Race Relations in America

The relationship between different races is a delicate topic many people have a hard time discussing. But maybe even harder than the discussion, is trying understand the issues of another race from their perspective. It is a proven fact that people identify with and recognize people of their own race more than those of a different race when it comes to political and even day-to-day problems. Some people believe that this is negative and will only hinder growth, but some see no problem at all.

Jane Elliot, offers her self as an anti-racism and diversity trainer, and has brought her workshops to many classrooms and offices around the nation. Her experiments separate groups into categories based on eye color, using the blue eyed and brown eyed to show how racism divides and belittles minorities. Comparable to the popular required reading book The Wave these activities attempt to bring to the forefront some of the realities non-white Americans face in America. Elliot has a serious of workshops, here is a snippet from the one entitled "Angry Eye."

Camille Smith, 19, is an example of someone who once considered themselves color blind. Born in Ontario, Canada and raised in the predominately black city of Detroit, Michigan she says racism didn’t exist because there weren’t many white people around, in fact only one in her entire school Mumford High.

“Now that I moved into the inner city to Florida, the racism is more prominent. Where I came from it was more of a secret or people really did not care, but now I can defiantly tell that some people are prejudice.”

"I believe that Jane Elliot's experiment id a great way to bring to light a lot of problems people aren't even aware of. It's important that we try to enforce not only equality but understanding"

I believe that it is so needed for more people in the minority and the majority to realize that yes, we are all different, and identifying with your culture is something that should be fun and give you pride, not something that makes people any less of a human being because they don’t belong to it.

In America a lot of times we place ourselves on a high pedestal like we have a crown on our head because we speak English. I recently read something in a book called Good Advice from the Good Book that said,

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt”

If someone were to pick you up and plop you in a foreign country, no one is going to care that you’re an American. You won’t speak their language or know their customs so most likely they’ll just think your weird. 

Now while the cases may vary this is a good way to put yourself in the shoes of someone else and realize that we are all human. So why make it harder on someone just because they have different way then you.