Most of my life I lived amongst varying races not including whites, while living in New York City. It wasn 't until I moved to Georgia with my parents to start high school was I really exposed to white people. Even then I still never directly experienced firsthand the prejudice feelings they harbored until my friend Angel who was a classmate at school died in a car crash. The school was really distraught and we were all called to the auditorium, in which I overheard two white boys talking to each other. Saying that all niggers were better off dead anyway. For me it was an eye opener that even in a mixed school you had timid bigots who wouldn 't openly admit to be being racist but they harbored prejudice feelings towards black people. Prejudice
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This affects me because throughout my life in NY and GA I am constantly being told I don 't act black or im “acting white” just because I don 't identify with superficial things or behave in the expected ways of a culture. This was possibly funny at first but it 's said so much it 's gotten annoying and will most likely persist in the future as long as being “black” is based on superficial concepts. I’m even told this by white people which is offensive for the very fact I’m expected to act in some predispositioned behavior. Which is interesting because when it comes to ethnicity, White Americans can employ it in defense or shed it all together depending on the situation(Collins,2006 pg.79). However for first generation African-Americans like myself race is “paramount and ethnicity is denied”(Collins,2006 pg.79). This makes it hard for me to associate with blacks due to this close-mindedness and whites due to a pre-dispositioned behavior they expect from black people. Which in short makes me less socially inclined to meet people since I don 't want to be forced to act like something I’m not, which is sad because if my race was not visible I would be able to communicate with others without biases …show more content…
For instance someone with white privilege would find that race makes it easier to apply for a loan, not assumed to be a representative of his race at job interviews or be pulled over by police based on race.People of white privilege would like to claim that due to Affirmative Action that I have black privilege and an easier time but if they really believe that I would switch all my black privilege for white privilege in a heartbeat. As a African-American male the structure of race has only made life easier for me when compared to the African-Americans it discriminates. For instance, when I moved to Georgia to start high school I was surprised to find out that I would be going to a high school 25 mins away when there was one 10 mins away with the county 's name. I later found out that because I lived in a wealthy neighborhood I was entitled to go to a well off school and those people who lived in the poorer neighborhoods in the same county were forced to go to the close high school. This was great for me because the close high school loss accreditation shortly after. This was a race structure because the neighborhood I moved into was mostly white which allowed me to get better schooling,otherwise I could have been sent to the close apartheid school that was overcrowded and loss accreditation. Another factor that made my race structure
This affects me because throughout my life in NY and GA I am constantly being told I don 't act black or im “acting white” just because I don 't identify with superficial things or behave in the expected ways of a culture. This was possibly funny at first but it 's said so much it 's gotten annoying and will most likely persist in the future as long as being “black” is based on superficial concepts. I’m even told this by white people which is offensive for the very fact I’m expected to act in some predispositioned behavior. Which is interesting because when it comes to ethnicity, White Americans can employ it in defense or shed it all together depending on the situation(Collins,2006 pg.79). However for first generation African-Americans like myself race is “paramount and ethnicity is denied”(Collins,2006 pg.79). This makes it hard for me to associate with blacks due to this close-mindedness and whites due to a pre-dispositioned behavior they expect from black people. Which in short makes me less socially inclined to meet people since I don 't want to be forced to act like something I’m not, which is sad because if my race was not visible I would be able to communicate with others without biases …show more content…
For instance someone with white privilege would find that race makes it easier to apply for a loan, not assumed to be a representative of his race at job interviews or be pulled over by police based on race.People of white privilege would like to claim that due to Affirmative Action that I have black privilege and an easier time but if they really believe that I would switch all my black privilege for white privilege in a heartbeat. As a African-American male the structure of race has only made life easier for me when compared to the African-Americans it discriminates. For instance, when I moved to Georgia to start high school I was surprised to find out that I would be going to a high school 25 mins away when there was one 10 mins away with the county 's name. I later found out that because I lived in a wealthy neighborhood I was entitled to go to a well off school and those people who lived in the poorer neighborhoods in the same county were forced to go to the close high school. This was great for me because the close high school loss accreditation shortly after. This was a race structure because the neighborhood I moved into was mostly white which allowed me to get better schooling,otherwise I could have been sent to the close apartheid school that was overcrowded and loss accreditation. Another factor that made my race structure