Analysis Of Tiana's Experience In Racism And Gender Discrimination

Tiana’s experience in racism and gender discrimination motivated her to pay more effort to study in order to fight for the equality. Tiana is an African-American woman, who had often experienced racial and gender discrimination in past years. “Once I failed the math exam in my middle school, my white classmates laughed at me, saying that ‘you, African American, are stupid.’ They thought black people lacked sufficient intelligence to participate or compete on an equal basis in society with white Americans,” Tiana said. More than that, Tiana is a woman, a woman of color. She suffered double discrimination. She said: “Few people believed that women are capable of exercising equal political and social rights with men.” As a result, Tiana’s experience

is still not a color blinded country; racism still exists. According to David Wellman, racism is “a system of advantage based on race” (Tatum 7). In another word, racism gives social advantages to some at the expense of others perceived to be inferior. For example, blacks have suffered from higher rates of unemployment than whites. Whites have more promotion opportunities, while racialized persons may find themselves subjected to excessive monitoring or may be more seriously blamed for a common mistake. In the educational system, racism is “prejudice plus power” (Tatum 7). Tatum believes that racial prejudice, when combined with social power…leads to the institutionalization of racist policies and practices (8). It seems that being white could enjoy societal privileges. Many black people like Tiana experienced different kinds of racism in their lives on many different levels. Not anyone like Tiana determines to spend her life fighting for racial and gender equality because they do not have opportunities to learn and explore the history of the race and the essence of the racism. School education does not only teach students the necessary knowledge about ethnicity and develop their awareness of differences, but also encourages them to rethink the troubling history and root causes and figure out ways to challenge, change, or conquer social inequality, discrimination, and

Before coming to the U.S., Ming was a very traditional man, who was taught the Confucianism and required to treasure this traditional belief and strictly obey the family rules. Influenced by his family, Ming insisted that men are superior to women who should be conservative, humble, and obedient. In the first few months in the U.S., Ming showed domination and power when doing group projects with few female classmates. “I didn’t discriminate them. I just thought they might not know how to do it, so I wanted to do more to help the team” Ming said. Ming did not realize that his traditional belief was considered as a gender stereotype. Since California State University, East Bay is an ethnically-diverse college, Ming had opportunities to study with people from different backgrounds. He gradually realized that everyone deserves to be treated equally regardless of gender, race, and religion. Ming’s traditional cultural background helped initiate his original perspective on gender, making him believe that women were inferior to men; however, his school experience changed his prejudice and made him become a person who can recognize and show respect for the gender