For as long as I can remember, racial injustice has been the topic of discussion amongst the American nation. A nation commercializing itself as being free and having equality for all, however, one questions how this is true when every other day on the news we hear about the injustices and discriminations of one race over another. Eula Biss published an essay called “White Debt” which unveils her thoughts on discrimination and what she believes white Americans owe, the debt they owe, to a dark past that essentially provided what is out there today. Ta-Nehisi Coates published “Between the World and Me,” offering his perspective about “the Dream” that Americans want, the fear that he faced being black growing up and that black bodies are what …show more content…
shaped America into what it is today. While Biss talks about the foundation of this country being built on evil, Coates tries to show how it through his letter. While both articles offer different perspectives of what they are trying to prove, they explore the idea of “whiteness” in terms of it being an illusion that has taken over. Both explain that white privilege is all around us and it affects their every day lives. Ultimately, whiteness, the term, is used to exemplify a moral problem between the two races as Biss and Coates try to prove partaking in whiteness is avoidable. As Biss states, you can be white without practicing whiteness. To begin, Biss and Coates are writing from two different perspectives trying to prove essentially the same thing. In the sense that Biss, who is white, is writing from the comfort of her home, discussing the things she has noticed within her own race, white Americans and how they are essentially affecting black Americans. The other, Coates, who is black, is writing about the fear he had growing up being black from Baltimore and the fear he continues to have each day for his son. Both authors are addressing the issues concerning the foundation of American, including how is was founded on evil and the black bodies that built America to what it is today and the debt owed. Both are trying to prove that the illusion of whiteness is a lie, that the illusion of ownership is a lie. The illusion of ownership, a term coined with Biss’ essay, describes an illusion one feels over a possession that is not theirs to begin with. You begin to believe that something is yours because you have it, you live in it, you ride in it, but how can it be really yours when you owe a debt on it. While the term is indirectly used in Coates’ letter and directly found in Biss’ essay, both authors are addressing the issue behind it. The term itself has deeper meaning, as this interpretation is just a literal meaning. Coates uses it to describe how America itself has an illusion of ownership over itself, as well as people of color and the actions and treatments that follow people of color, while also mentioning the debt that remains to the people who made it what it is today. Biss uses it to explain race and the privileges that one race has over the other and debt owed is ignored nor can it ever be repaid. Eula Biss starts her essay off discussing guilt and debt, which meant the same thing in German and that the new debt she has acquired is “surprisingly comfortable” (1). Although this is not clear in the beginning of her essay, Biss mentions this for a reason, in an effort to show that guilt is felt for the debt owed, the debt that is lost in the illusion of ownership. This led her to her pondering of the idea of how easily it can be to obtain it, specifically for someone of her skin color. This leads into a deeper discussion about how creditors, instead of being repaid with money or goods, gain “pleasure” from “seeing the debtor’s body punished” (2). Biss also mentions that the power to be able to punish one “can enhance your sense of social status, increasing the pleasure of cruelty.” She uses the incident with Sandra Bland, who was pulled over for not signaling when changing a lane, that ended up becoming “a confrontation that ended with” Sandra “face down on the side of the road” (2). As this was happening, Sandra would ask the white Texas trooper if he felt good about himself for treating a person of color this way. It is incidents such as this that raised red flags for Biss. The incident sounding Sandra Bland, as well as other injustices, caused Biss to become more conscience of the pattern of police brutality, until one day when she witnessed it herself.
She witnessed, “a black man being handcuffed by his car on an empty stretch of road next to a cemetery in Chicago” (6). While this and the Sandra Bland example are two of many more, Biss is trying to prove that white criminals are treated with privilege, rather than experiencing the same kind of treatment someone of color gets, they are given advantages that someone of color would not have, advantages they do not deserve. Biss uses this example in order to prove that the actions of the police are done not out of necessity, but as something that has always happened throughout history, a tradition of some sort, which Coates connects with as …show more content…
well. Ta-Nehisi Coates essential joins with Biss, as he mentions police brutality against Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, John Crawford and Tamir Rice. Eric, who was “choked to death for selling cigarettes Renisha, who “was shot for seeking help,” and John Crawford who “was shot down for browsing in a department store” (3). These real life run-ins happen all the time around us. Coates tells his son that police departments have the authority to “destroy your body,” specifically black bodies and there is nothing uniquely evil about the “destroyers,” what he calls the police. He states that they are men who are performing their duties based on “the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy” (3), traditions not out of necessity, a connection to Biss as she mentions with her example. Coates mentions these examples of white police brutality and uses of excessive force to show that these people died because of their skin color by people who swore to protect them. From Eric telling the cops he could not breathe and them not letting go, to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy, who Coates mentions was murdered. If one does not see the problem here and these actions continue on, we as a country cannot move forward in ending the idea of whiteness and the illusion of ownership will never end. For Biss, she does not state what whiteness is, but rather what whiteness is not.
She states “whiteness is not a kinship or a culture,” and that “whiteness is not who you are.” (5). She states that whiteness “is not an identity but a moral problem” (6) and that changing your skin tone from white is not the answer to the problems of whiteness. Biss accomplishes her point of what whiteness is not and now uses this to give us now a sense of what whiteness is and it being an illusion that is harming to those around us. Biss also describes that she has found “refusing to collude in injustice is easier said than done” (6), which means that saying you are not going to participate in the act of injustice acts is easier than actually putting that movement forward. You never really have to think about being white because the things nonwhites go through does not apply to them. She believes whiteness is costing her, her moral life, her community and has driven a wedge between her neighbors and herself. Biss explains of the uncomfortable uncertainty she had with life and it being good. She was “pestered by the possibility that all” of everything she knew “was built on a bedrock of evil and that evil was running through our groundwater” (7). Biss was pestered by the idea of what the lives of whites and the American dream were mainly built on, the oppression of
nonwhites. Coates’ letter to his son, Samori, expressing his thoughts on the American dream people want to achieve and the foundation America itself was built on, what Biss refers to as its “bedrock of evil.” Coates talks about whiteness as an illusion as well and that starts right from the beginning when he is being interviewed on a show. Coates says, “As for now, it must be said that the elevation of the belief in being white was not achieved through wine tastings and ice cream socials, but rather through the pillaging of life, liberty, labor and land” (2), and when the host brought up hope after he tried to explain this, he knew he had failed to make her understand. As he leaves the recording studio that November day and sees the families outside, raised to be white and who will now raise their babies to be white, Coates knows something need to be done to stop the inequality, the unjust acts happening around him. He knows if people like the host do not wake up and see what is really going on and what happened in the past is still happening in the future, we as a society can never push forward. Moreover, Coates explains as the black world was expending, he could see that the “world was more than a photonegative of that of the people who believed they are white” (4), meaning it was moving away from accepting the expansion. Coates knew that power is what makes one dominate and to dominate and control the black bodies, “white America” needed to be the a “syndicate arrayed” in order to protect its elite power (4). Coates wants his readers to understand that whiteness is an illusion; it is a lie that was created because enslavement was never supposed to end. As Coates brings in his own personal experiences to share with his son, he explains the fear he still feels to this day, that he felt growing up seeing all the black bodies that were being taken away around him. He mentions an incident where he father beat him with a belt not out anger, but more out of fear because he did not want to lose his son, which is an example of something Biss will never have to feel or experience with her son, as he will have the advantage of white privilege.
Brent Staples’ “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” is about how racial profiling has affected his life and made him think of himself as a perilous person. He supports this argument by allowing the readers to see things from his point of view during the times when he was treated like an outsider because of the color of his skin, followed by sharing how the situation made him feel confused and foreign. Staples’ wrote this essay in order to make readers become aware of how often racial profiling actually happens among men. His intended audience is primarily people of color because that is what his essay focuses on, but the intended audience is also those who are not of color because the author is trying to convince them about the
She alludes to the idea that as people we must look deeper into our lives and see were we may have been given unearned privilege whether is be from race, gender, or sexuality.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the article “The Case for Reparations” presents a powerful argument for reparations to black African American for a long time of horrendous injustice as slavery plus discrimination, violence, hosing policies, family incomes, hard work, education, and more took a place in black African American’s lives. He argues that paying such a right arrears is not only a matter of justice; however, it is important for American people to express how they treated black African Americans.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
On Being Young-A Woman-and Colored an essay by Marita Bonner addresses what it means to be black women in a world of white privilege. Bonner reflects about a time when she was younger, how simple her life was, but as she grows older she is forced to work hard to live a life better than those around her. Ultimately, she is a woman living with the roles that women of all colors have been constrained to. Critics, within the last 20 years, believe that Marita Bonners’ essay primarily focuses on the double consciousness ; while others believe that she is focusing on gender , class , “economic hardships, and discrimination” . I argue that Bonner is writing her essay about the historical context of oppression forcing women into intersectional oppression by explaining the naturality of racial discrimination between black and white, how time and money equate to the American Dream, and lastly how gender discrimination silences women, specifically black women.
Dr. Peggy McIntosh looks at white privilege, by “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” She describes white privilege as almost a special check or coin that she gets to cash in on. Dr. McIntosh tells that white privilege has been a taboo and repressed subject – and that many white people are taught not to see or recognize it. However, she is granted privileges (McIntosh 30). Dr. McIntosh goes on to describe twenty-six ways in which her skin-color grants her certain privileges. In example twenty, she describes how she can buy “…posters, postcards, picture books…” and other items that “…feature people of my race” (32). Additionally, in her first example, she talks about being able to be in the “company of people of my race most of the time” (McIntosh 31). Instances in which a privilege person would not even recognize unless they were looking, show evidence for white privilege. People take these advantages for granted because they simply expect them. Due to the lack of melatonin in her skin, she was granted privileges and her skin served as an asset to her. Dr. McIntosh conveys how her privilege is not only a “favored state,” but also a power over other
When she first is confronted by the problem or race it hits her with a thump. Bob takes Alice to dinner where she states, “I don’t want feel like being refused” (55). Alice does what she can to avoid the face of racism. She lacks the integration within the different community, which gives her a one-path perspective. While going to the restaurant with Bob, he asks, “Scared because you haven’t got the white folks to cover you” (55)? She doesn’t have the protection of her friends or her parents to shy away from the truth of her being African American. She is hiding behind a mask because she’s passing as white. She’s accepting the assumption that she belongs to their culture. When she goes out, “with white folks the people think you’re white” (60). But, when she goes out with Bob there is nothing to hide behind. She’s confronted with the truth. Already feeling low about the restaurant, and getting pulled over by the cops, she uses her wealth to get out of the situation. She says, “I am a supervisor in the Los Angeles Welfare” (63). The power of her family shows that she be treated better by the cops and others in the
Racial inequality is a disparity in opportunity and treatment that occurs as a result of someone 's race. Racial inequality has been effecting our country since it was founded. Although our country has been racially injustice toward many different race this research paper, however will be limited to the racial injustice and inequality of African-Americans. Since the start of slavery African Americans have been racially unequal to the majority race. It was not in tile the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when African Americans received racial equality under the law of the United States. Many authors write about racial injustice before the civil rights act and after the civil rights act. In “Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin tells a fictional
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
Racism has been and always will be a form of segregation concurrently and in the history of humanity. From Ancient times to current, the status of segregation by some means of oppression privied by power, wealth, and prestige has been as second nature as drinking water. While Coates has his own perspective of reality and its structure, it’s interesting that a so called genius had taken almost 30 years to finally see the true nature of “the beast” he frequented. That Beast known as Racist America and all if its capitalist racial qualities. While some have their own experiences and perspectives, “Between The World and Me”, past historical events on racism in America including the Civil Rights Movement, correlative measures of other countries on racism and the slave trade, and the many obstacles that are implemented to secure such advantages will continue to be the key topics of discussion.
She shows how these fictions are woven into the fabric of everyday life in Jackson, from the laws to ordinary conversations, and how these beliefs get passed from generation to generation. It shows a deep mistrust of whites on the part of the black community, who have been betrayed by them again and again. It also shows how powerful and how dangerous it can be to challenge the stereotypes and dissolve the lines that are meant to separate people from each other on the basis of skin
Racial Inequality is a topic in America that many people believe still exists, and many believe it’s simply an over-dramatized topic. Tim Wise, a notable person in the political world, gave a speech on his thoughts on racial inequality at Bloomsburg University (Wise, 2016). I strongly disagreed with the ideas he tried presenting to us students at Bloomsburg University. However, I kept an open mind despite feeling disturbed by his thoughts, and came out with new knowledge on the topic of racial inequality.
While racism is usually more easily recognizable by way of comments, social isolation and stereotyping, there is another divide that many don’t recognize and that is white privilege. White privilege, also referred to as white skin privilege, is when white people are granted certain rights, privileges, positions, courtesies, etc.…over those of a different race. This is often seen in political, educational and social environments. This impacts social inequality by adding to the existing differences in social experiences and/or statuses that results in people having unequal access to valued resources, services, and positions in society (Kerbo, 2012). Throughout history white privilege has suppressed the advancement of African Americans.
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
Although her story is about the corrupted system and cruelty towards African Americans, I first thought it was about a rape that occurred and the victim, Sandra Bland. After being pulled over for a routine traffic stop, the young woman Sandra Bland was treated unfairly through the series of events, ultimately leading to her death. The usage of hyperbole throughout the essay are both exaggerations and the truth The author now feels vulnerable during her daily driving routine because of her skin color. She feels white police officers see the wrong meaning in her skin. “In the color of my skin they see criminality, deviance, a lack of humanity.” Authorities can only see the bad and the stereotypes through her skin color without knowing who she actually is as a person. Her vulnerability is both visible and invisible to the average eye. Her personality is altered by the traumatic event. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, “In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.”; Gay added to this statement by saying, “It is also tradition to try and destroy the black spirt,” America’s traditions do not include destroying black spirts or bodies, however, America does have a reputation for not respectively treating the black body, especially by authority figures. The destruction of her faith in humanity makes her feel as if she is not a living, breathing soul. “I do not feel alive. I