How can I even begin to understand what is going on in my head?

The following are my own opinions; a more scientific research based post will follow!

Racism, classism, ageism.... all these words that we humans have constructed to put a label on the differences between each of us has made understanding our interactions and perceptions only that much harder. How can we start to comprehend what is driving this divide with so many different factors fuelling it.

Let us consider the following questions: Who is seen as ‘better’ the white steel worker from Nebraska or the asian-american teacher from California? The black doctor from the Bronx or the white carpenter from Long Island? The middle class university student from the Kwakwaka'wakw people, or the middle class university student of Italian descent? Of course, from the knowledgeable/culturally relative perspective of a white university anthropology student, they are all the same, the same as I am and the same as you are, and I truly believe that, but that point of view is not universal.

Is giving the heritage and occupation of a person enough for someone to make a judgement? Unfortunately, it seems as though the answer is yes in some cases. But there are many other factors that play into how we as individuals are perceived by others: class, nationality, location, age, whether you have dark or light skin for your race, religious beliefs, education, they way you talk, they way you dress, male or female, sexual preference... the list goes. There are so many different aspects that the task of fully understanding ourselves as humans seems to be a colossal undertaking.

Looking a white people as a group, the internal division that exists is monumental. Take for example the difference between a punk/skater business student with dyed hair, a hippy with dreadlocks who just completed the MCAT’s on top of a business major, and the economics student who wears a suit to school. Which one of these middle class white kids will get a high paying job first? Will they be judged solely on their looks? Or will the employer look past what might be seen as “different” and hire the more qualified individual? I’ll let you weigh in on that.

What I found absolutely ridiculous after reading John Hartigan’s book, is that it seems as though if all of those white kids had criminal records they would still be more likely to get a job then a black person with the same credentials (without a criminal record). I can’t even begin to understand that, how can a white convict be more suited for a job then a well educated black university graduate?

Black people as a group, as well as the majority of other races share the same internal division as white people do, but what separates white people from all other races is the “white privilege” (Hartigan, 2010, p. 86). This is what drives racism in our modern culture, seperating each race into their own broad group. This is what, in my own opinion, makes it so hard to understand what those of different colours actually go through on a daily basis. I can read all the text books available, take a million different classes on race but I doubt I will actually be able to comprehend the “difference” (for lack of a better word)  that those of other races truly feel, and it is disheartening to know that.

There have been countless discussions in my classes on race and perception but no one ever really comes to a conclusion. Most of the time everyone is too nervous to truly speak out (Anth 335 is an exception) and the concept is somewhat breezed over, almost as if the entire class is in a hurry to finish and move on to the next topic. This stems from the societal created idea that talking about race is a ‘bad’ thing, but it is only bad when uneducated judgmental people discuss it and use it in a negative sense. Of course everyone looks different, it doesn’t matter if they are white, black, Indian, or Asian, each person looks different. But that is only on the outside, and as we know from Hartigans book scientific studies have proven that what is on the outside (skin colour) has no real basis for difference. The idea of race being a negative or positive attribute is PURELY created by society, it is a judgement on the outward materialistic expression of humans, completely overlooking our internal aspects; our hearts, minds and souls that ultimately connect us and unite us as Homo sapiens.

I don’t think that this will answer any debates but maybe it has helped you to create more questions.

Again, these are my own thoughts (with a little help from Hartigan), all jumbled together with no real order or point. I wanted to express myself, sorry if it is confusing but these are the ideas that are going on in my head and who would have known it would be so hard to put into words!

John Vernon

Hartigan, J. (2010). Race n the 21st Century: Ethnographic Approaches. New York: Oxford University Press