Nicholas Kunkle's Argumentative Analysis

A black man enters a convenience store by himself and starts perusing the aisles. The next day, a white man enters a convenience store and does the same thing. Which man was probably watched more cautiously by the store owner? Many sociologists, based on the studies and research conducted, would say the black man was seen as a bigger threat. It is important to point out, though, that this store owner might not actually be racist. In fact, the owner might be a proponent of equality of all races, but because of the way we have all been socialized to subconsciously think about people of color, the owner would automatically think of the black person to be more of a danger. Both Nicholas Kristof’s and Fredrick Kunkle’s articles support this idea …show more content…
In this article, Kristof reports that people are less likely to stop to allow blacks to cross the streets than they are for a white person. In fact, Kunkle reported, “blacks are twice as likely to die in pedestrian accidents than whites.” This was an upsetting study, because really, every life is precious and should be treated fairly and with respect. Learning that people subconsciously (and some people even consciously) think that a black life is worth less than a white life is …show more content…
As we discussed in class on Monday, the dominant group (whites) is the one that define and determines what is reality for not only themselves, but also for minorities. In other words, the media can skew its reporting in a way that maintain the status quo of whites being at the top of the racial hierarchy. By reporting people of color in a more negative light more often, consumers subconsciously start to believe that people of color are dangerous, inferior, and need to be fixed. What I found particularly eye-opening in our lecture was that the media doesn’t only reinforce the status quo by justifying inequality, but also be denying the existence of any inequality. If the people we trust to give us news are saying that there is no racism, most people would believe that. However, as made clear through these two articles, racism is clearly still around. And even though not everyone identifies as racist or believes that they are discriminatory in any way, subconsciously, everyone hold racist thoughts because of the ways information is fed to us. And because we hold these thoughts, we all subconsciously act in discriminatory ways. Realizing that we all have the potential to think and act racistly, even if you would never identify yourself as racist, is an important step toward equality. Once we realize that mass media affects that way we treat black people on the street, in the