspective. By reading, processing, and understanding these feelings and actions we can better understand each other and create more transparent communication that can lead to better outcomes than those that occurred in the stories.
White Guilt The first theme or feeling I would like to touch upon is the white guilt feeling. This is made up of many emotions or feelings such as fear, hate, hopelessness, sadness, …show more content…
I think one interesting form of white guilt that was faced in this book was by Chris Patterson. Chris was in an interracial relationship with a black man who was in the service. When he returned from overseas he suffered PTSD and was abusive and took to alcohol to help numb that pain. Instead of getting help, telling people about her situation, or just taking some control, she felt helpless and was afraid. She didn’t want people to believe the stereotypes of black men and didn’t believe her husband should fall into those but she knew if she said what happened those thoughts of a “big, Black brute…” (Frankenberg 79) would be real and others would think that as
There is a feeling of helplessness or insecurity that can arise in all humans regarding racial issues. This helplessness manifests itself in a variety of ways and dictates one’s actions. These actions can be strong and helpful while other actions are either harmful or can be perceived as insensitive. Throughout the class we read a variety of books in which I believed each touched on or had many moments where the characters had many manifestations of these feelings and consequently actions to deal with them. Our class interpreted these actions in different ways, showcasing the variety of ways in which people perceive situations. I would like to point out some of these moments and speak on my personal perspective. By reading, processing, and understanding these feelings and actions we can better understand each other and create more transparent communication that can lead to better outcomes than those that occurred in the stories.
White Guilt The first theme or feeling I would like to touch upon is the white guilt feeling. This is made up of many emotions or feelings such as fear, hate, hopelessness, sadness, …show more content…
I think one interesting form of white guilt that was faced in this book was by Chris Patterson. Chris was in an interracial relationship with a black man who was in the service. When he returned from overseas he suffered PTSD and was abusive and took to alcohol to help numb that pain. Instead of getting help, telling people about her situation, or just taking some control, she felt helpless and was afraid. She didn’t want people to believe the stereotypes of black men and didn’t believe her husband should fall into those but she knew if she said what happened those thoughts of a “big, Black brute…” (Frankenberg 79) would be real and others would think that as