This video is from The New York Times video journalist, who have provided insight on college campuses, with students who have noticed racial microaggressions, but they are not ignoring these comments like most people do, in this video Harvard students are using campaigns such as school plays involving student interview project to make everyone else aware of their racial microaggressions. I used this video because it not only relates to class discussions, not only targets college student audience but it targets our generation. I also relate to this video, because of the comments, coming from a culture that is not the "social norm" is quite different. I am Hawaiian, I run into racial micraggressions all the time when meeting people for the first time, such as, "What are you?" "You gotta be Mexican because you're tan" "So you aren't white at all?" "I bet you're exotic because of your tan skinned". I never knew these comments were called racial microaggressions, iI never knew it was an actual thing/word before taking this class, but i always had this negative gut feeling when being asked those questions. I could not understand why these comments were affecting me in a negative way, I saw in the beginning of the video, one of the Harvard student says "am i crazy or did they just do this.." when a person just made a racial microaggression, which is EXACTLY how I felt before recognizing racial microaggressions. I never called out the microaggressions because of the risks, making the situation worse, being more uncomfortable, but now being "conscious" "aware" of these racial comments, I have begun to call them out, no matter how awkward it is, because Id rather in the end, feel prideful than regretful for not saying anything. In this video it states that critics are viewing these student campaigns over racial microaggressions, as overreactions of unintended offenses.
My question is, when people are coming together protesting, bringing a huge community in, over a topic that has impacted them in such a negative way, why do people instead of get in line, try to help, or simply ignore it move on with life, but instead most of our people dig the hole deeper or build a barrier for the protesters to prevent them from reaching their goal? We are all human beings, if someones down, we help them up, the type of life philosophy I go by and I know not everyone is like me, blase blase blase, but like the video stated, critics say these student campaigns over racial micraggressions are overreactions of unintended offenses, why do people have to say something already so negative? Like why do people automatically make an excuse for something they do not simply understand? I know these critics are NOT "colorblind" I know deep down these critics see the real issue, because I know they have to look in the mirror every day.
When I read Between The World and Me, one of the biggest issues that stuck out to me was when Coates talked about 'The Dream'. In the United States, we are known for being the
land of possibilities and that anyone can achieve the American Dream if they
are willing to work for it. . My father was an immigrant from Honduras who
was able to achieve upward mobility, but although he did attain the definition
of the American Dream I know that it isn’t the reality for most that are in
this country. Even though my father did achieve 'the American Dream', he was still subjected to the racial stereotypes that come with men of color having money. Growing up, I can remember people saying my father became successful by selling drugs. Some people couldn't accept the fact that a man of color we're doing better than they were. Growing up in a small town, from an influent family I was never really made aware of my race until I was in an airport in Miami with my father and my brother and I was asked to come into a private room, where a security guard told me they needed to pat me down. I couldn't believe that just because I was Latino, they assumed I was trying to smuggle drugs. At that moment I realized what it means to be a person of color in the United States. In the film Inequality
for All showed that is not the reality for most people. The whole idea of
the American Dream is that people can get out of poverty and be able to reach
upward mobility, but the United States has a high percentage of people staying
in poverty. The video revealed that 42% of children born into poverty will stay
there. We learned that consumer spending is 70% of United States economy and
that most is on middle class spending. We know the issue isn’t wealth but the
amount of wealth. Most wealthy people aren’t spending enough to generate the
economy and are also saving their money. Now there is the issue of less people
at the top and less people in the middle class and paying more to the people at
the top and not enough to go around to the people at the bottom. The video
displayed the few opinions the middle class came up with to keep spending even
while wages were flat. The first was women went to paid work in huge numbers,
the second was people worked longer hours, and third people went into debt,
particularly in housing. So the current system is set up for only a small
percentage of people to achieve upward mobility and keep the wealth to a small
percentage of people. The United States government was meant to be a voice of
the people but with lobbyists giving millions to politicians it becomes the big
money that is the voice of politics. A perfect example of income inequality, as
the rich get richer they have more resources to influence policy making, while
the working class may not have their issues heard. The video also discussed the
issue that the U.S. has a low upward mobility rate compared to other developed
countries and how the cost of education has been steadily rising. So if such a
high percent of Americans stay in poverty and the cost of getting a higher education
is rising how do believe there is equal opportunity for every American to be
successful. There is also an issue with the current tax system in the United
States. There are many loop holes for the 1% to get different tax breaks. While
many make the argument that those who are at the top have earned it and
everyone has the same opportunity to make it if they are willing to put in the
work just isn’t the case. It seems that the current system in the U.S. is meant
to keep the working class working and the rich get richer. The reason I talked about this documentary is it further shows that the American Dream leaves out many Americans. One question that really impacted me that we talked about in class was what would The American Dream look like without the destruction of African-Americans and Latinos?
