While reading this week’s assignment, Racial Preferences for Whites: The Houses that Racism Built by Larry Adelman, I felt like I understood the idea that he was trying to convey, but at the same time, I felt that he was talking about just a small section of people. I came into reading this piece with my own biases, as does anyone. I am white, I am in the lower middle class, I am suburban, I am not close to by extended family. All of these external factors went into how I comprehended and interpreted the ideas being presented. This piece was focused on the idea that Whites have had an advantage in the housing market in the past, thus creating more opportunities for the future generations. I had never heard of Levittown before or about the
…show more content…
The suburb I grew up in was right on the edge of Chicago-land and Cornfield, Illinois. It is a fairly new community, having been a small farm town just a quarter century ago. The population has boomed with new families with new and old money alike, and going to school at the only private Catholic primary in town, I grew up with this image of wealth and prosperity. Even going to public school, I was surrounded my kids whose parents had extraordinary amounts of wealth. The houses in the subdivisions in my town are something else. Jenny McCarthy and Mark Wahlberg just bought a house in one of them, which gives you the idea of just what it takes to own one of them. Most of these families are White, but many are not. Adelman states in his piece that “many whites who grew up middle class in the suburbs like to think we got where we are today on merit - hard work, intelligence, pluck and maybe a little luck” (Adelman 2). I have always believed this, so it was interesting to see this viewpoint be …show more content…
Sure, this maybe the exception and not the rule, but I believe that Adelman is making a large assumption and jumping the gun in saying that people, White people, don’t achieve things via met, hard work, and a bit of luck.
When I read this excerpt by Adelman, I felt like it made it out to seem that being White gave you this large advantage and “the spoils of the racist system without themselves being personally racist” (Adelman 2). I knew this is not always the case, as with my family and countless others. I felt like he was making a generalization about what it takes to be successful and what factor being white has in this quest as well.
While watching the documentary in class, I learned more about this unfamiliar topic of Levittown and the decisions of those considered “non-White” when they came to America to separate themselves from people of color. Through this, I could see where Adelman was coming from, yet I still felt steadfast in my belief that hard-work is crucial for success no matter what race or ethnicity or gender you
The suburb I grew up in was right on the edge of Chicago-land and Cornfield, Illinois. It is a fairly new community, having been a small farm town just a quarter century ago. The population has boomed with new families with new and old money alike, and going to school at the only private Catholic primary in town, I grew up with this image of wealth and prosperity. Even going to public school, I was surrounded my kids whose parents had extraordinary amounts of wealth. The houses in the subdivisions in my town are something else. Jenny McCarthy and Mark Wahlberg just bought a house in one of them, which gives you the idea of just what it takes to own one of them. Most of these families are White, but many are not. Adelman states in his piece that “many whites who grew up middle class in the suburbs like to think we got where we are today on merit - hard work, intelligence, pluck and maybe a little luck” (Adelman 2). I have always believed this, so it was interesting to see this viewpoint be …show more content…
Sure, this maybe the exception and not the rule, but I believe that Adelman is making a large assumption and jumping the gun in saying that people, White people, don’t achieve things via met, hard work, and a bit of luck.
When I read this excerpt by Adelman, I felt like it made it out to seem that being White gave you this large advantage and “the spoils of the racist system without themselves being personally racist” (Adelman 2). I knew this is not always the case, as with my family and countless others. I felt like he was making a generalization about what it takes to be successful and what factor being white has in this quest as well.
While watching the documentary in class, I learned more about this unfamiliar topic of Levittown and the decisions of those considered “non-White” when they came to America to separate themselves from people of color. Through this, I could see where Adelman was coming from, yet I still felt steadfast in my belief that hard-work is crucial for success no matter what race or ethnicity or gender you