Reflection On Race As A Social Construct

Prior to this class I did not think of race as a social construct, I knew that the idea of race was created, but I never examined why, how, and by was it created for. In my first essay, I examined my experiences growing up as experiences that had to do with race, but I did not know how to articulate the way that racial construct played a vital role in my experiences growing up. When writing my first essay I touched on education, living environments, wealth, and stereotypes, but I did not understand the correlations between those topics and social construct that is put together by society to make those everyday interactions a particular way for Black people. Thinking back on my experience while I lived in Chicago has given me a new perspective …show more content…
We also learned about the race-associated reasons why people chose not to live in urban neighborhoods or neighborhoods that are heavily populated by Latinos and Blacks. All of those factors played a key role into why my parents chose for us to live in the neighborhood that we lived in; they did not want their to be a lot of us noise, my neighborhood was extremely quiet and neat, and they wanted to make sure that there were no crimes, there has never been a break in that occurred in my neighborhood. Even though the neighborhood to the back of ours did have a little more noise and a bit more crime it still perpetuates the ideals that many people have about living in a neighborhood where predominately minorities stay. I never would have considered that to be discrimination back then, but after taking this class I see that we deprived them from some of the resources that they once had because we wanted to ensure the best value of our …show more content…
Even though I am a black woman, and as a black women I endure the most intersectionality I have to realize the way in which this country was set up. Black people have been set-up by the state to be disenfranchise from the moment they brought them here, but as said in class it does not mean much if we accept our privilege but do nothing to help those around us who are suffering. Coming into my class I understood by privilege, I realize my privilege, I volunteer and mentor which I thought were helping dismantle and change the world around me but using my privilege. But after this class I gained a greater appreciation of the privilege I have and what I need to do to better improve the world around